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Nov 2023
35m 46s

Why Were Women 'Invisible' During Covid?

BBC News
About this episode

It’s been another extraordinary day of testimony at the Covid Inquiry. Wednesday’s session began with Helen MacNamara, a top official at Downing Street during the height of the pandemic. She described a “macho” culture at No 10 in which women “became invisible overnight”.

She also said she’d struggle to pick “a single day” in which Covid restrictions were followed and recalled meetings at which people were “laughing at the Italians” in the early days of the crisis.

Adam’s joined once again by the BBC’s health reporter Jim Reed and Dr Catherine Haddon from the Institute for Government to unpack today’s evidence.

And, as the UK AI Summit gets underway, we speak to the BBC’s technology editor Zoe Kleinman after her interview with Rishi Sunak on the day the UK unveiled a global agreement on how to manage the riskiest forms of AI.

You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere

Today's Newscast was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by George Dabby with Gemma Roper and Sam McLaren. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The senior news editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Sam Bonham.

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