More than 50 witnesses are expected to give evidence over the next 10 weeks, including scientists, medical experts, healthcare workers and politicians.
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, which represents more than 7,000 relatives, says it is “deeply worried” that only two of the 23 witnesses it has put forward have been called to appear.
“Without our input, the inquiry risks repeating the mistakes that played out during the pandemic by failing to take into consideration the lived experience of ordinary families,” said its spokesperson Rivka Gottlieb.
The inquiry says it does allow members of the public to contribute online, external to its Every Story Matters project, and has run 20 different face-to-face events so far in town centres across the UK.
The stories of more than 30,000 healthcare workers, patients and relatives have been collated into a 200-page written record that will be entered into evidence on Monday.
The inquiry’s secretary, Ben Connah, said the document could not replace one-to-one testimony, but did allow a large number of people to contribute anonymously – “some of whom wouldn’t want to give formal evidence in a frankly scary courtroom”.
The public inquiry, likely to be one of the most expensive in legal history, has been split into nine different sections, each of which will hear from witnesses and report findings separately.
Baroness Hallett, who is chairing the inquiry, has already taken evidence on pandemic planning and political decision-making, with future sections expected on the vaccine rollout, the care sector, test and trace, the impact on children, and the economy.