As the UK Covid-19 Inquiry delivered its long-awaited second report on Thursday, November 20, 2025, the spotlight turned to Wales and the deeply personal stories behind the statistics. Among those stories is that of Dr Matt Morgan, an intensive care doctor at Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales, whose emotional farewell email to his family during the early days of the pandemic has become emblematic of the fear, sacrifice, and uncertainty that defined those years.
Dr Morgan, who was 40 at the start of the pandemic and is now 45, penned the email with the subject line "Things To Know In Case I Die" as the virus began to sweep through Wales. In it, he wrote, "I have had a bloody wonderful life. I have found love, travelled, partied, had two amazing children, spent time with friends, family and done things I had never dreamed of." According to BBC News, the letter listed practical matters like internet passwords but quickly turned into a poignant message to his wife, parents, and two daughters, then aged 13 and 16. Dr Morgan urged them, "Easier said than done, but don’t stay sad for too long. Remember the good times, the times we laughed and the times we cried. Look at old photos, remember me on my birthday, but don’t stay sad too long. We only have one life, as I now realise. Go and live it."
His words, written in the shadow of unprecedented risk, captured the anxiety that gripped frontline workers. Dr Morgan was on duty the day Cardiff’s busiest hospital received its first Covid-19 patient. He vividly recalled the fear among staff, none of whom were vaccinated yet, and the immense responsibility of caring for the critically ill. "I remember what the first Covid patient looked like, how they were put on a life support machine, and the concern for them and their family," he told BBC News. "But there were some colleagues who never went home."
Between 2020 and mid-2024, more than 12,000 people in Wales lost their lives to Covid-19. The pandemic’s toll was starkest at the peak of the second wave in January 2021, when 83 deaths were recorded in a single day. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s second report, published this week, zeroes in on the Welsh government’s response and the key political decisions made not only in Cardiff, but also in London, Edinburgh, and Belfast.
The inquiry, chaired by former High Court judge Heather Hallett, conducted three weeks of hearings in Cardiff. Thirty-one witnesses from Wales—including politicians, civil servants, public health experts, and representatives of bereaved families—testified about their experiences and the decisions that shaped the country’s pandemic response. According to BBC News, the report scrutinizes whether the Welsh government fully appreciated the threat of the virus in its early stages, if vulnerable and elderly patients were sufficiently protected, and how the rules in Wales differed from those in England. It also examines the often-complex relationship between the Welsh and UK governments during the crisis.
For frontline workers like Dr Morgan, the pandemic was both a professional and personal crucible. He still marvels at the "extraordinary things" staff achieved and the "remarkable" speed with which a vaccine was developed. Yet, his concerns about the future remain acute. Wales, he notes, still has some of the lowest intensive care bed numbers in Europe per head of population—a sobering statistic that, in his view, signals a lack of preparation for another pandemic. "Of course politics has to have a bigger picture, it has to consider long-term issues, medium-term issues, the impact of people losing businesses, the impact on schools and so on," Dr Morgan reflected. "If you’re a politician you have to look at all those society factors. And it’s hard to make decisions when you won’t have a result or output for a decade, two decades or even a generation."
But the pandemic’s scars are not only physical or political—they are deeply emotional, especially for families who lost loved ones. Rhys Morgan, now 21, from Gowerton, Swansea, is the youngest member of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group. He was just 16 and studying for his GCSEs when his auntie Lynne, whom he described as a "very joyful character" and "second mum," was hospitalized with Covid in December 2020. Their final phone call was muffled by the sound of a breathing machine. "I couldn’t really make out what she was saying because of the [breathing] machine but I know she was telling me it was OK and we could get through it," Rhys told BBC News. "On Christmas Eve my Dad had another phone call saying she’d passed that morning. And I had to deal with seeing my father in such a state and then to deal with Christmas as a family—that was hard and has taken a toll."
The trauma left Rhys fearful of rejoining everyday life, even after restrictions eased. "I was scared to leave the house, scared to do things, and when I went back to school, it was even worse, because I didn’t want to be there," he recounted. "I wanted to look after my family. And sometimes teachers or kids of my age at the time wouldn’t understand because they didn’t have the same trauma and experience I had." He shared his experiences with the Covid inquiry, expressing frustration and disappointment: "I feel a lot of pain and a lot of anger and I feel things could have been managed differently."
Campaigners like Rhys remain concerned that the report may not examine events in Wales with the same granularity as those in England. Many are still calling for a separate, Welsh-specific Covid inquiry to address local concerns in greater detail. The sense of unfinished business is palpable among bereaved families, who hope the inquiry’s findings will bring some measure of closure, but worry that critical lessons might be overlooked.
As Wales and the UK reflect on the inquiry’s findings, the stories of people like Dr Matt Morgan and Rhys Morgan serve as powerful reminders of the human cost behind the headlines. The pandemic’s legacy is not only in the numbers, but in the memories, grief, and resilience of those who lived through it—and those who continue to demand accountability and preparedness for whatever comes next.
