Covid Inquiry Exposes £10BN PPE Waste But Completely Ignores the £4BN Innova Test Scandal I Exposed 5 Years Ago

Jul 14, 2026

The UK Covid Inquiry’s latest findings on PPE procurement (Module 5), as covered by the BBC today, are damning: £10 billion of taxpayers’ money was wasted on personal protective equipment that left NHS staff poorly protected at the height of the crisis.

The Module 5 Report reads: “Of the approximately £14.9 billion spent on PPE by the UK government and devolved administrations, nearly two-thirds – almost £10 billion – was wasted.”

The PPE Findings

Pre-pandemic contingency plans were never properly stress-tested.
Officials were forced to improvise emergency systems in days.
A “VIP lane” (high priority lane) gave preferential treatment to suppliers with political connections. However, the chair Baroness Hallett, stated there was “no evidence of cronyism or corruption” by ministers or other officials when awarding the final contracts.
Result: billions wasted and damaged public trust.

Notably, despite Module 5 explicitly including the procurement of testing equipment (PCR and rapid antigen tests), the final report contains no mention whatsoever of Innova Medical Group, the single largest and most controversial Covid testing contract of the entire pandemic. This is a striking omission.

The Innova Scandal the Inquiry Completely Ignored

In my book 3/11 Viral Takeover, I detail how an unknown company set up conveniently around the time of 3/11 (March 2020), Innova Medical Group, founded by Chinese-American businessman Dr. Charles Huang (wanted for economic crimes in China) through his private equity vehicle Pasaca Capital, secured over £4 billion in UK government contracts for rapid antigen tests.

Huang’s firm supplied hundreds of millions (eventually over a billion) of Chinese-manufactured tests via fast-tracked deals.
These were rolled out for mass asymptomatic screening despite emerging evidence of poor real-world performance and before the UK government even knew they worked.
In June 2021, the US FDA issued a Class 1 recall, urging the public to “place them in the trash” due to inadequate performance validation and risks of false results. The UK, by contrast, doubled down, extending approvals and continuing widespread use.

Huang has claimed the UK contracts generated around £1.6 billion in profits for his companies. However, he and Pasaca have faced significant scrutiny and legal accusations, including claims of squandering millions on luxury private jets, high-end properties, and other personal investments while questions swirled about value for money to UK taxpayers. Multiple court cases have involved Innova/Pasaca and Huang related to these contracts and business dealings.

This represents one of the most extraordinary transfers of public money during the pandemic, enabled by the same VIP-lane urgency now criticised in the PPE inquiry.

Five years ago, I was on TalkTV discussing with Mark Dolan this major scandal that I first uncovered in my original investigative series on Innova for The Conservative Woman. The interview can be watched below.