An inquiry into the U.K.¡¯s decades-long contaminated blood scandal has found evidence of a ¡°chilling¡± cover-up by the British establishment, in a watershed moment that will finally trigger billions in compensation for the worst treatment disaster in the history of the revered National Health Service.

¡°The scale of what happened is horrifying,¡± Brian Langstaff, chairman of the official Infected Blood Inquiry, said in a report published on Monday that blamed systemic, ethical and both individual and collective failures for a ¡°calamity.¡±

The cover-up was ¡°chilling in its implications,¡± he said. ¡°To save face and to save expense, there has been a hiding of much of the truth.¡±