Dealing with a pandemic requires a clear aim, planning, intelligence and supreme flexibility to react to the unknown. However, ever since reports broke in the West of a newly-identified virus in Wuhan in January, this has not been the case in Britain. The result? We have suffered a very high death toll, and substantial social and economic damage has been inflicted on our society. It did not need to be this way. Our Covid-19 outcome could have been very different if certain mistakes were not made. Here we list some of the major decision-making blunders made over the last eight months.
1. Lack of a clear aim
In March, Health Secretary Matt Hancock set out ‘to protect the NHS by building it up and flattening the curve. And to protect life by safeguarding those who are most vulnerable.’ As it became increasingly clear that the NHS wasn’t overwhelmed, however, the aim became muddied.
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