Andy Richardson: 'We could – and should – have done much better'
It would be nice to dwell on the good news; to look back at Captain Tom Moore, to recall the construction of Nightingale Hospitals or marvel at the self-sacrifice care staff and NHS workers.
It would bring hope if we reflected on the reunion of children and grandparents, the boost for lonely, isolated single people, or the fact that zoos and safari parks have been thrown a lifeline. Grant schemes and furlough have also saved the jobs of millions.
We cannot do that, however, without learning from our mistakes.
Beyond the scandal of avoidable care home deaths and insufficient PPE, the lateness of our lockdown, damaging Home Office failures on quarantine and the hypocrisy of those who should have known better there has been the utter chaos of the Government’s failed Back to School campaign.
How can one of the world’s richest and most advanced nations find itself in a position where kids can go and look at chimpanzees at the zoo but not be allowed back in the classroom or have access to school dinners and laptops?
Moreover, the international comparisons that the Government used when things were better remind us just how badly we’ve fared.
We were top and remain among the world leaders when it comes to Covid-19 death rates.
A new survey also puts us top when it comes to economic damage caused; worse than Italy, France, the remainder of the Euro Area and far, far worse than Germany, the USA or China.
The number of deaths could have been halved had we locked down earlier. Just let that sink in for a moment; some 25,000 or more families would still be with their loved ones having avoided the pain and trauma of the past two months.
While we were being distracted by Brexit, imagining we were immune to what was going on in China and allowing people to watch football in Liverpool and horse racing in Cheltenham, we should have been saving lives.
The presumption that Covid was imported from China was also wrong.
In fact, it was brought to the UK on 1,300 occasions, mostly from Spain, France and Italy, while we were looking the other way. China accounted for 0.1 per cent of cases.
As we head towards an uncertain future, the only certainty is that we could – and should – have done much better.
