'To See Oursels as Ithers See Us'

Rabbie Burns' 1786 words in 'To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church', perfectly captures my response to observations by a visiting 'American cousin'. William Hanage (Harvard University) says "witnessing England's response to Covid at first hand profoundly shocked me" (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/22/england-covid-response-uk-us-delta). We English have always made a great song and dance about our presumed rationality and scientific expertise. At least one Englishman (by birth, if not by residence), is profoundly embarassed by Hanage's observations. The American academic notes that 'incoherent government policy' is allowing the delta variant to run riot. Hanage also states the truism that, if the virus had been largely eliminated, it couldn't infect anyone. Conversely, allowing tens of thousands of new delta variant Covid cases every day, means everyone will be exposed to multiple potential sources of infection. More people, whether vaccinated or not, will inevitably become ill. There will also be more cases of long Covid. Hanage pointedly observes that the UK civilian death toll in the entire Second World War, was less than its pandemic deaths suffered in the last 18 months. Clearly, we have dealt with the pandemic pretty poorly. Boasting about our vaccination programme doesn't hide this fact. It looks as if most of we English have a louse on our hat!