'Mummy' Knows Best?

Devi Sridhar (University of Edinburgh) clearly thinks British arrogance has been a 'chink in our scientific armour'. The first Covid Inquiry report concludes that the UK was 'completely and fatally unprepared' for the pandemic. The country clearly was actually 'prepared' for a different pandemic ('flu). It also seemed to find it very difficult to rapidly learn from the experiences of others. Other countries had had prior experiences of coronaviruses. Innovative 'test and trace' were also developed in other nations. Things didn't work out well in the UK. It had a disproportionately high death rate as well as damagingly long lockdowns (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/18/uk-government-covid-covid-inquiry-report-britain-pandemic). Sridhar maintains that the UK has to do much better. It needs to be much better prepared for the next pandemic. It's a question of 'when', rather than 'if'.