In 2011, a year after David Cameron became prime minister, his government released its Pandemic Preparedness Strategy. The World Health Organisation (WHO) praised the plan, stating that the UK “remains amongst the leaders worldwide in preparing for a pandemic”.
Yet a year earlier, the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition had embarked upon a policy that would undo all this good work in the period of a decade – and lead to the UK’s response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic being ranked as among the worst of the world’s richest nations.
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