Anyone listening to the evidence given to the Covid-19 inquiry so far could be forgiven for thinking that the UK was out in front, on its own, working out how to respond to the pandemic. While reference has been made to the virus’s emergence in China and the scenes that unfolded shortly after this in Italy, the possibility that we could have learned from other countries has barely been discussed.
This represents both a significant gap in the evidence and a lost opportunity. So far, the questions posed in the inquiry have focused largely on what happened and how it happened, exploring the relationships between scientists, civil servants and politicians. Not enough time has been spent on considering what could have happened – which is surely where we can learn for the future.
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