What we have learned in the last year

We all learned some new words and phrases – furlough, PPE, contact tracing, self-isolation, super-spreader, and the difference between contagious and infectious.

But we also learned some other things. For instance, we quite quickly found out that it wasn’t a particularly good idea to discharge old people from hospital into care homes without testing them to see if they had Covid-19.

We also found out from countries such as Taiwan, New Zealand and Vietnam that there was a ‘good’ way to handle the threat of a SARS-like pandemic. And by the same token, we found out from countries such as the United States, Brazil, and, sadly for us, the UK there is ‘bad’ way.

Taiwan is the exemplar country. The website movehub.com reports that before coronavirus even registered on the radars of other governments, Taiwan was testing and quarantining travellers from Wuhan. Moving early and moving hard to contain the virus was the key.

It had a clear view of the original epicentre of the pandemic that enabled it to act early – deploying a containment strategy that has proven to be one of the most successful in the world. 

The island used technology to trace suspected cases, and is still doing so today – if a citizen tests positive, they are provided with a quarantine hotel and cab. Taiwan also maintained a stockpile of face masks, medical officers, and lab capacity to handle any outbreaks prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

There is a good reason for this. The outbreak of SARS in 2003 hit Taiwan really hard, leaving it with the third most infections in the world. The SARS epidemic so wounded Taiwan, the country’s leaders vowed to never again find themselves in a similar situation.

It looked at what had gone wrong and set about strengthening its preparations for the next epidemic, including setting up an infectious disease prevention network and holding annual drills in hospitals.

Before anyone points out that Taiwan is an island with a population of just 23.5 million in comparison to the UK’s 66.5 million so it was easier to control the pandemic, I would point to Vietnam’s population of almost 100 million and 35 deaths.

Yes, you read that correctly, 35 deaths.

In contrast, it is almost impossible to defend the UK Government’s handling of the pandemic. Lockdowns were imposed too late and released too quickly. A failure to maintain the national stock of PPE is bordering on criminal. Seeding old and sick people back into care homes is a national scandal and the figures speak for themselves in terms of the number of deaths. Tens of thousands of needless, avoidable deaths is an unwelcome legacy that cannot be whitewashed by a successful vaccine roll-out.

But we are where we are and the question is what should be done about it in the future.

Surely, now must be the time for a wide-ranging, judge-led public inquiry into the Government’s disastrous handling of the pandemic.

Personally, I believe blame should be apportioned. Those responsible for the horrific mistakes and miss-steps should be held to account.

But in a way, that is a side issue. The real reason I want a public inquiry is to ensure we learn the lessons of this horrendous pandemic so we don’t make the same mistakes again, exactly as Taiwan did after the SARS outbreak.

So why then is the Government dodging its responsibility? 

Back in July, prime minister Boris Johnson pledged there would be a public inquiry but last week, business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, appearing on Sky News, would not be drawn on a timeline for getting an inquiry under way, as the UK’s coronavirus fatalities rose to 126,000.

Asked why the Government still has not given a date for an inquiry, Kwarteng said it would be ‘premature’ to launch an inquiry, arguing that the reopening of the economy was the main priority.

And Kwarteng seems to have the backing of No10 with the prime minister’s spokesperson saying “now is not the right time to devote huge amounts of official time to an inquiry”, adding that “there will be an appropriate time in the future” for an analysis.

That wouldn’t appear to be a massively popular opinion, however. According to theguardian.com, a number of influential figures support a public inquiry, with Lord Kerslake, the head of the civil service under David Cameron, saying that the inquiry should begin by summer. Polling for The Guardian also revealed that 47 per cent back an inquiry, which has legal powers to compel people to give evidence under oath, with just 18 per cent saying they were opposed.

I’ll leave the last word on this to Labour’s Bill Esterson, the shadow minister for trade, who tweeted: “Kwasi Kwarteng says now is not the time for an inquiry into government’s handling of pandemic. Doesn’t he want to learn the lessons from what went wrong so we can improve our response for the rest of the crisis? Or is it that he wants to avoid blame for the Government’s failure?”

Call me cynical but my money is on avoiding blame.