With coronavirus spreading rapidly in countries across the world, we look at how the situation in the UK compares to that in other countries.
Can anything be gained by comparing the UK’s infection and death rate with those of other countries?
“We can learn what has worked here, and what has not worked here — and what has worked elsewhere and what has not worked elsewhere. The goal of comparisons should be to learn things that we can do in the next weeks and months. That’s what is important. The idea of a grisly national death scorecard is pointless, because each country is measuring different things.”
What can we learn from other nations?
“We should try to see which countries have done particularly well and look for things we could do here. The South Korean model of identifying people, tracking them, and then isolating them and their contacts has worked very well. The UK decided it didn’t have all the resources and preparation to continue this strategy for the first wave. South Korea has kept the death and infection rate low without having to resort to strict lockdown measures. We are learning from them and will see something similar to this for the likely second wave.”
Which countries are we most like in terms of infections, deaths and response?
“In terms of cities, London, New York and Paris are similar. They are particularly vulnerable because they are transport hubs, have mass transit systems and are home to many young people, who often have no symptoms and can spread infection through social activities. In terms of countries, Britain, France, Italy and Spain have suffered similar tragedies. They have all have done roughly as badly — or as well — as each other in terms of death and infection rate and the way they have responded to the pandemic.”
What can we learn from how we have dealt with the crisis?
“We saw the number of deaths begin to plateau when we were still dealing with people infected during the softer lockdown, so it looks like that has been more effective than we thought. That does not mean I don’t support the hard lockdown — I do. But we have to learn how effective the soft lockdown was. This will help us face the next epidemic. If we say everything Britain did was bad, then we won’t learn all the things that can help in the future.”
Listen to The Leader: Coronavirus Daily podcast
Jim Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute and professor of structural biology, University of Oxford, as told to Lizzie Edmonds
