A hard-hitting outburst on coronavirus from Government adviser Devi Sridhar makes for disturbing reading.
The Edinburgh University expert says the first phase of the current strategy should be a three-month lockdown designed to help the NHS.
More worryingly, she claims the Government has had no clear strategy to deal with the outbreak from the start – reacting to spikes rather than leading from the front.
For Scots already struggling with their mental health, or businesses on the verge of closing, the prospect of another 12 weeks in lockdown is unbearable.
But it would be easier to cope if there was a clear route out of the pandemic.
Instead, governments in Westminster and Holyrood have drifted from crisis to crisis without any clear-sighted vision on how we win this war.
Sridhar is right to ask why there has been no coherent strategy.
From the start, Boris Johnson has looked like he always has one eye on the polls and another on the actual science.
That has led to sunny optimism when infections rates were low in the summer – rather than a hard-headed plan to eradicate the virus.
Now we are facing the highest infection rates since corona arrived on our shores, with the NHS at risk and hospital wards full of dying patients.
In Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon has at times looked like she has been bounced into important decisions – such as the Christmas relaxation – when her instincts would have favoured caution.
From the start, what was required was a clear-headed strategy across the whole of the UK to deal with corona.
Instead, what we have witnessed is a hotch-potch of contradiction, confusion and conflict.
It is time for the chaos to end – and instead of reacting to events, our leaders need to be ahead of the curve.
