ow the government responded to the coronavirus pandemic is bound to be the subject of a mammoth inquiry, probably multiple inquiries, in the years to come. In some ways, the inquest has already started, as all those involved – from ministers to the NHS via the Civil Service, scientists and commercial companies – try to shelter themselves from the gathering storm.
But it is not the first time that the UK has had to face the fall-out from a major health emergency. Those of a certain age will recall the outbreak of BSE, popularly called Mad Cow Disease, when more than 4 million cattle were slaughtered and the then Agriculture Minister, John Gummer, now Lord Deben, notoriously fed his small daughter a hamburger to demonstrate the supposedly unimpeachable excellence of British beef.
This was in 1990, six years before the UK admitted that BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) could indeed be caused by eating meat from infected cattle. A nationwide panic about meat-eating ensued; many international markets were barred to British beef, and there was a big row about farming practices – how could there not be? – with the French. In the end, it was the farmers, rather than the scientists or poor regulation or commercial pressures that mainly took the rap.
