On the deadliest day yet, with 786 more lost lives taking the coronavirus toll to 6,159, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty’s admission that Britain could learn from Germany’s mass testing will spark complaints of a fatal government error.
Significantly fewer deaths in Germany – where the toll is 1,607 – may in part be down to that country testing over 50,000 people a day, when the UK tests a fraction of that figure.
In Britain, the incapacitation of Boris Johnson must not be allowed to blunt accountability and scrutiny of his own performance.
His government’s costly mistakes on testing, protective clothing and delayed ventilator orders are unforgivable.
Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance has judged that social distancing is slowing the spread of the virus – a glimmer of good news.
We wish the PM a full and early recovery but he’s unlikely to be back at work for some time.
When he is, serious questions remain.
Choice is ours
How the world has been turned upside down since we were alerted to coronavirus only 100 days ago.
Normal life – children going to school, parents to pubs and grafters to work – seems a century ago. With old certainties vanishing we have learned that life is fragile, but there is hope if we make the right choices.
We can emerge from this a better Britain, of volunteering and applauding NHS carers, or a nastier land of panic buyers and profiteers.
Let’s make it the Great Britain option of looking out for each other.
Keep it green
The upside of naturalist Benedict Macdonald claiming more wildlife is found in London than in some of our national parks is that city dwellers need only step out of their front doors to find animals.
The downside is greedy property developers might pretend that building on green spaces will save rather than destroy wildlife.
