C-Virus Special 2: A Pattern?

A pattern is beginning to emerge. However much it releases, repeats and proclaims its ‘right thing at the right time’ mantra, everybody now knows that, while focussed on the successful expansion of NHS capacity to cope, the government made a mess of the detail at the start of the pandemic in the UK.

Now it appears that while still trying to spin its way past a bad moment, the government is pinning its reputation on a great leap forward in vaccine development, alongside targeted testing for antibodies among a sample of the population.

This will  lead to focussed relaxation of some, but by no means all,  the restrictive measures now in force. Or so the government hints. It is now pulling out all the stops to become the world leader in bringing the virus under real control, sufficient to resume economic activity without the need to continue the kind of strict social distancing necessary at present and, in modified form, for  a long time ahead. Like so much of the Covid crisis, nobody can be sure.

Moreover until Boris returns as full time in charge and until we see what style of leadership he is able to offer after the trauma of his own illness, we cannot tell whether the present line up of ministers will remain unchanged, or whether, like everything else about our way of life, the way we are governed and by whom will have to change too.