Lessons brutally learned
Your piece on the UK’s failures in managing the pandemic, with the exceptions of the Treasury’s financial support operation and the vaccination programme, was excellent (“The unofficial UK inquiry,” March). Few in government come out of this story well. In particular, as you note, there was a failure to understand what the Chinese, New Zealanders, South Koreans, Taiwanese and Vietnamese understood-namely, that there is no trade-off between suppressing the illness and the health of the economy