Sixty-seven thousand people are dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. And as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tries to sleep on Christmas Eve, three ghosts are set to haunt him: Coronavirus Past, Coronavirus Present, and Coronavirus Future. Each of them looks, frankly, pretty horrifying. With plans for a Christmas easing of lockdown now canceled following dramatically surging numbers, the question remains: Why can’t a country considered at the cutting edge of scientific research and disaster response handle the virus with minimal competence?
Coronavirus Past is the first of the specters, and it’s not a pleasant sight. The U.K. should have been better prepared for this disaster. A pre-pandemic assessment of national readiness for pandemics placed it second—just behind the United States. It has a world-leading biotechnology sector and a hugely competent and hard-working health care sector.
