Matt Hancock says our European rival did better because of its industrial strengths. But it also did benefited from its political onesCoronavirus - latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, made `test, test, test` the battle cry of governments combating the coronavirus pandemic. However, the UK has been painfully slow to adopt it - with predictably disastrous results. To contain such a viral pathogen, nations must develop a test and use it to identify infected people, isolate them, and trace those they´ve had contact with. That is what South Korea and Germany are doing. It is what the United Kingdom did not.Because Downing Street underestimated the risks and moved too slowly to a regime of mass testing, the Covid-19 virus was allowed to spread faster and wider than might have been the case, by which point the materials and swabs that the tests needed were harder to procure. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said on Thursday that the resource gaps would be filled. Such promises are easily made, but experience ought to tell us to be sceptical about whether they will be met. A grim landmark was passed hours before Mr Hancock spoke. The number of daily deaths from Covid-19 surpassed those of tuberculosis. The virus is now officially the world´s most deadly infectious disease. Continue reading...
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