Can we win this battle against coronavirus?

Glorious Gloucestershire Linda Cook took this picture in Adlestrop

✒ IT would appear the Government is besieged on all sides by criticism of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

But it is instructive to take a counter view of this.

Surely the virus is designed to win, and it probably will long term.

Without Government restrictions the virus would quite simply have raced through the population - again, as it is designed to do.

The problem we have now is that huge amounts of money have been spent, the economy is struggling, the Covid initiatives are expensive and patchy in their effectiveness, and still at least 90 per cent of the population have not been exposed to the virus. There is a long way to go.

Surely a really important technical and immunological point is the one that says, are we waging a time war against the virus that we can win?

That is if we restrict people enough for long enough will this be enough to see the virus off eventually?

Or will the virus simply wait in the wings however long we lock down for and then come back with a vengeance as soon as the lockdown restrictions are lifted?

I have my doubts that humans can win long-term against the virus, although they can appear to win shortterm by virtue of temporary restrictions.

If the cost of those restrictions is too high in terms of money, the economy and people’s liberty, then surely there is a case for letting the virus spread through the population as it will anyway?

The prospect of a vaccine is a long way off and no-one knows the efficacy of these anyway long term.

Even if vaccines are taken up by the majority of the population, immunity maybe short-lived and the virus return.

There is the tragic element that humans cannot ultimately win against nature.

For the last 50 years or so with the fast development of medicine we thought we could, but likely not so longer term.

The natural world after all is “disturbed”, struggling, out of balance and ecosystems are damaged. Some of the perfect conditions for difficult new viruses to flourish in.

Why should humans have the last word?