Threat posed by coronavirus justifies a warlike response

‘We must act like any war-time government and do anything it takes to support our economy,’ says Boris Johnson

The language of war can be over-used in peacetime politics. But the idea that a “good outcome” of the measures being taken to tackle the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak would be fewer than 20,000 deaths suggests that such comparisons are entirely appropriate.

Speaking to the Health Select Committee, the Government’s chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance said this figure was “still horrible” and “an enormous number of deaths”, but this is the scenario that experts “hope” to achieve. He added, by way of comparison, that seasonal flu is thought to result in the deaths of about 8,000 people a year. However, this could be a considerable under-estimate with the Imperial College Covid-19 response team, which has been advising ministers, warning of potentially 250,000 deaths from coronavirus in Britain “even if all patients are able to be treated”.

So, when Boris Johnson said “we are engaged in a war against the disease which we have to win” and that “we must act like any war-time government and do anything it takes to support our economy”, this was not typical Johnsonian rhetoric. It was, quite simply, true.

Politicians from across the party spectrum have accepted the threat is so severe that the usual rules of engagement have changed. Writing in today’s Edinburgh Evening News, the Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-hamilton, his party’s health spokesman, revealed he has been in regular touch with Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman, saying the “enmity has evaporated as we both fix our gaze on the problem in hand”. With the lives of so many people at stake, this is exactly how it should be. But it is not just politicians who must change; the public and business world need to recognise we are living in profoundly different times. Just as there will be human casualties, there may be some companies which go under – even despite the UK Government’s announcement of a £330 billion package of loans to help business, along with other measures.

But even in a time of actual war, life is not permanently bleak. Trying to be cheerful, maintaining morale in army parlance, is important. The measures taken to reduce the spread of the coronavirus will definitely help tackle the disease, but it is well known that isolation is a significant cause of depression and other mental health problems.

So we should take inspiration from the wonderful neighbourhood choirs of people in self-isolation in Italy and others who have lifted the hearts of those around them, either by singing or by acts of kindness towards those in need.

We should also try to be kind on a global scale. The unseemly spat between China and the US – after a Chinese official accused the US military of bringing the virus to Wuhan and Donald Trump then referred to the “Chinese virus” – will not help the situation. Viruses do not have passports or nationalities – even if China has serious questions to answer over the authorities’ initially hostile response to doctors reporting the start of the outbreak.

Just as politicians of all parties in the UK need to work together, so do the nations of the world. United, together, we have the best chance of winning this war with the fewest possible number of casualties.