Our national resolve will help us to build a wise exit strategy
THIS nation is facing one of the sternest ordeals in our history. At stake is the very survival of our British way of life. During the next fortnight, the death toll and the rate of infections are expected to soar as the coronavirus reaches its lethal peak. To cope with that unprecedented challenge will require all our determination and solidarity.
But we can rise to the challenge. The British people have already shown extraordinary stoicism in this unique crisis. As the Queen said last night in her stirring broadcast from Windsor Castle, “the qualities of self-discipline, of quiet goodhumoured resolve and of fellow feeling still characterise the country”. Those virtues have never been needed more than today, for this is by far the most serious emergency of her 68 years on the throne.
Yet she was absolutely right when she said “this generation is as strong as any other”. That profound resilience can be found on every front in the fight against the killer.
It can be seen in the heroism of NHS professionals who risk their lives on our behalf. It is evident in the dedication of emergency workers and all the others who keep our society functioning. It is found in the selflessness of the 750,000 people who have volunteered to provide support for the NHS.
AND it also shines through in the willingness of the British public to accept the present lockdown with such remarkable forbearance.
Never before have our liberties been so drastically curtailed but apart from a few idiots, most citizens have acted for the common good, with one opinion poll showing 79 per cent back the Government’s policy.
Even the good weather at the weekend did not lead to any widespread defiance. That is a tribute to the public’s sense of responsibility. Even so, the current mass isolation cannot last indefinitely. Not only would it impose a crushing strain on civil life and health, but it would also inflict catastrophic permanent damage on the economy.
Already the pandemic has had a devastating impact on employment and enterprise as Britain plunges into recession.
But the wreckage could be terminal if the official suppression continues for months. As one senior Conservative said yesterday, “We cannot come out of this having destroyed the economy for the best part of a generation.”
The Government urgently needs an exit strategy that will allow the lockdown to be eased without starting a new wave of the pandemic.
The best way is by radically expanding our testing capacity, so that the infected can be quickly identified and their contacts traced. Combined with the maintenance of social distancing, a programme of mass tests would allow the gradual resumption of normal life by containing the virus, while enabling businesses to reopen and healthy workers to return to their jobs.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced a target of 100,000 daily tests by the end of April. But given that fewer than 10,000 a day are currently being carried out, this will require a transformation in supply lines, equipment and laboratory facilities.
The Government should appoint a testing supremo who can co-ordinate the national effort, just as in May 1940, on the eve of the Battle of Britain, Churchill appointed the Daily Express proprietor Lord Beaverbrook as his Minister of Aircraft Production to galvanise the output of fighter planes.
USING the same volcanic dynamism that he applied to his paper’s circulation, he doubled Spitfire production in just two months. “The effect of Lord Beaverbrook’s appointment can only be described as magical,” recalled head of RAF Fighter Command Sir Hugh Dowding.
The obvious figure for this role is the former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, an experienced politician who has long been an advocate of a more powerful testing regime.
“This is by far the most effective method of hunting down the virus and killing it,” Hunt told me last week, pointing to South Korea, which contained a serious Covid-19 outbreak by testing on a level 10 times greater than Britain.
Remarkably, the South Korean death rate has never been more than nine a day. In our interview, Hunt also highlighted Singapore, where a widely-used phone app called TraceTogether enables the authorities easily to contact anyone who has been in recent close proximity to someone testing positive for Covid-19.
So, with unity and purpose, the battle can be won. And when the nightmare is over, we will start to rebuild our land.
‘We cannot come out of this having destroyed the economy’