Article COVID-19: 12 months on The pandemic in review 26 Mar 2021 — 2 min read The Team Stephen Newton This week marks twelve months since the start of the first lockdown, and twelve months of changing slogans. We started last March with “flatten the curve”, briefly saw “eat out to help out” in the summer, and most recently the messaging has been “let’s keep going”. The initial lockdown came at a time where fear gripped the public…and the headlines. Public sentiment seemed to swing from blasé to doomsday within the space of a week. From a national leadership perspective, it was clear that there was not a long-term strategy, only a set of short-term tactical decisions – not just from the UK but from governments worldwide. This perhaps doesn’t come as a surprise; the problem of poor leadership is not new, but rather a well-worn script. What was surprising was the lack of seriously considered debate amongst the top levels on the lockdown strategy and the approach to the pandemic more broadly, both at the start of the pandemic and throughout. From a national leadership perspective, it was clear that there was not a long-term pandemic strategy, only a set of short-term tactical decisions. That lack of debate was one of the main reasons why we started digging into the COVID-19 data and sharing independent posts. Our aim from the beginning was always to offer a different perspective on events, provide scrutiny for the decisions that were being taken, and remain constantly oriented by what the data is telling us. This has ranged from fighting fear from misinformation, leveraging innovation to save lives, and looking at what the pandemic can teach us about how to avert existential threats such as climate change. One year on, what has changed? Will people’s appetite for risk be permanently skewed? Is work from home here to stay? In March we launched our COVID-19 dashboard, analysing and tracking the COVID-19 data to accurately understand how the pandemic was evolving and what business leaders could do to address it. In September we used the data to show that a renewed lockdown was not the right strategy to pursue. In January, we again questioned the UK’s lockdown strategy, asking why the entire population had to remain under lockdown when at that time plans had been put in place to vaccinate the over-50s. We’re now one year on since the onset of lockdown, and we’re still talking about poor leadership during this crisis, most recently in Europe regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine. One year on, what has changed? Will people’s appetite for risk be permanently skewed? Is work from home here to stay? Whilst the need for this (once daily, and now weekly) commentary will lessen as the pandemic comes to a welcome close, we will continue to offer the insights and perspective that we have published over the last year. Namely, we will continue to be data driven, continue to scrutinise the decisions taken by our leadership, and encourage innovation even in the most difficult of circumstances.
