Policymakers weigh up the future of Britain’s pandemic state
As the threat from covid-19 recedes, what should stay?
AS THE BODY count grew, Sharon Peacock, a microbiologist at the University of Cambridge, gathered a team to bid for state funding. Sir Patrick Vallance, Britain’s chief scientific adviser, quickly saw the potential of a new genetic-sequencing network, run by academics, and handed her £20m ($27m) in March 2020. Others did not. Some thought it “a massive stamp-collecting exercise,” which would prove of little real-world use, says Professor Peacock. Yet by the year’s end, Britain was doing more sequencing of the covid-19 genome than the rest of the world combined, allowing it to track mutations and work out their impact on transmission. Few people today call it a stamp-collecting exercise.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Ready for the next one?”
Britain August 21st 2021
- Policymakers weigh up the future of Britain’s pandemic state
- Out of lockdown, Britons are discovering other viruses still exist
- The number of young adults in Britain is about to rise sharply
- Scottish nationalism’s oil dilemma
- Boris Johnson promises to take in more Afghan refugees
- For some MPs Afghanistan is personal as well as political
From the August 21st 2021 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Britain
Has the Royal Navy become too timid?
A new paper examines how its culture has changed
A plan to reorganise local government in England runs into opposition
Turkeys vote against Christmas
David Lammy’s plan to shake up Britain’s Foreign Office
Diplomats will be tasked with growing the economy and cutting migration
Britain’s government has spooked markets and riled businesses
Tax rises were inevitable. Such a shaky start was not
Labour’s credibility trap
Who can believe Rachel Reeves?