Vote for competent leaders, not entertainers – that’s what I wish the Covid report could say | Devi Sridhar

It feels as though a collective amnesia has set in around Covid-19. We all just want to move forward and pretend it didn’t happen. But, as the saying goes, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. On 20 April 2020 I tweeted, “At what point will the British public realise what has happened over the past 9 weeks?” On Thursday, the Covid inquiry published its module 2 report on the political response to the pandemic. The answer finally to my tweet, more than five years later. Already back then it seemed that the UK government (through its late and chaotic response) had taken the worst path, leading to tens of thousands of deaths and a draconian lockdown. The inquiry report states clearly what many could see at the time. Had it followed a containment path similar to the best performing countries, such as South Korea, Denmark, Norway and New Zealand, England could have avoided multiple lockdowns and arguably the majority of deaths in 2020. From January 2020, other countries were showing the way through early action and strong public health systems based on test, trace and isolation. The report confirms that we had a distracted and absent prime minister in Boris Johnson, badly advised and working within a dysfunctional No 10. Not surprising, then, that devolved administrations didn’t trust the prime minister. In defiance of logic, we were all told to stay at home and not to travel beyond a certain distance, while airports remained open with no checks on passengers coming in. It was like trying to empty a bathtub with the tap still on. Nonsensical. Move forward to summer 2020 and the UK government, led by Rishi Sunak as chancellor and without consultation with scientists or devolved governments, triggered a second wave with his “eat out to help out” scheme, which incentivised people to go into venues where there was a high risk of transmission and infection. Baffling. Food to be collected or taken away (which would have also supported struggling hospitality businesses) wasn’t part of the scheme. For full disclosure, I was asked to give written and oral evidence to this module of the inquiry. From February 2020 onwards, my team at the University of Edinburgh repurposed a major grant from the Wellcome Trust to work on Covid. Using international data from governments and academics, my view was that we needed to suppress the virus to the lowest possible level and go after clusters as soon as they emerged until a vaccine was approved and rolled out. Genomic research shows that Scotland did manage to extinguish the first strains of the virus before they were reimported in summer 2020 through travel. Again, there is no point draining the bathtub if the tap stays open. But this is all old news. The Covid story has a relatively happy ending: vaccines saved us from a disastrous future and delinked cases and hospitalisations, bringing the death rate from Covid below that of seasonal flu. The heroes of the Covid story are science and the NHS (and immigration, as even Johnson attested to, given the international healthcare team who treated him for severe Covid in hospital). Reflecting on the report, I can’t help but wonder what it adds to our understanding of what happened politically, and what lessons it offers for the future. It’s an eye-wateringly expensive undertaking: it has already cost almost £200m, and Scotland is having its own ongoing inquiry at a cost of £45m. Most of these costs are for the legal teams. Compare this with all the independent scientists on expert advisory groups who worked pro bono for hundreds of hours over two years. I can’t see anything in the module 2 report that hasn’t already been covered in published books, articles and analysis about what happened and why. From a scientific perspective, the report could never hope to provide one off-the-shelf plan for responding to every pathogen with pandemic potential. The response to one virus won’t work for another and each is dependent on the characteristics of the specific outbreak. What we really need for our politicians to respond effectively to the next potential pandemic are agile leadership, smart decision-making, flexibility, humility and trustworthiness. How does one build those into a political system? Related: Covid report lays bare Boris Johnson’s complacency and lack of leadership Yes, the Covid story is about incompetence and failed leadership in UK government. But how does one learn lessons from this in a democracy that lets people vote for the party they want to lead the country? Surely it’s about voting in competence over entertainment. Voting in those who are detail-oriented, thorough and hardworking. I think of Jacinda Ardern as an example of someone with these qualities – and why New Zealand fared so well during the pandemic. I hold out more hope for the inquiry report on government procurement when it is released. The more shocking story of the pandemic was the corruption enabled by Conservative government ministers. Analysis by the New York Times of 1,200 government contracts worth nearly $22bn during the pandemic found that almost half went to companies run by friends and associates of Conservative party politicians, or those with no experience in the area. Jolyon Maugham highlighted the “vast financial rewards you could reap if you had a minister looking out for your interests”. His Good Law Project estimates that more than £4 in every £5 spent on PPE was wasted or lost. Some people see suffering and want to help. Some see the same situation and think easy money. What the inquiry could do is recommend legislation that safeguards the system and taxpayers’ pounds against profiteering in a crisis. This has to be done now, in a time of “peace”. We need strict rules so that even when certain greedy types think a disaster is a chance to get rich off the public dime, and politicians are willing to enable it, the law prevents it from happening. I can’t help but think of Michelle Mone, who has become the face of this hidden group of pandemic profiteers. Why don’t we call legislation to protect taxpayers’ money – and improve trust in our politicians and government – the Dame Michelle Mone Law? That would be a great recommendation to come from the next part of the inquiry. Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Fit Forever: Wellness for midlife and beyondOn Wednesday 28 January 2026, join Annie Kelly, Devi Sridhar, Joel Snape and Mariella Frostrup, as they discuss how to enjoy longer and healthier lives, with expert advice and practical tips.Book tickets here or at guardian.live