Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus
JONATHAN CALVERT and GEORGE ARBUTHNOTt
(MUDLARK, 432 PP, £20)
Tablet bookshop price £18 • Tel 020 7799 4064

A crisis can drag on for so long that, by the time it is over, it’s hard to remember exactly how it began. That is why, by meticulously piecing together the whole story of the Covid-19 crisis in Britain, two Sunday Times journalists have done an essential service. Come the inevitable inquiry, this will surely be required reading.

It all began, the authors recall, in December 2019, when the Chinese government-­controlled laboratory in Wuhan sent a stark message to one of the country’s top virologists. “Drop everything,” it read. A new coronavirus with pneumonia-like symptoms had appeared in Wuhan and doctors were worried. So was the government. First it tried to suppress the news. Then it decided to suppress the virus. A harsh “lockdown” was imposed on the city.