The UK was a global leader in preparing for pandemics. What went wrong with coronavirus? | Clare Wenham

The Covid-19 crisis has exposed the effects of government neglect on Britain's once-trailblazing public health strategies

It's difficult to imagine that Britain was, until very recently, regarded as a leader in preparing for pandemics. Countries such as Singapore once looked to the UK for lessons in how to prepare for and respond to outbreaks. Now, it's the other way around. With its number of coronavirus cases exceeding 170,000, and deaths set to climb above 40,000, the UK appears to be playing catch-up with the rest of the world.

Britain's failure to shatter the coronavirus curve couldn't be further out of step with its past reputation as a leader in this area. The UK's global health strategy, launched under New Labour in 2008, was a game-changer in the field of global health. The strategy identified how, in an interconnected world, an infectious outbreak in another country was a direct threat to the UK. By building health capacity elsewhere in the world, the government recognised that it could protect its own borders from infectious outbreaks - reflecting the Blairite logic that interventions abroad would bolster security at home.