Even the Queen had something to say but by the time Bill Gates suggested widespread testing, it was perhaps a little too late. There is no turning back the clock and if there is one lesson to be learned in the Covid-19 era is the importance of “early testing”.

Other countries tried to preempt the spread by taking modest precautionary measures a little too late and missed out on identifying those communities infected. The spread was inevitable and for the most part, the damage was done.

It’s easy to sit at your desk and say, it wasn’t managed very well but managing a pandemic is complex. If your number one priority is saving lives, you have no choice but to print money, helicopter it, and try and speed up the production of medical equipment and supplies. I just wonder (sorry) six months from now hospitals will be trying to figure out what to do with the surplus of ventilators.

In managing any pandemic there is a fine line, a balance between human life and the economic cost. We all prefer saving lives and it’s a delicate topic, while the priority is clear, we need to begin to manage our economies to avoid mass unemployment but can we? That’s the million-dollar question. How will these lockdowns impact human life after the fact.

Even with a crystal ball, there is no doubt a recession is under way, if not already here. A recession of some magnitude is inevitable, layoffs, business bankruptcies, the snowball effect.

The biggest question is how will economies survive if they cannot rejuvenate the economy, and in recession, the only way is by spending. So if everyone spends it maks it easier to digest, yet I heard China has been careful, I am not sure it is relevant.

More tax dollars as governments will issue paper, make false promises under duress and once they see the eventual reality could be insufficient stimulus, or over stimulus, while on the onset of stagflation.

Each economy will tackle this crisis in their own way but one thing for sure, Europe is not united, it has never been united and the cultural gaps will further deepen.

And the United Kingdom is hardly united with Brexit and Boris Johnson, a declining economy and the only people with money to spend are those smoking a shush-a on Beauchamp place.