12 Daily Express Monday, April 6, 2020
TAKE CARE: Testing and technology can help us restart our livesOur national resolve
will help us to build
a wise exit strategy
‘We cannot come out of this
having destroyed the economy’
Leo McKinstry
Daily Express columnist
One Canada Square, London E14 5AP
Tel: 020 8612 7000 (outside UK: +44 20 8612 7000)Queen reminds us it’s our
duty to make a sacrifice
The nation’s PE teacher
O
NCE again we give enormous credit to
the Queen who, lest we forget, will be
94 this month. Last night she addressed
the nation with her typically reassuring
approach – one that combines firmness with
compassion, steadfastness with benevolence.
This was only the fifth time that Her
Majesty has addressed the nation in a
broadcast outside of Christmas. And as the
death toll rises – it stood at 4,934 yesterday
evening – we were reminded that her family
too had been touched by Covid-19, with
her beloved eldest son Charles stricken,
although he has recovered well.
As well as acknowledging the “enormous
changes” that we have all endured, the
Queen spoke for all of us in expressing
gratitude to NHS staff and key workers.
This is a vital point. Yesterday more
heartbreaking videos emerged from nurses
on the front line urging the public to stay at
home, while Health Secretary Matt
Hancock was even tougher on those who
flouted the guidelines after another sunny
weekend, saying that all visits to parks may
have to be banned.
As the nation goes into the third week of
lockdown, any novelty has worn off and
there’s a danger people will relax their guard.
But we must keep our resolve. As the
Queen said: “I hope in the years to come
everyone will be able to take pride in how
they responded to this challenge.”
We should take her cue and aim to be
able to look back, proud that we made the
necessary sacrifice.A
S WE praise those who are helping us
through the lockdown one name keeps
cropping up: Joe Wicks. The tousle-
haired Body Coach has become a hero,
invigorating a housebound nation with his
fitness routines.
His own journey hasn’t been easy as the
33-year-old grew up with a drug-addicted
father. But rather than lapse into self-pity,
Joe became a fitness instructor and healthy
living expert and since the lockdown has
put his money where his heart is, giving
more than £80,000 revenue from his videos
to the NHS. Thanks to him, we may finally
emerge from our homes fitter than when
the virus started.Nature gives us hope
A
NOTHER silver lining to the pandemic
has been the resurgence of nature. In
our cities, we wake up to birdsong
instead of the roar of traffic, and in some
places wild animals such as goats and deer
have ventured into towns, emboldened by
the lack of people.
Now the incoming head of the Wildlife
Trusts, Craig Bennett, says that we should
keep an eye on what he calls “nature
recovery”, with greater conservation of it in
our beautiful country.
If the post-Covid-19 world renews our
relationship with animals and the natural
world, it will have had some benefit.T
HIS nation is facing one
of the sternest ordeals in
our history. At stake is
the very survival of our
British way of life.
During the next fort-
night, the death toll and the rate
of infections are expected to
soar as the coronavirus reaches
its lethal peak. To cope with
that unprecedented challenge
will require all our determina-
tion and solidarity.
But we can rise to the chal-
lenge. The British people have
already shown extraordinary
stoicism in this unique crisis.
As the Queen said last night in
her stirring broadcast from
Windsor Castle, “the qualities
of self-discipline, of quiet good-
humoured resolve and of fellow
feeling still characterise the
country”. Those virtues have
never been needed more than
today, for this is by far the most
serious emergency of her 68
years on the throne.
Yet she was absolutely right
when she said “this generation
is as strong as any other”. That
profound resilience can be
found on every front in the fight
against the killer.
It can be seen in the heroism
of NHS professionals who risk
their lives on our behalf. It is
evident in the dedication of
emergency workers and all the
others who keep our society
functioning. It is found in the
selflessness of the 750,000 peo-
ple who have volunteered to
provide support for the NHS.A
ND it also shines
through in the willing-
ness of the British
public to accept the present
lockdown with such remarkable
forbearance.
Never before have our liber-
ties been so drastically curtailed
but apart from a few idiots,
most citizens have acted for the
common good, with one opin-
ion poll showing 79 per cent
back the Government’s policy.
Even the good weather at the
weekend did not lead to any
widespread defiance. That is atribute to the public’s sense of
responsibility. Even so, the cur-
rent mass isolation cannot last
indefinitely. Not only would it
impose a crushing strain on civil
life and health, but it would also
inflict catastrophic permanent
damage on the economy.
Already the pandemic has
had a devastating impact on
employment and enterprise as
Britain plunges into recession.
But the wreckage could be
terminal if the official suppres-
sion continues for months. As
one senior Conservative said
yesterday, “We cannot come
out of this having destroyed theeconomy for the best part of a
generation.”
The Government urgently
needs an exit strategy that will
allow the lockdown to be eased
without starting a new wave of
the pandemic.
The best way is by radically
expanding our testing capacity,
so that the infected can be
quickly identified and their con-
tacts traced. Combined with the
maintenance of social distanc-
ing, a programme of mass tests
would allow the gradual
resumption of normal life by
containing the virus, while ena-
bling businesses to reopen andhealthy workers to return to
their jobs.
Health Secretary Matt
Hancock has announced a tar-
get of 100,000 daily tests by the
end of April. But given that
fewer than 10,000 a day are
currently being carried out, this
will require a transformation in
supply lines, equipment and
laboratory facilities.
The Government should
appoint a testing supremo who
can co-ordinate the national
effort, just as in May 1940, on
the eve of the Battle of Britain,
Churchill appointed the Daily
Express proprietor Lord
Beaverbrook as his Minister of
Aircraft Production to galvanise
the output of fighter planes.U
SING the same vol-
canic dynamism that
he applied to his
paper’s circulation, he doubled
Spitfire production in just two
months. “The effect of Lord
Beaverbrook’s appointment can
only be described as magical,”
recalled head of RAF Fighter
Command Sir Hugh Dowding.
The obvious figure for this
role is the former Health
Secretary Jeremy Hunt, an
experienced politician who has
long been an advocate of a
more powerful testing regime.
“This is by far the most effec-
tive method of hunting down
the virus and killing it,” Hunt
told me last week, pointing to
South Korea, which contained a
serious Covid-19 outbreak by
testing on a level 10 times
greater than Britain.
Remarkably, the South
Korean death rate has never
been more than nine a day. In
our interview, Hunt also high-
lighted Singapore, where a
widely-used phone app called
TraceTogether enables the
authorities easily to contact
anyone who has been in recent
close proximity to someone
testing positive for Covid-19.
So, with unity and purpose,
the battle can be won. And
when the nightmare is over, we
will start to rebuild our land.