Moving quickly in pandemics

Speed is of the essence in responding to the covid-19 pandemic. But in Leicester lockdown has been reimposed because information was shared too slowly. Local authorities lacked centrally held data to detect a rise in cases and act swiftly. In an editorial this week Mike Gill, Devi Sridhar, and Fiona Godlee describe a “chaotic system” in England that seems to focus on increasing test numbers instead of establishing a local testing strategy designed to contain the virus and save lives.1 They blame the government’s “paternalistic, centralising tendency” and lack of trust in local professionals. Wales shares covid-19 data locally. Scotland’s “zero covid” test, trace, …