Irish Examiner view: Detailed probe of our response to Covid is long overdue

We need to learn lessons from how we dealt with pandemic in order to plan ahead

Philip Nolan: Spoke about the benefit of hindsight. Picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

The pandemic continues to cast a shadow in Irish life. Only this week Philip Nolan, former chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), defended the response to Covid-19, pointing out that it was easy to look back in hindsight to say different actions should have been taken.

Nolan pointed out that the health services were dealing with a novel virus in real time — a valid point, but one which doesn’t preclude a detailed investigation of the national response, which we are long overdue.

There is an understandable reticence when it comes to revisiting the worst of the pandemic — the gnawing uncertainty, the separation and the loneliness, the deserted streets — not to mention the depressing revelations about those who flouted the rules, or the conspiracy theorists who created needless fear.

However, sifting through the worst of those days for lessons is an obligation if we aren’t to experience the same in the future, or worse.

The key point is any such investigation does not suggest inherent criticism of those who were at the coalface making life-or-death decisions with incomplete information. Those same people know that review and analysis of the existing evidence are central to an improved response to similar crises in the future.

Any such investigation should be oriented towards learning lessons to help improve our future responses, because sometimes those lessons aren’t learned. In 2005, then-US president George Bush had a plan drawn up to counteract future pandemics; its protocols included social distancing, school and office closures, and home quarantine measures.

The plan was ignored by then-US president Donald Trump when Covid-19 struck and was also dismissed by UK officials. If we are to avoid emulating those countries when the next virus strikes, then a detailed investigation is a matter of urgency.