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A lot of number crunching, careful reporting, late nights and screen-based eye-strain have gone into this week's special issue - from the whole @NewStatesman team - so I'm excited to finally see it go out into the world. Here are some highlights (thread)
1. From a Wuhan wet market to a devastating death toll: @mfletchertimes's meticulous chronicle of how six months of hubris and incompetence shook the UK https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/07/britain-and-covid-19-chronicle-incompetence
2. "The exceptionalism at the heart of Brexit – Britain is humiliated by being merely one European country among others – is what shaped the official responses to the unfolding coronavirus disaster." A righteously scathing essay by @fotoole https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/07/fatal-delusions-boris-johnson
3. In terms of pandemic preparedness, the UK was rated the second best in the world. But comprehensive data analysis of 14 major world economies by @davidottewell & @michaelgoodier shows just how flawed our response has been https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/07/anatomy-crisis
4. The austerity audit: a decade of data shows that cuts to health, education and social care appear almost perfectly tailored to weaken the state's resilience in the face of a pandemic. By @Anoosh_C & @michaelgoodier https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/07/ten-years-data-reveal-how-austerity-weakened-uk-s-pandemic-response
5. “Denial, obfuscation and bland reassurance.” Leading figures from science, medicine & politics deliver their verdict on the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/07/where-did-uk-go-wrong-coronavirus
6. How business abandoned Boris: a survey of more than 500 business leaders, commissioned by the @NewStatesman, gave Boris Johnson a net approval score of -1 per cent. By @oscwilliams https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/07/anatomy-crisis
7. "The pandemic’s human impact came to me in snippets of news. Calls from carers, cleaners, supermarket workers and delivery drivers. Consultants wondering where their usual stroke and cancer patients were." @Anoosh_C on the human cost of the crisis https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/07/how-britain-s-essential-most-vulnerable-workers-were-exposed-virus-spread-rapidly
8. "The UK's overconfidence in theoretical modelling has had disastrous results" – Dr @pwhitakerwriter on how an an entire policy was built on data that could not be accurately known. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2020/07/government-chose-follow-wrong-science-lethal-social-and-economic-consequences
9. How to stop a pandemic: @anjahuja on lessons from the first two books on Covid-19, by Richard Horton and Debora Mackenzie https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2020/07/how-stop-pandemic
10. "It may be that pandemics, the inevitable vulnerabilities of the hyper-digital age and the stresses of runaway climate change forge a new ideal of the successful society. One that looks a bit more like Germany." By @JeremyCliffe https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/07/how-coronavirus-has-revealed-unexpected-strengths-germany-s-model-government
