As I write, Ireland still awaits the outcome of the review process chaired by Prof Anne Scott, an expert in medical ethics, into the State’s response to the Covid pandemic of 2020. And rather than waiting further for the outcome of that report, I feel compelled to express my own opinions on how the Irish State (and many other states) dealt with the Covid crisis.

Whether or not the Covid-19 virus emanated from the wild or whether it escaped from a Chinese state laboratory in Wuhan which was experimenting in virus mutation, the result for the world, and in particular the advanced industrialised parts of the world, was by any standard colossal in scope and effect.

Though for many images of Italian army trucks being loaded with coffins in Bergamo or the opening of mass grave cemeteries in New York are by now just fading memories, there is no doubt the prevalent reportage of Covid was one in which a pandemic threatened the very future of civilised society if not the future of humanity itself. The aura of fear swept national and international media and drove many democratic governments to extremes in the fight to contain the deadly Covid threat.

Ireland was by no means an outlier or a pioneer in counter measures. We should not forget the astonishing theatrics of the UK’s prime minister, Boris Johnson and his entourage at Number 10 Downing Street or the fact that his apparently cavalier approach to health risks........

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