The child’s song Ring a ring a Roses has the line “Atishoo, atishoo, all fall down”, a chilling reference to the bubonic plague that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages.

Covid-19 is the first worldwide pandemic of the 21st century and one has to ask what we have learnt in the past few centuries. The answer, of course, is a great deal because of advances in medical science, the discovery of viruses and the defeat of diseases such as polio and measles...

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