Nicola Sturgeon indicates failure to plan for SARS-like virus may have been early Covid pandemic mistake

Preparations for a flu-like pandemic rather than a virus similar to SARS may have hampered the Scottish Government’s early response to Covid-19, Nicola Sturgeon has indicated.

Ahead of almost a year from the first responses by the Scottish Government to the emerging pandemic, the First Minister said much of the decisions made in the early stages would be considered wrong “with hindsight”.

Ms Sturgeon said given the knowledge the Scottish Government had then, if given the time again it would be likely that “we would do the same thing because we were acting on what we knew then”.

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Nicola Sturgeon has said there will be lessons to be learned around the Scottish Government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.Nicola Sturgeon has said there will be lessons to be learned around the Scottish Government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nicola Sturgeon has said there will be lessons to be learned around the Scottish Government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Speaking at her daily coronavirus briefing, the First Minister said it would be important to analyse the mistakes of the past year.

Ms Sturgeon said her main drive was to tackle the current crisis, but she wanted to “make sure we learn properly from this” to help future generations.

The First Minister had been asked what she thought the Scottish Government had done wrong in relation to the pandemic and what she would have done differently if she had the time again.

She said: “We’ve got things wrong and I have tried never to shy away from this. Some of that will be relatively small things in the grand scheme of things, some of that might be bigger.

“If I look back to about a year ago right now, and we had our first case March 1 if I remember correctly, but we were already planning and thinking about what was coming down the track at us.

"I think across the UK, and I am not by any stretch of the imagination the first person to have said this, I think we in a way that perhaps some Asian countries with experience of SARS in the past didn’t, we probably were planning for something akin to a flu pandemic. Covid and coronavirus is very different to flu.”

She added: “Some of what we will have got wrong is a judgement with hindsight. If I knew then what I know now, there are some things that I would have done differently, perhaps testing in care homes being one of those.

"But I didn’t know then what I know now and therefore if I was to turn the clock back with the knowledge we had then, we would do the same thing because we were acting on what we knew then.

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"I want to make sure we learn properly from this. I hope our generation will never ever have to go through a global pandemic again, but sooner or later some generation will.

"So it is really important that we learn the lessons now so that we are leaving those for the benefit of those who come after us, but also so there can be proper scrutiny and accountability so that we're all taking part in that.

"We are still in a crisis so much as it is important that we look back and we analyse and think about what we got right and what we got wrong.

"The most important thing I've got to do and lead a whole government to do is focus on the here and now and tomorrow, because I can’t change what happened yesterday. I can still influence what happens tomorrow."

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