Welcome back young and lovely Hedda. You ask - how would we have dealt with Covid19? Well I think, as a government, we should have examined the reality, not the media hype, and then dealt with it like Flu or the common cold when they started - huge campaign for people to behave with common sense. Avoid direct contact with the vulnerable (especially the old). Tell the vulnerable to take extra care (FULL lockdown); provide massive security to care homes and hospitals. Every penny wasted on Nightingales and furloughs should have been spent on protecting and treating the vulnerable; meanwhile get a vaccine (which we now seem to have done).

In 3 months in England & Wales (2017-2018) we got the wrong flu vaccine and 50,000 died "with" it. Add Scotland and NI - that's about 60,000 in 3 months. Multiply the three months by 4 = 240,000 extra deaths in 2018 in the UK due to Flu, if it had not then gone into spring, summer and the RIGHT vaccine.

Yet no stupid panic. Yes - 240,000 dead in the UK in a year would have been awful but actually, in the giant scheme of things, just another virus.
Protect and treat the vulnerable. SIMPLES!!!

France official figures today; most of the vulnerable died earlier in the year.