The lessons that will be drawn by our so-called policy experts and the self-serving commentariat after the passing of the Wuhan pandemic is examined by the good doctor in his latest Law & Liberty essay.

The predominant message is that state action is the only means by which this can be done; and I think few would dispute that, whatever the role of the state ought to have been, or ought to be in the future, the state, relative to the rest of society, has in fact been considerably strengthened by the epidemic. Furthermore, there are many who want it to be strengthened yet further, and who welcome the quasi-totalitarian control of people’s lives that the epidemic provoked.