So “shield the vulnerable, let it pass through the population and emerge in September to bury the dead” became the plan, until mid March 2020 when, according to the evidence given to the Health, and Science and Technology Committee, the UK changed tack and adopted what became known as the “build” strategy: to instead hold the virus at bay with alternating lockdowns while rushing to get vaccines and treatments in place.

The original plan was all public at the time, endorsed and discussed at length by the relevant parties, and then further explained by the publication of SAGE minutes modelling it, but somehow a large part of the media have developed the view that it never happened, and that any references to “herd immunity” refer only to vaccination, or that a “herd immunity plan” means something different from the above and therefore Britain never had one.

There are dozens of official media interviews and press conferences from the time explaining the single peak herd immunity strategy, MPs tweets defending it - are we supposed to think that in each of these interviews, the scientific advisor or government rep kept meaning to say the word “vaccine” at the end of each sentence setting out the plans for herd immunity, but somehow was cut off just in time?

For journalists who are a little bit more sceptical, a second line of defence was produced: the UK didn’t have a herd immunity strategy, it had something else [which on close examination looks exactly like the herd immunity strategy].

They said the Iraq war would be a cakewalk, so we should have known better when they said the quarantine would only last 15 days...

We’re idiots for taking these politicians at their word.