The myth of ‘plague island’

It quickly became an established truism that the UK was faring far worse than the rest of the developed world.

The New York Times even coined the term plague island’ back in December 2020 to describe our supposedly pitiable, uniquely disease-addled nation.

The media narrative went something like this: the UK endured the worst Covid death toll in Europe because our populist’ prime minister wanted to let the virus rip’.

Sweden emerged from the pandemic with some of the lowest excess deaths in Europe .

The contrast with lockdown-happy Germany could hardly be starker.

Even among the nations of the UK , the pro-lockdown narrative does not hold up.

All the talk of plague island’, it turns out, was little more than cant.