Coronavirus: lessons from the fight on Ebola

Back in 2014 the world faced a struggle with another fatal and highly contagious virus that initially felt out of control – Ebola.

Across West Africa 11,000 people died from the virus. At the time I was Secretary of State for International Development, so it was my task to lead the UK’s work with Sierra Leone to stamp out the virus and prevent it from reaching and taking hold on UK shores.

I’ll always be immensely proud of the work on what was called “Operation Gritrock” that DFID, MoD and NHS staff did on behalf of our country and I remember vividly the COBRA meetings I attended, similar to those that will now be taking place to tackle coronavirus. As coronavirus strengthens its grip on populations and economies the world over, all of us look set to be touched by its impact, sooner rather than later.

In 2014/15, I not only saw up close the effects of an epidemic but also how critical it was to have experts guide our work, including then our DFID Chief Scientific Officer, and now Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, to ensure it was successfully fought.

There are lessons to be learnt from not only how we tackled Ebola but also the wider work focused on limiting the damage on jobs, livelihoods and businesses in Sierra Leone, particularly around the access to short term finance and helping businesses ride out the inevitable downturn.

Equally, with coronavirus, this week’s Budget is a timely opportunity to set out direct support for a business community hit by what is a temporary but significant supply side shock to the economy. No business that is fundamentally healthy should fail due to coronavirus and the Government must take all necessary steps to support those struggling, particularly in relation to both tax and business rates.

Equally, in 2014/15 in Sierra Leone we were clear that it would require a national effort to eradicate the decimating disease that Ebola was. We helped people to save their country. We mass-trained healthcare workers and volunteers to battle Ebola. People selflessly stepped forward to rescue their nation from a fatal disease that extended well beyond the fatality rates of coronavirus, indiscriminatingly taking the lives of people of all ages, healthy and unhealthy.

Allowing the UK public to be part of the solution on tackling coronavirus, as Sierra Leone’s was with Ebola, is how we can truly deliver a national response that is systematically effective. It’s why a measured, but well-designed public information campaign is vital. The more the general public can successfully and collectively act not only to stay safe, but to avoid putting more pressure on the NHS and food supplies, the less pressure there will be on our wider public services and economy.

It’s striking how our businesses, whether in retail or elsewhere, can already implement sensible and helpful procedures to maintain perfectly adequate supplies. Ministers should tap into that expertise on a more formal basis and not assume that everything must be designed around decisions in Whitehall.

A sensible, reasoned approach from our Government, our people and our businesses can see us through the worst of the coronavirus effects.

The Government is rightly listening to the scientific expertise as it moves from the Containment Phase towards the Delay Phase. These are difficult judgments, and having had Professor Chris Whitty work alongside me on Ebola, with his decades of experience, I trust him to be giving the best possible advice so the Government can move carefully and deliberately.

As Professor Whitty has pointed out, it is important to remember the longer we can keep this virus in phase one of Containment, the better placed our NHS is to cope with what comes next.

We are going to enter the Delay Phase, at some point, and that point may well come very soon. This will happen when more cases are being found each day as it transmits from person to person in the community, outpacing our ability to trace people they have had contact with.

The Government’s aim will be to keep the number of new cases each day as low as they can. Achieving that provides the best means of helping everyone who needs medical assistance.
The next step will most likely be to start reducing non-essential contact with other people, so called social distancing. This is a significant step with much wider ramifications and will need careful consideration and effective planning. It is important to remember these next steps must be effective and able to be sustained, potentially for months. Italy was the first country in Europe to ban flights from China but, as Professor Whitty pointed out at a press conference on Monday, it made little impact.

From managing the UK’s response to the biggest Ebola outbreak in recent history, I know that careful and well planned decisions are much more effective than listening to the siren calls of politicians trying to score political points.

I got some criticism for taking the measures that we knew were necessary to bring the Ebola outbreak under control. But they were scientifically led decisions taken at the right time and we rightly held firm. The coronavirus outbreak will be increasingly challenging in the weeks and months ahead.

The Government should listen to the expert advice, and be driven by the data and the science to make the right calls, at the right time.

Rt Hon Justine Greening

Founder, Social Mobility Pledge

Former Secretary of State for Education, Minister for Women and Equalities, Secretary of State for International Development, Secretary of State for Transport, Economic Secretary to the Treasury

Rt Hon Justine Greening was Secretary of State for International Development,
September 2012 – July 2016