Comment: This has been the least bad pandemic so far due to innovation and democracy

The very economic systems that have delivered vastly improved standards of living and greater medical knowledge over the years are being wrongly criticised

No vaccine was developed as rapidly as the Covid-19 vaccines were last year. Picture: Getty

No one would want to repeat the past 18 months. Covid-19, climate change, and global political developments have left tens of millions of people worse off physically and financially. The news has been filled with accounts of horrifying death rates, viral mutations, pandemic restrictions, extreme weather, economic hardship, political conflict, and – now – the fall of the Western-backed Afghan government.

There has been much finger-pointing, as well as many proposals for fundamental changes to ...