Lord Sumption:

I agree with the Deputy's observation at the outset that this is not an unprecedented situation. I think the main reason why the response has been unprecedented, certainly in Europe and North America, is that we have got rather complacent about our capacity to overcome natural forces. We have a very considerable capacity to do that, but it certainly is not unlimited. There have been epidemics and pandemics before over the last 40 or 50 years, but they have hardly touched Europe or North America. That has given us a sense of invulnerability, which we are now learning, was a mistake. We are not actually invulnerable. There are many reasons the reaction has been so extreme, but by far the most important is that we have come to believe that there is nothing that the state cannot do to protect us. That is something that is borne of our extremely fortunate experience over the last half century. It is not going to continue. We are likely to have more pandemics of this kind and we have to develop a kind of sense of proportion, which I am afraid we have forgotten over the last century since the previous comparable pandemic, which was the Spanish flu pandemic between 1918 and 1921.