Michael norton, it’s not so much winning or losing as degree of damage and attrition. If the Great Fire of London had been treated the way most governments treat covid it’d still be burning today, always burning somewhere but with a city-wide flare up every six months or so. “Just contain it enough that we don’t quite fill the hospitals”. Covid is like fire or rat infestation; outbreaks will happen, but the sooner you respond the easier they are to stamp out and the less damage accumulates.

Vaccination is helping but so far it doesn’t look like a solution. 87% of the UK population now have antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 but infections are again going up like a rocket, so Westminster’s initial “herd immunity” (non)plan couldn’t ever have worked. We’ve had a million with long covid; over half are still reporting problems. This could keep grinding us down until we stamp it out.