Tackling the Coronavirus Pandemic

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 15 December 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:39, 15 December 2020

Well, Llywydd, the problem is not with the advice or with its implementation. The problem is the virus. If the advice was wrong uniquely here in Wales, then how is it that, as we heard in the last question, Governments in other parts of the world are facing exactly the same dilemmas? We are dealing with a virus that doesn't behave in the way that models always predict, doesn't respond to some of the measures that were expected to be efficacious, where we saw yesterday evidence of a new variant emerging, which will potentially pose new challenges to us. The problem is not the advice; the advice is as good advice as you can get. The problem is dealing with a virus that is full of unexpected and difficult surprises, and where there is no single, simple approach to be found anywhere in the world that can be picked up from one part of the globe and dropped down in another with a guarantee of success.