Why do the UK’s failings on coronavirus planning seem to resonate with the endless dysfunctionality of English education policymaking?

Why is the UK now in such a poor position on coronavirus, amid predictions that it could end up with the highest number of deaths of any European country, despite seemingly starting with the advantage of cases having ramped up relatively late here?

More relevantly for this website, are there any parallels between claims of poor planning with regard to the response to Covid-19 and the many instances of dysfunctionality for which I have seen evidence in the field of schools policymaking since becoming an education reporter in 1997?

Some readers may question whether this is the right time to be asking such questions. But I cannot help but wonder if the current crisis is showing up wider problems with policymaking, which do link to the field which I have covered for many years. Perhaps, at the end of this, what seem to me to some systemic issues with the way policy is made may end up getting addressed. Though I am not holding my breath.

Reuters investigation charts Covid-19 planning problems

The trigger for some thoughts on this was a recent lengthy investigative piece by two Reuters journalists which went into detail as to how the UK responded to the fast-developing reports of the emergence of a new infectious disease in China.