, Columnist
When Two Nations Are Divided by a Common Pandemic
Whether it’s a plot, bungling or something else, the U.K. and U.S. are reacting to omicron very differently. There are hints for central bank policy.
A queue for Covid-19 vaccinations in London.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
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Here in Britain, whenever something bad happens there is a natural tendency to divide the possible explanations into two buckets: cock-up or conspiracy. The phrase “cock-up” is not as lewd as you might think; I’ve found numerous putative derivations and it appears to come from a printing difficulty. But in practice, what it means is that the problem was caused by somebody making a stupid mistake. A conspiracy is self-explanatory, and much more sinister.