The “great common” of pandemics, as far back as the Black Death that wiped out one-third of Europe in 1347, is that science postdates narratives—and those narratives create cognitive dissonance and “groupthink” driven by power figures of the day. The difference with COVID-19 is that it did not need to be that way: the science of Covid was known through experience with influenza and knowledge of compartmentalised mucosal immunology. The power of the pharmaceutical industry and its pervasive influence at every level of political and medical decision-making were underestimated. Together with a political structure desperately needing a narrative, the world…