That is true, Dave, but so does SAGE. Far too sure of itself, given the limited data. Far too unwilling to look at how Asia was handling things and so forth.

But crucially, they are clear this does not let the government off the hook. "We were following the science" is regarded as threadbare. The government was always at liberty to impose stricter requirements. Follow science but do more, as it were. This is what Asia's successes suggested.