Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, has written in the Observer that the world is “closer to the start of the pandemic than the end” in a piece critical of the way Covid has been handled by politicians. Meanwhile, trust in politicians has dropped since Boris Johnson became prime minister, according to a study cited by the paper in a separate article. Some 63% of voters believed politicians were “out merely for themselves” as opposed to their country or party, compared to 48% in 2014, polling suggests.