It is hard for humans to imagine things radically outside their own experience. As there has never been a major worldwide pandemic in this age of globalisation, contemplating that tens – or possibly even hundreds – of millions of people may be about to die is simply not within the realms of things most of us are willing to consider. And why should it be? The world has radically changed since Spanish Flu hit us hard, after World War One. It was the deadliest pandemic in modern history with an estimated 500 million people infected worldwide and 50 million deaths. Since then, we have become more pleased with ourselves, more…

Executive summary There has never been a major global pandemic in our age of globalised hyper-mobility. This unprecedentedness of our situation is a powerful reason for powerfully employing the Precautionary Principle to reduce our collective exposure to this coronavirus: an exposure which is grave. Applying a precautionary approach to COVID-19, so as to stay ahead of the virus, requires much stronger protective measures than have thus far been used, most importantly: Pre-emptively reducing physical hyper-connectivity, by way of arresting most air travel (and cruise travel, and some long-distance rail and road travel), and encouraging not just individuals but also geographic communities to self-protect and where necessary self-isolate, pre-emptively and not…