This is an easy answer. Science is surgically narrow in its focus because it has to be exact. Therefore it is up to the leaders of the country to ask the correct questions for answer by the the correct scientists and indeed to consult different experts on the correct questions to answer. So far we have had a tight group of technocrats with computer models running rough shod over the economy and mental and physical health of the country with self serving politicians anxious to avoid responsibility hiding behind them. Simply asking an obscure professor who is finally being given brief significance whether we can hope to control a sub-type of the common cold virus which science has never found a solution to after decades is going to result in only the obvious answer and the farce is that government policy gets based on that. The question itself shows a lack of grasp of common sense and scientific knowledge and the answer shows a lack of care of the consequences of not pointing out that the question is the wrong to be asking in this specific situation.
The problem is democracy is of course the self serving need to win power rather than serving the community while at the same time having little hope of achieving anything. Dictatorships or indeed any organisation such as the military with clear structure hierarchy and leadership are far more efficient and effective but of course are liable to misuse. It is notable that the government is having to be far more dictatorial to push through nonsense measures and the only reason why the vaccine roll out has gone well is because it was tasked to the military. We breath a sigh of relief that Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance as not army colonels . They have done enough damage already.