Our second ‘lessons learned’ episode looking back at the covid pandemic tackles how our healthcare systems coped, or failed to cope, with the unprecedented crisis of coronavirus. Did we see doctors forced to make impossible choices over who gets a ventilator and intensive care and who is left to die in a corridor? Did we get the balance right between protecting healthcare workers and taking sacrificial risks for the sake of patients? And how did the church do in all this – did we live up to our Christian forebears who showed great courage during plagues in the ancient world?