It's difficult because it is true that, frankly, the Government has messed up. There is, for example, a pretty uncontroversial link between the decision to have no meaningful restrictions during the period when schools and Universities were re-opening, and the subsequent increase in infections. Clear, I say, because what else do you expect is going to happen when the disease was still extant, albeit at low levels, but suddenly several million people were moving around the country and coming into contact with large groups for the first time in months? That was a disaster, and the deaths in this second wave have followed as a consequence.
But even though this was foreseeable, and should have been foreseen, I am not sure how preventable it was. Should students have been told, in effect, to stay at home and conduct all learning online? From the perspective purely of Covid control, absolutely, but towns that rely to a large extent on the Student population for economic activity would have suffered, to say nothing of the mental health toll on those who, at least personally, tend to have low risks from Covid anyway.
I think Professor Whitty may have been partially motivated by political considerations when he said this, but he had a point when he said, in effect, that all possible approaches to the health crisis were bad. The British are owed apologies and contrition all the same, but I don't see what is served by any resignations.
It also is clearly relevant that the entire Western World has seen cases and death tolls rise significantly over the last month. Sometimes that's down to incompetence or lack of interest in even trying to solve the problem, other times it's because preventative measures came too late; while this doesn't excuse the UK's failures, they are far from unique.