"might it not be worth considering a temporary coalition government or at least a Covid task force made up of independent scientists and cross Party politicians?"

I would not altogether disagree with that, but that should have happened back in March if it was going to have had any point to is, but:

(a) Corbyn was in charge then, and why would you think he and his acolytes would have done any better of a job than Boris and his acolytes;
(b) Regardless of Corbyn, why do you think any members of the current opposition front bench (and a token libdem for balance) would do any better if a cooperative approach were adopted?

The medical advisers would still be the same, the civil servants and back up resources would have been the same, it would have been the same allegedly underfunded NHS handling things. Bad examples of personal behaviour existed in both political camps So I will assert with reasonable confidence that, regardless of colour of rosette, all politicians would flounder in the face of a situation that noone had ever encountered in any of our lives. And i dont blame them. The gravity of the situation any politician would find themselves in via COVID would likely overwhelm them. To me its unlikely we would have got any better decision making in a coalition, and if anything, would have seen even more points scoring in an internecine coalition war.