Johnson under fire again as UK faces new COVID-19 crisis
LONDON — The crisis facing Britain this winter is depressingly familiar: Stayat-home orders and empty streets. Hospitals overflowing. A daily toll of many hundreds of coronavirus deaths.
The U.K. is the epicenter of Europe’s COVID-19 outbreak once more, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative governmentisfacing questions, and anger, as people demand to know how the country has ended up here — again.
Manycountriesareenduring new waves of the virus, but Britain’s is among the worst, and it comes after a horrendous 2020. More than 3 million people in the U.K. have tested positive for the coronavirus and 81,000 have died — 30,000 in the last 30 days. The economy hasshrunkby8%, morethan 800,000 jobs have been lost and hundreds of thousands more furloughed workers are in limbo.
Even with the new lockdown, London Mayor Sadiq Khansaidthesituationinthe capital was “critical,” with 1 in every 30 people infected.
“The stark reality is that we will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeksunlessthespreadof the virus slows down drastically,” he said.
Medicalstaffers are also at breaking point.
British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson, who was hospitalized in the spring after contracting the virus, is taking much of the blame for the U.K’s response to the crisis.
“Whereas before, everyone went into a mode of, ‘We just need to get through this,’ (now) everybodyis like, ‘Herewegoagain— canIget through this?’ ” said Lindsey Izard, a senior intensive care nurseatSt. George’s Hospital in London.
Much of the blame for Britain’s poor performance has been laid on Johnson, who came down with the virus in the spring andended up in intensive care.
Mostcountrieshavestruggled during the pandemic, but Britain had some disadvantages from the start. Its public health system was frayed after years of spending cuts byausterity-minded Conservative governments. It had only a tiny capacity to test for the newvirus.
And while authorities hadplannedforahypothetical pandemic, they assumed it would be a less deadly and less contagious flu-like illness.
The government sought advice from scientists, but critics say its pool of advisers wastoonarrow. Andtheir recommendations were not always heeded by a prime minister whose instincts makehimreluctanttoclamp down on the economy and daily life.
“The retro-spectroscope is amagnificentinstrument,” Johnson said while defending his record in aBBCinterview last week.
As infection rates fell in the summer, the government encouragedpeopleto return to restaurants and workplaces. Whenthevirusbegan to surge again in September, Johnson rejected advice from his scientific advisers to lock the country down, before eventually announcing a month-long second national lockdownonOct. 31.
Hopes that move would beenoughtocurbthespread of the virus were dashed in December, when scientists warned that a new variant was up to 70% more transmissible than the original strain. Johnson tightened restrictions for London and the southeast, but the government’sscientific advisory committeewarnedDec. 22that wouldnotbeenough.
Johnsondidnotannounce athird national lockdownfor England until Jan. 4.