BUMPY PANDEMIC ROAD AHEAD, SAYS JOHNSON
Johnson admits he’s pinning hopes on tests and vaccine
BORIS Johnson has warned the public for the first time that the coronavirus crisis will extend into next year.
In an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show to coincide with the Conservative Party conference, Johnson defended himself against a charge sheet of failures over the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking about the electorate, the PM said: “They’re furious at me and they’re furious for the Government but I’ve got to tell you in all candour it’s going to continue to be bumpy through to Christmas, it may even be bumpy beyond.
“But this is the only way to do it.”
Labour said Johnson had blown another chance to communicate a proper course of action on controlling the virus.
Shadow health minister Alex Norris said: “Boris Johnson had the chance to map out a serious strategy to improve public confidence. Instead he waffled and ducked every question.“
Previously Johnson had boasted the virus would be under control by November and that the country would be back to normal for Christmas.
The PM said people should behave “fearlessly” but with “commonsense” as the UK struggles to both contain the virus and keep the economy going.
Johnson said he hoped the “scientific equation will change” in the coming months, with the prospect of mass testing and a vaccine.
He added: “If you talk to the scientists they’re all virtually unanimous that by the spring things will be radically different and we’ll be in a different world because that is the normal cycle of a pandemic like this.”
Johnson also admitted it was “too early to say” if local lockdown measures were effective.
He added: “I’m a freedom-loving Tory… I don’t want to have to impose measures like this, are you crazy?”
On the mass testing system, Johnson added: “It is not perfect, I’m not going to claim it’s perfect. Am I frustrated with it? Yes, of course I’m frustrated with it.
“Am I going to blame NHS Test and Trace, of course I’m not. I take full responsibility for the service, by international comparators it is really very, very good indeed.”
The PM denied he was still ill, saying that when he had the virus he was “too fat”.
But he claimed it was “balderdash” that he was still suffering from the effects of coronavirus, known as “long Covid”.
He also insisted a trade deal is there to be done with the European Union but he ruled out making a deal with the Scottish Government over a second independence referendum.