Boris Johnson struck an optimistic note in his fourth press conference of the week. The Prime Minister attempted to answer the question of how long Brits ought to expect to have to change their lifestyle in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Johnson said that he believed the UK could ‘turn the tide’ on the disease within 12 weeks:
‘I think we can turn the tide in the next 12 weeks, but it depends on collective, resolute action. The encouraging thing is the more disciplined we can all be in doing that, the greater the chances the scientific community will be able soon to come up with fantastic results on testing to say nothing of the other medical treatments.’
When pressed in the subsequent Q&A whether this meant the public could expect their summer holidays to go ahead, Johnson said he was ‘fairly confident’ the UK would beat the coronavirus in the near future. Johnson’s great hope rests on a test being developed to identify whether individuals have had coronavirus which would transform the UK’s response. The Prime Minister said the government has high hopes for an antibody test that could be used to help NHS workers identify individuals who have already had the disease – this ought to speed up a return to normal life as these individuals would know they couldn’t be re-infected.
In some ways, this was a press conference that was light on firm announcements. After Conservative MPs vented their frustration in the Commons Chamber over the financial help to workers and businesses, Johnson did not announce anything new – instead urging businesses to hold off redundancies as the Chancellor would announce more measures soon. On the issue of social distancing, Johnson suggested that he was still reluctant to officially close pubs and restaurants unless he believed the bulk of the public were disobeying government instructions.
What Johnson is trying to do is incentivise people to stick to the social distancing measures by suggesting there is a light at the end of the tunnel so long as they play ball. But the risk of today’s press conference is that the Prime Minister strikes too optimistic a note and raises people’s hopes as to how soon this will all be over. The scientific community, along with governments of countries across the world, is yet to solve the conundrum of the coronavirus and believe there is no certainty when it comes to an end date – the Imperial College report suggested a vaccine could take 18 months. Perhaps in acknowledgement of this, Johnson did say near the end of the presser that he could not promise that the UK would be on the downward slope by June – admitting that he is ‘often accused of being unnecessarily boosterish about these things’.
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