When I look at Britain from the United States, it would be tempting to be a little envious.
Here we have a President who denied the threat from corona until a few days ago. Due to his bungling, the country still isn’t capable of testing for the new virus.
And when his advisors finally wrote an earnest speech for him, he was unable to read it clearly or empathetically.
When the number of cases spikes exponentially in the coming days and weeks, the United States will pay a heavy price for this incompetence.
Compared to Trump, Boris Johnson nearly gives the impression of having understood the seriousness of the situation.
When he addressed the country, he was forthright about the fact that Britain now faces a challenge that is on a par with some of the more dramatic moments of the past century.
For a few minutes, this gave me hope. Johnson knows that a large percentage of Britons could soon contract the virus. He is aware that corona is far more deadly than the flu.
And he has presumably noticed that it has, in a matter of days, brought the Italian health care system to the brink of collapse. Surely, I thought, this would lead him to enact radical measures to combat the pandemic.
Then Johnson started to describe his proposed remedies, and my heart sank. It is of course right to ask people to stay at home if they’re feeling sick or to tell them not to go on a cruise right now.
But are these measures nearly enough to contain the spread of a deadly pandemic? Of course not.
China and Italy show that only extreme forms of social distancing can stop the exponential spread of the virus. Italy had 322 cases of corona two weeks ago, 2,502 cases one week ago, and far over 10,000 cases today.
Under those circumstances, it is the height of irresponsibility to tell your countrymen to keep going about their lives as though nothing much had happened.
China and Italy also show that corona very quickly overburdens the medical system in catastrophic ways.
In Lombardy, doctors and nurses are now forced to choose which patients they will let die because they simply don’t have the resources to help everybody.
Under those circumstances, it is inexpressibly callous to insist that half or quarter measures will be enough to contain this deadly pandemic.
In the British government’s worst case scenario, more than 500,000 people could die.
In light of this horrifying figure, the only moral response would be to take much more radical action. The government needs to shut normal life down immediately. Office workers should stay home.
Schools and universities should close, as they have in many other European countries. Big events and gathering places – such as football games, of course, but also including pubs, clubs, and conferences – should be shuttered or postponed.
Insofar as at all possible, we should all be staying at home.
A Prime Minister who understands the seriousness of this situation would have shown true courage and leadership by taking these painful steps before it is too late. Boris Johnson failed that test.
And the United Kingdom is likely to pay a heavy price for his cowardice.
