Boris Johnson Stumbles Into Yet Another Crisis
The U.K. prime minister must manage a rise in infections and a shrinking economy at a time when political support is dwindling.
What happens next?
Photographer: Mark Kerrison/In PicturesBoris Johnson is right back where he was six months ago: faced with a choice of how far to clamp down on freedoms in order to suppress the coronavirus’s transmission. Only then the strategy was simple. Britain’s lockdown was to protect the capacity of the National Health Service in order to save lives. This time, the goal is more complicated and so are Johnson’s choices.
There may be disagreements on what exactly a second wave is — the U.K. has come a long way from seeing 500 deaths a day in March (there were 27 recorded Saturday) — but the arrow is moving in the wrong direction and the question is how the government will respond. In Britain infections are doubling about every week. Only the U.S., Brazil, India and Mexico have had more deaths from the virus.