Living with Covid plan: Boris Johnson’s self-preservation trumps the science once again

Not for the first time during this pandemic, a Downing Street Covid briefing had two clear narratives: the political and the scientific.

Listen to the Prime Minister and you’d hear a story of gallant victory, as England ditches the last remaining legal rules around self-isolation, scraps free tests and generally throws caution to the wind when it comes to Covid-19.

“The sun is shining but we’re keeping our umbrella” was Boris Johnson’s expert take.

Listen to the Chief Medical Officer and you’d glean something very different: this is nature we’re dealing with, and the chance of another variant - indeed one that could be worse than Omicron - wreaking more havoc is not exactly beyond the realms of possibility.

So on one side of the stage we had Mr Johnson tearing up the laws around self-isolation if you’ve tested positive, and on the other we had Professor Sir Chris Whitty warning that you really should still self-isolate after a positive test.

But who to listen to? A politician with a track record for lying, who is clinging on to his job by his fingernails and desperate to throw his hard-right Tory MPs a scrap of red meat in the form of a bonfire of Covid laws, or an epidemiology expert with five degrees?

Sir Chris said that, while the rates may be declining, “new variants are anticipated”, with some expected to “just disappear”, while others will cause “significant problems”.

He urged those of us who test positive to self-isolate, despite the change in rules: “As we look at the next weeks, we still have high rates of Omicron and I would urge people in terms of public health advice, and this is very much the Government’s position, that people should still if they have Covid try to prevent other people getting it and that means self-isolating.”

The Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance added that Covid will continue to mutate “probably for the next couple of years”.

“There is no guarantee that the next variant is as reduced severity as Omicron. It could be the same, it could be more, it could be less.”

As usual then, mixed messaging is what we’re getting, and it’s up to every one of us to decide who we listen to, and how we act.

How would you feel if, for example, a friend or colleague casually informed you to your face that they had tested positive but they’d decided against staying at home since they no longer have to?

It’s a situation anyone in England is likely to face in the weeks and months ahead.

Mr Johnson did say that he was “able to make these changes now because of the vaccines and the high level of immunity”.

What he failed to mention was the real reason: the fact that it also strengthens his support among potential rebels in the run-up to a police investigation that could spell the end of his stint in Party Central (sorry, 10 Downing Street).

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