UK PM, Boris Johnson, tests positive for Covid-19

[Drummond]

The title says it all, at this stage.

11.15am, GMT .. the news broke that Boris has the virus. He just has minor symptoms -- a high temperature and a persistent cough. He posted a video on Twitter to announce his situation.

Naturally, he'll be self-isolating immediately. He's well enough to continue on as PM, for the moment, anyway. Should his condition worsen, his 'designated survivor', the Minister who'll take over, is Dominic Raab (a comparative Right-winger and, when it was pertinent, a pro-Brexiter).

[Drummond]

https://www.newsweek.com/uk-prime-mi...avirus-1494646

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, he revealed on Friday morning.

Johnson said he had "developed mild symptoms" of the virus and intended to continue leading the U.K. government through video conferences in a recorded statement announcing that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

The Prime Minister also said he would be "self-isolating" at his 10 Downing Street residence as he experienced a "persistent cough" and a high temperature.

"Over the last 24 hours I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus," the prime minister tweeted. "I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government's response via video-conference as we fight this virus."

Link to Boris's video, where he announces his illness ....

https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/sta...96858095411200

[High_Plains_Drifter]

The title says it all, at this stage.

11.15am, GMT .. the news broke that Boris has the virus. He just has minor symptoms -- a high temperature and a persistent cough. He posted a video on Twitter to announce his situation.

Naturally, he'll be self-isolating immediately. He's well enough to continue on as PM, for the moment, anyway. Should his condition worsen, his 'designated survivor', the Minister who'll take over, is Dominic Raab (a comparative Right-winger and, when it was pertinent, a pro-Brexiter).

I would much rather have heard that KAHN got the virus instead of Johnson. Course I'm not wishing it on anyone, but if anyone deserved to catch it by their inept actions that undoubtedly have put millions of people at undue increased risk, it's Kahn.

[High_Plains_Drifter]

Not entirely on topic, but relative... I hope that here in America our president and his inner circle are doing EVERYTHING, HUMANLY, POSSIBLE, to isolate him from coming in contact with the virus. I don't know how old Boris is, but President Trump is getting on in years. I'd hate to lose this president right now. I don't think there's another man like him that's such a workaholic, and seems to relish the stress and challenges of being president.

I do hope Johnson fully recovers though. I think he's definitely a step in the right direction for Britain.

[Drummond]

Not entirely on topic, but relative... I hope that here in America our president and his inner circle are doing EVERYTHING, HUMANLY, POSSIBLE, to isolate him from coming in contact with the virus. I don't know how old Boris is, but President Trump is getting on in years. I'd hate to lose this president right now. I don't think there's another man like him that's such a workaholic, and seems to relish the stress and challenges of being president.

I do hope Johnson fully recovers though. I think he's definitely a step in the right direction for Britain.

Thanks for your thinking on Boris. I agree, though with one small reservation.

I said in another post that to get elected as London Mayor, you need the support of the Muslim contingent there ? Well, as far as I can recall, that assessment came from Boris. And, as a 'Mayoral-hopeful' several years ago, he did put out the statement that Islam 'is a religion of peace'.

He also claimed that he had an ancestor who was Muslim.

Obviously, these were electioneering efforts from Boris, 'suck-up' ones, to get elected .. and, it worked at the time, his being Khan's immediate predecessor for the job of Mayor. Even so, I've not forgotten what he said. Boris will do what it takes to favour his own interests.

That aside .. we DO have the best man in No 10 Downing St at present (Corbyn was orders of magnitude worse, of course !). I wish him well (Boris, that is).

Now, as for Trump ... I agree, it's vitally important he remains isolated as much as humanly possible from any possible sources of the virus. Your country most certainly does need him, at the helm ! That said ... I've also another small reservation ...

Bearing in mind that my main media outlets are British, and they have their own biases ... ours are giving the clear impression that Trump isn't taking the pandemic seriously enough. They originally asserted that he thought Covid-19 was 'a hoax', & I think that many of our people believe he took that position. But now, we're hearing that Trump wants America 'opened up again, within weeks ... hopefully by Easter'.

Our media are touting that as true, and as thoroughly irresponsible and even as evidence of a callous disrespect for human life to favour the economy, instead.

So, what's the truth ? Is Trump just not realising how dangerous the virus is ?

Or is this just a lot of fake news ? Because it does sound like something our Left might dream up.

[Drummond]

The second announcement today, just broadcast on BBC News, is that Matt Hancock, our Health Minister, has also tested positive for Covid-19. [Not the best person in our Government to get it !!]

He, too, is continuing to work on (under self-isolation, of course).

[High_Plains_Drifter]

Thanks for your thinking on Boris. I agree, though with one small reservation.

I said in another post that to get elected as London Mayor, you need the support of the Muslim contingent there ? Well, as far as I can recall, that assessment came from Boris. And, as a 'Mayoral-hopeful' several years ago, he did put out the statement that Islam 'is a religion of peace'.

He also claimed that he had an ancestor who was Muslim.

Obviously, these were electioneering efforts from Boris, 'suck-up' ones, to get elected .. and, it worked at the time, his being Khan's immediate predecessor for the job of Mayor. Even so, I've not forgotten what he said. Boris will do what it takes to favour his own interests.

That aside .. we DO have the best man in No 10 Downing St at present (Corbyn was orders of magnitude worse, of course !). I wish him well (Boris, that is).

Now, as for Trump ... I agree, it's vitally important he remains isolated as much as humanly possible from any possible sources of the virus. Your country most certainly does need him, at the helm ! That said ... I've also another small reservation ...

Bearing in mind that my main media outlets are British, and they have their own biases ... ours are giving the clear impression that Trump isn't taking the pandemic seriously enough. They originally asserted that he thought Covid-19 was 'a hoax', & I think that many of our people believe he took that position. But now, we're hearing that Trump wants America 'opened up again, within weeks ... hopefully by Easter'.

Our media are touting that as true, and as thoroughly irresponsible and even as evidence of a callous disrespect for human life to favour the economy, instead.

So, what's the truth ? Is Trump just not realising how dangerous the virus is ?

Or is this just a lot of fake news ? Because it does sound like something our Left might dream up.

Fake news... on steroids.

President Trump isn't going to just go ROUGE and willy nilly throw caution to the wind and tell everyone everything is fine and go back to business as usual. Just the implication that he'd do something like that is pure, unadulterated, unhinged, TDS garbage... and in laymen's terms, it's BULL SHIT.

Yes he's mentioned that he'd "like" to see, "maybe," portions of America where restrictions could be lifted because the number of infected people is virtually irrelevant. I think that's wise, because the "one shoe fits all" approach for the entire nation isn't really logical. Of course the self distancing and disinfecting and all the usual precautions should... more than likely will... prevail even though low risk areas are put back to work, but I think it makes sense. The sooner we get America back to work, the less damage we'll suffer to our economy.

But it's definitely a "WE'LL SEE" approach right now. NOTHING will change without first making a full assessment of the situation, and the oh so usual trashing of our president by the world's leftists and their irrational hatred for the man is just more overboard garbage... FAKE NEWS.

[Drummond]

Fake news... on steroids.

President Trump isn't going to just go ROUGE and willy nilly throw caution to the wind and tell everyone everything is fine and go back to business as usual. Just the implication that he'd do something like that is pure, unadulterated, unhinged, TDS garbage... and in laymen's terms, it's BULL SHIT.

Yes he's mentioned that he'd "like" to see, "maybe," portions of America where restrictions could be lifted because the number of infected people is virtually irrelevant. I think that's wise, because the "one shoe fits all" approach for the entire nation isn't really logical. Of course the self distancing and disinfecting and all the usual precautions should... more than likely will... prevail even though low risk areas are put back to work, but I think it makes sense. The sooner we get America back to work, the less damage we'll suffer to our economy.

But it's definitely a "WE'LL SEE" approach right now. NOTHING will change without first making a full assessment of the situation, and the oh so usual trashing of our president by the world's leftists and their irrational hatred for the man is just more overboard garbage... FAKE NEWS.

Thanks for that.

I just tried trawling around for articles addressing what the President had said .... and I didn't even have to open the links. The list on my page showed articles on it from obviously Left wing outlets ... ABC News, NBC, Huffington Post (they opened a UK office some time ago, by the way). Etc.

Enough said. When the Left leads on a story, (especially when the BBC and the Guardian get involved) you know that a propaganda advantage is being fought to win.

So, OK .. I'm heartened. Thanks !

[Kathianne]

Thanks for your thinking on Boris. I agree, though with one small reservation.

I said in another post that to get elected as London Mayor, you need the support of the Muslim contingent there ? Well, as far as I can recall, that assessment came from Boris. And, as a 'Mayoral-hopeful' several years ago, he did put out the statement that Islam 'is a religion of peace'.

He also claimed that he had an ancestor who was Muslim.

Obviously, these were electioneering efforts from Boris, 'suck-up' ones, to get elected .. and, it worked at the time, his being Khan's immediate predecessor for the job of Mayor. Even so, I've not forgotten what he said. Boris will do what it takes to favour his own interests.

That aside .. we DO have the best man in No 10 Downing St at present (Corbyn was orders of magnitude worse, of course !). I wish him well (Boris, that is).

Now, as for Trump ... I agree, it's vitally important he remains isolated as much as humanly possible from any possible sources of the virus. Your country most certainly does need him, at the helm ! That said ... I've also another small reservation ...

Bearing in mind that my main media outlets are British, and they have their own biases ... ours are giving the clear impression that Trump isn't taking the pandemic seriously enough. They originally asserted that he thought Covid-19 was 'a hoax', & I think that many of our people believe he took that position. But now, we're hearing that Trump wants America 'opened up again, within weeks ... hopefully by Easter'.

Our media are touting that as true, and as thoroughly irresponsible and even as evidence of a callous disrespect for human life to favour the economy, instead.

So, what's the truth ? Is Trump just not realising how dangerous the virus is ?

Or is this just a lot of fake news ? Because it does sound like something our Left might dream up.

I hope the PM gets well quickly.

As for our president. IMO he started off trying to play down the seriousness, even after the cruise ships and nursing homes started. While he came off callous in many people's opinion-focusing on numbers rather than with compassion. He called the media's reporting 'a hoax,' something he's done many times before. It was then said by the left he was calling the virus a 'hoax.' Not so, even the MSM has repeatedly said so, but no matter, it's from the left.

Then he got very serious, his leadership worked and the media couldn't stand that his approval ratings kept going up. For a very non-Republican, republican, Trump couldn't leave success continue. He basically came out at the beginning of the week and said 'this can't go on. Americans don't want to stay home, they want to get to work. It's going to result in suicides, the cure can't be worse than the illness.'

He then went on to say he'd like to see a return to normal by Easter. He did say it would depend on the data, which the doctors were working on. Then some of his biggest supporters came out with statements of support to get back to normal-for the children and everyone's mental health.

Now it sounds like they are going to look at things state by state, county by county on how tight to keep restrictions. Time will tell.

[Drummond]

I hope the PM gets well quickly.

As for our president. IMO he started off trying to play down the seriousness, even after the cruise ships and nursing homes started. While he came off callous in many people's opinion-focusing on numbers rather than with compassion. He called the media's reporting 'a hoax,' something he's done many times before. It was then said by the left he was calling the virus a 'hoax.' Not so, even the MSM has repeatedly said so, but no matter, it's from the left.

Then he got very serious, his leadership worked and the media couldn't stand that his approval ratings kept going up. For a very non-Republican, republican, Trump couldn't leave success continue. He basically came out at the beginning of the week and said 'this can't go on. Americans don't want to stay home, they want to get to work. It's going to result in suicides, the cure can't be worse than the illness.'

He then went on to say he'd like to see a return to normal by Easter. He did say it would depend on the data, which the doctors were working on. Then some of his biggest supporters came out with statements of support to get back to normal-for the children and everyone's mental health.

Now it sounds like they are going to look at things state by state, county by county on how tight to keep restrictions. Time will tell.

Thanks for your wishes on Boris's health ... appreciated.

I also note from your post that Trump is adopting his 'wait and see how this develops' approach. 'News' stories I've seen try to skew this to suggest that Trump would take a lot of convincing to NOT press on with his 'conditions are normalising, get back to work' approach.

Time will indeed tell .... BUT .... if the US follows the pattern of infection Italy saw (that looks like it's happening over here) ... you'll be lucky if you see a downturn you can usefully work with before late May. I don't believe any sign of a turnaround is at all likely in the next 3-4 weeks minimum, possibly a lot longer than that.

[Drummond]

I would much rather have preferred to hear KAHN got the virus instead of Johnson. Course I'm not wishing it on anyone, but if anyone deserved to catch it by their inept actions that undoubtedly have worsened the situation, it's Kahn.

Excellent post ... I completely echo it.

My thinking is that if Khan lacks the ability to care about human life, maybe he'll at least care about his own ? Khan's catching this virus might just be a wake-up call for him to put the Koran aside for a few minutes, and actually DO his JOB.