EDINBURGH, Scotland – On January 2, Boris Johnson felt pretty good about himself. The British Prime Minister, after obtaining a massive majority in last year’s festive elections posted a photo with his finger up of his grinning face with the caption: “This will be a fantastic year for Britain”. As 2020 draws to a close – with a mutant virus ravaging his country, Christmas canceled for millions, Brexit negotiations stalled and nations around the world banning any travel from the UK – it’s fair to say that Johnson’s prediction it was somewhat wide of the sign.
Britain is in an unparalleled state of crisis. Johnson’s horrific weekend television address, when he unveiled a new, seemingly faster strain of coronavirus crossing London, had a domino effect around the world. More than 30 nations have closed their doors to British travel – worst of all, France has closed its border with Britain for two days, meaning no commercial freight can enter Europe, raising fears the immediate lack of food a few days before Christmas.
Monday morning, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, Belgium, Bulgaria, Turkey, Switzerland, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Iran, Croatia, Argentina, El Salvador, Chile, Morocco, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have announced bans. No action has been taken in the United States yet – although New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for new federal restrictions to stop British flights from New York airports.
But experts fear it may be too late to stop the mutant strain of COVID racing on the planet.
Many questions about the British version of the virus remain unanswered. Since the pandemic escalated in March, people have largely learned what to expect from the coronavirus – but now the rulebook is being frantically rewritten in the UK, where people are facing a mutant virus that appears to be much more good at infecting people. There is no evidence to suggest that the mutation makes a COVID infection more deadly, but just increasing the transmission would be enough to strain the country’s already squeaky hospitals.
There is also no evidence to suggest that approved vaccines will not work against the mutation, but that does not mean that scientists are not concerned about this prospect. Ravi Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, told BBC News: “If we let it add more mutations, then you start to worry … This virus is possible on a vaccine escape route, took the first couple of steps toward that. “U.S. Army scientists are conducting their own tests to make sure the vaccine is still effective against the British strain.
This is not just a British problem – despite travel restrictions, experts have suggested that the British strain appears to be spreading so fast that it may become the dominant strain globally. Prof. Calum Semple, who is part of the British government’s advisory group, said the strain “causes more disease faster” and will likely “compete with other strains” to become the most common worldwide.
The effect of the mutation is already clear in the UK. New coronavirus cases in the UK rose 35,928 on Sunday, almost double the number seven days earlier. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the nation on Sunday that the strain was “out of control”.
Johnson is due to chair an emergency response meeting Monday to discuss the unprecedented peacetime disaster. It could not have come at a worse time – many British companies were already engaged in frantic storage before 31 December, when the withdrawal period of the Brexit transition with the European Union ends and the new customs rules enter into force. It is still unclear what the rules will be, with British and European negotiators failing to reach an agreement again this weekend. Johnson said during the Brexit referendum that Britain will not leave without an agreement, but that promise seems to be on the verge of collapse.
The disastrous moment also caused heartache for millions. Johnson had insisted since last Wednesday that the five-day window planned for Christmas in the UK would continue. That day, in the face of calls from the opposition to abandon the plans, he ridiculed the idea and said he would not dream of canceling Christmas. Three days later, he told the people of London that they would not be allowed to visit friends and family. The rest of the country had a reduced visit window only on Christmas Day – though the government urged the people not to use it.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer accused Johnson of “grave negligence” in his prevarication, saying the need to restrict relaxation of the Christmas rules had been “obvious” for weeks. Starmer repeated a criticism of Johnson throughout his career – that he postponed making an “unpopular” decision until it was too late. Videos of London train stations full on Saturday night, a few hours before the entry of the new travel restrictions, suggest that he is right.
Clearly, this has not been a “fantastic year for the UK” – and the remaining 10 days of 2020 are about to be the worst in the group.