Back to Square One: Boris Johnson’s plan to end Covid-19 lockdown restrictions is a return to his very first idea – herd immunity. But you won’t hear him say it.

Timing is the secret to great tragedy, as well as comedy. Boris Johnson may soon discover that, to his cost.

The UK’s imbecile prime minister has announced that he will go ahead with his plan to lift all remaining lockdown restrictions in England on July 19, saying from then on it will be a personal choice whether we wear masks to keep our friends, neighbours and colleagues safe – or get rid of them and risk infecting them all.

And he has done it as news reaches us of a new and deadlier variant of Covid-19 – the “Lambda variant” – which is arriving in the UK from Peru.

We had plenty of warning that Johnson would do as he has done. It was mooted about on the mass media over the weekend and on the news shows early on July 5 – although the Tories could have chosen a better representative to get the message across.

Helen “I use private emails to do government business so you can’t see what I’m up to” Whately made a worse idiot of herself than Johnson would have. Asked whether she, personally, would take advantage of the rule change to ditch her own mask, she dissembled, as the following shows:

She just wouldn’t give a straight answer to a simple question, leading even the BBC’s Dan Walker to exasperation:

Johnson went ahead with his announcement in a press conference at 5pm:

He was undermined very quickly. For example, this morning (July 6), new Health Secretary Sajid Javid admitted that new Covid-19 infections could number 50,000 a day by July 19, the so-called “Freedom Day” when restrictions are expected to be lifted:

Some projections have put the increase in infections up to 100,000 per day over the summer. Freedom Day? #DangerDay is what I’d call it.

The backlash from thinking members of the public has been enormous.

On Facebook, one friend of This Writer wrote: “it appears the UK Government is officially insane, yesterday with case levels rising with the current restrictions they announce the removal of pretty much all covid related restrictions then today say they expect case levels to rise from the under 22,000 cases currently experienced to over 100,000 cases during the summer. Absolutely no person in their right mind would even consider this to be a good course of action. At best it is reckless and grossly negligent.”

Another wrote: “How many more people has our murderous Prime Minister just sentenced to death with his utterly irresponsible (and against scientific advice) stupid relaxation of all rules?”

And another came up with an entire alternative plan for easing restrictions, off the top of his head: “During today’s press conference, Johnson asked ‘If we don’t re-open now, then when will we do it…?’

“I don’t know, Boris… how about, say, announcing a phased reduction in Covid restrictions when we hit 75% of the adult population double-vaccinated? That’s a firm, acheivable target with a definable benefit in terms of restricting Covid.

“It also brings an additional positive incentive to get vaccinated which, combined with the societal pressures it would create, would very likely tip many of the ‘vaccine hesitant’ to get the bloody jabs.

“There. That took me five minutes to think of, and I’m not even the f***ing Prime Minister.”

It seems Johnson has gone back to his old idea of “herd immunity” yet again. Like a child with a single idea stuck in his head, he can’t seem to let it go, as this expert opinion suggests:

https://twitter.com/Cromwell606/status/1411972970818457603

Medical experts have said Johnson’s plan is equivalent to building “variant factories” in the UK, providing an opportunity for new and deadlier versions of Covid-19 to take hold here, against which the vaccine will be useless.

Prof Susan Michie, the director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London, and another member of Sage’s behavioural science subcommittee, tweeted: “Allowing community transmission to surge is like building new ‘variant factories’ at a very fast rate.”

And of course we also have variants coming into the UK from abroad, because Johnson refused to protect us by closing the UK’s borders. We’ve already had the “Delta variant” from India; now here’s the “Lambda variant” from Peru:

https://twitter.com/KingOfNothing21/status/1412289144022355971

Public reaction to Johnson’s plan has been one of horror:

https://twitter.com/WinstonCProject/status/1411812649374040067

But he’ll push ahead with it. He has to; he has now staked his political career on it.

Remember this: Covid-related deaths are rising again, in line with the number of infections. So ask yourself this:

How many more people aree you happy to see die, before you accept it is time to put a stop to Johnson’s genocidal rule?