No clear answer from Johnson to virus problem

No clear answer from Johnson to virus problem

Boris Johnson



Tim Ross and Emily Ashton, Tribune News Service

It's almost exactly a year since coronavirus made its first impression on the UK, when a government-chartered plane flew 83 British passengers home from Wuhan to a wind-swept military airfield west of London.

Now in the midst of its third national lockdown, the UK has hit the devastating milestone of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19.

For Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the country he leads, it's a sobering moment. Fatalities are now already five times the 20,000 figure Johnson's chief scientist once said would represent a “good outcome” for Britain.

“It's hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic,” Johnson said in a televised press conference on Tuesday evening. “I am deeply sorry for every life that has been lost.”

While Johnson vowed to learn lessons once the virus is beaten, he offered few answers to the question of what