British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is resisting growing calls to reopen the UK from its lockdown because he is still so “frightened” from his own near-fatal brush with the bug, according to a report, the New York Post reported.
Johnson — who said nurses “saved my life” when he was left in intensive care — is facing a groundswell of defiance against the ongoing lockdown from senior MPs and even a leading scientist.
But the 55-year-old leader has made it clear that lifting social distancing measures is a “non-starter,” driven largely by his own terrifying ordeal with the contagion, sources told the Times of London.
“The prime minister is in a funny place. I think he’s quite frightened,” a senior Tory MP told the UK paper.
“His illness and the warning from the doctors has really hit him hard. To find himself floored like this has got into his head. He has become really tentative,” the official said.
Outspoken critics of the lockdown include former environment secretary Theresa Villiers, who fears “catastrophic” economic damage, and Oxford University science professor Carl Heneghan, who also believes it will be more damaging than the virus itself.
But Johnson told senior cabinet colleagues in a two-hour video conference Friday that his “overriding concern” is easing up too soon and allowing a “second peak” of the deadly pandemic, the UK Times said.
“The idea that we will be rushing to lift measures is a non-starter,” a government source told the paper.
As of Thursday afternoon, the UK has more than 138,000 confirmed cases with 18,738 deaths.
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