In an extract from his new memoir published in the Mail, Boris Johnson says he’s not sure if lockdown worked or not. Here is the crucial passage:
It was only later that I started to look at the curves of the pandemic around the world – the double hump that seemed to rise and fall irrespective of the approaches taken by governments. There were always two waves, whether you were in China, where lockdowns were ruthlessly enforced, or in Sweden, where they took a more voluntary approach.
Looking back, I wonder if King Cnut was right all along when he stationed his throne on the shore of the Thames and asked his courtiers to watch as he vainly ordered the tide to withdraw. Maybe there are limits to human agency; maybe it isn’t possible for government action to repel the waves of a highly contagious disease, any more than it is possible to repel the tide of the Thames.
I am not saying that lockdowns achieved nothing; I am sure they had some effect. But were they decisive in beating back the disease, turning that wave down? All I can say is that I am no longer sure.
Worth reading in full.
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