Trump Covid: How Your Experience Compares With Boris Johnson

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Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have a lot in common: distinctive hairstyles, great personalities, and a habit of creating controversy.

And now they share the unwanted experience of being leaders brought to the hospital with coronavirus.

The US President is currently being treated for the disease, six months after UK Prime Minister Johnson was a victim of the same virus.

But how does their experiences compare, and what, if anything, can the United States learn from the UK experience?

On March 27, the UK Prime Minister announced that he had tested positive for Covid. It was not very unexpected given that the virus had made its way through the highest levels of the UK government, infecting ministers and senior advisers.

In a Twitter video, Johnson said he had experienced “mild symptoms” but insisted that, “thanks to the magic of modern technology,” he was still leading the government’s response despite self-isolation.

A week later he announced that a persistent temperature meant that he would have to keep insulating.

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Two days later, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said his boss “had gotten into the wheel a lot.” But that night, Johnson was admitted to the hospital, although Downing Street stressed that this was “a precautionary measure.”

Twenty-four hours later came the shocking news that his condition had “worsened” and the prime minister had been transferred to the intensive care unit.

Parallel

There are parallels between Johnson’s experience and Trump’s. Like the prime minister, Trump has wanted to emphasize that he is still at work, posting photos of himself on a desk with documents.

Both visits to the hospital were described as preventive: Trump’s team said it had been prompted by “great caution.”

And both leaders – being male, over 50 and overweight – are in a category of risk.

However, there are also differences. Updates on Johnson’s condition come solely from the Downing Street spokesman, rather than the hospital or his doctor, while in the United States, the president’s doctors have held press conferences.

Somehow this caused confusion, particularly when Dr. Sean Conley’s account conflicted with reports from White House staff.

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But unlike the UK, American journalists were able to question the medical team, and perhaps as a result, Americans got a broader picture of their leader’s health.

Talk about a wider difference between the two countries. In the United States, an entire medical unit based in the White House is dedicated to the care of the president, and presidential candidates are now expected to release medical records.

There is no such setup in Downing Street and if you Google medical records plus Jeremy Corbyn (the former opposition leader), you are more likely to get results for stories about the National Health Service than any personal information.

Two blonde leaders catch Covid and end up in the hospital.

But that’s where the similarities end.

There are vast constitutional and cultural differences between British and American politics.

Cultural first: men in white coats in front of a microphone. We have seen it in Washington.

Updates from doctors, in front of the cameras. Updates with details too: the drugs the president takes, the days he gets them.

There is no way the doctors at St Thomas’s Hospital in London are going to offer continuous public comment on the prime minister’s health, let alone the contents of his syringes.

Oh, and an American president has a medical team and facilities available at the White House.

In contrast, Boris Johnson was hiding alone, up Downing Street, his tea left on his doorstep.

And now for the constitutional: in short, the United States has one, the United Kingdom does not.

So while the question of who takes charge is not an easy one to answer in the UK, there is a long-established plan in the US.

Left in limbo

Once the prime minister was admitted to intensive care, his foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, was asked to stand in “when necessary.”

In the US, Amendment 25 sets the conditions for a vice president to take over from his boss, but in the UK, with its unwritten constitution and enthusiasm for precedent over codified rules, there is no power formal that allows such a transfer. of responsibility.

We knew very little about the exact extent of Mr. Raab’s authority, and opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer suggested that Mr. Raab was “reluctant” to make decisions, leaving the government in a kind of limbo while the Prime Minister was recovering.

Constitution expert Dr Catherine Haddon of the Institute of Government said at the time: “The lack of a plan for who can take over when the prime minister is incapacitated seems extraordinary to many at home and abroad.” .

Since his admission to the hospital, there has been speculation about how Trump’s ratings in the polls will be affected, particularly with the presidential election a month away.

Looking at the example of the UK, the answer is not much.

BBC political analyst Peter Barnes says Boris Johnson’s personal approval ratings rose, reaching 50% or more, when the government introduced measures to combat the coronavirus.

The high ratings continued throughout the period the prime minister was ill and into May, before starting to back off.

‘Dogs of various butchers’

Mr. Johnson was released from the hospital on April 12 and returned to work after a two week break.

However, six months later, it has been speculated that the Prime Minister is fully recovered. However, when asked if he suffered from prolonged Covid, Johnson insisted that he was “as fit as the dogs of various butchers.”

His time in the hospital has caused at least one change in his behavior. The prime minister acknowledged that he was “too fat” when he contracted the virus and hired a personal trainer to get him in shape.

So in a few months, Americans can get used to seeing photos of Trump hanging around the Rose Garden.