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LONDON – As news of President Donald Trump’s Covid-19 shock diagnosis spread on Friday, the experience of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who tested positive six months ago, could offer a clue as to what it could happen later.
Johnson, 55, Announced On March 27, at the height of the pandemic in the UK, he was suffering from “mild” symptoms and would isolate himself while continuing to work. He was thought to be the first confirmed world leader to have contracted Covid-19.
He kept in touch with ministers through what he called “the magic of modern technology,” and 10 Downing Street, his official residence and personal office, maintained that he was in control.
Then, on April 6, Johnson was rushed to a London hospital on the advice of his doctor before being admitted to an intensive care unit. He spent a week in the hospital and received oxygen treatment, but they did not put him on a ventilator. Queen Elizabeth II was informed of her condition, Buckingham Palace said.
Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, who was a deputy in Johnson’s absence, told a news conference the next day that Johnson was still in control of the government, but admitted that he had not spoken to him since before his hospitalization.
On his release, and as he began a period of recovery at his home in the English countryside, Johnson won praise for a heartfelt message thanking the National Health Service for “saving my life. “Referring to the severity of his condition, Johnson said,” It could have been either way.
It wasn’t until April 27 that Johnson finally got back to work. Johnson has dismissed media speculation that the disease has caused long-term symptoms and said Tuesday that he was “fit as a butcher dog.”
The UK has the highest number of Covid-related deaths in Europe at over 42,000, also making it the fifth most affected country in the world, with a population substantially smaller than the countries topping the list: Mexico, India, Brazil and the US
Johnson’s disease was a wake-up call for the British, many of whom were skeptical about the severity and threat of the virus.
And it highlighted criticism that the UK was too slow to react to the pandemic. Johnson was personally targeted for an arrogant attitude toward the virus: He bragged at a press conference on March 3 that he had been shaking hands with people at a hospital overloaded with coronavirus patients.
It later emerged that the government’s own scientific advisers had privately called at the time for a public warning against the handshake. The prime minister’s spokesman said he did not see the advice.
A conservative libertarian who has criticized government interference and the “nanny state” in newspaper columns and speeches, Johnson was reluctant to order a national shutdown.
Jeremy Hunt, a senior lawmaker from Johnson’s own Conservative Party and a former health secretary, told the BBC on March 13, referring to the strict closures in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, it was “surprising and worrying that we are not doing nothing”. of that at all. “
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At the same time, Rory Stewart, a former Conservative lawmaker who led the UK’s response to the Ebola outbreak in Africa in 2019, said Johnson’s approach was “defeatist.”
“They tell There is no point in spending a large amount of money trying to suppress this, instead you are trying to manage the increase. We are taking too much risk. I think it is dangerous to do so. I don’t think if we allow this to spread, it can be handled that way. “
As pubs, restaurants and stores announced closings, Johnson still did not get into national action until the closure was confirmed on March 23.
Trump joins a growing list of current and former world leaders who have contracted the virus.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who for months downplayed the severity of the pandemic, announced his illness in July. Like Trump, he promoted the use of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine to combat Covid-19. Brazil has the third highest number of coronavirus infections, approaching 5 million.
Juan Orlando Hernández, president of Honduras, announced in June that he and his wife had tested positive, and Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei tested positive in September.
In Europe, Prince Charles, the 71-year-old heir to the British throne, tested positive in March, as did the European Union’s main Brexit negotiator, French politician Michel Barnier.
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