Source: Global Times New Media
On Wednesday, local time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson officially announced that the England region of the United Kingdom will completely cancel the mask injunction in public places at the end of January, while no longer requiring organizers of some large events to check the "health code" of participants (reflecting whether there is a problem with nucleic acid results, and whether there is a certificate of vaccination with the new crown vaccine), and will no longer recommend that people work from home.
However, although Johnson said that his government will make this decision because the new round of the new crown epidemic caused by the "Omicron" strain has seen an "inflection point", many foreign media believe that Johnson's move is more like a political reason, because he wants to use this radical measure to retain his prime ministership and power after being hit by a major political scandal recently.
As the chart below shows, some public opinion in the United Kingdom, as well as the Washington Post and The New York Times in the United States, and the Globe and Mail in Canada, are currently questioning Johnson's motives for abruptly announcing the end of a series of restrictive epidemic prevention policies in England, suspecting that he is diverting the contradiction from a major political scandal that he has recently encountered.
According to these media and public opinion, the British Prime Minister's Office, which Johnson is in charge of, was recently exposed that during the covid-19 epidemic in the past two years, it has held many parties in the Prime Minister's Office in spite of its own epidemic restriction orders.
The incident immediately led to Johnson's unanimous criticism from the British government and opposition. Because, even if the current British political scene is increasingly divided on how to deal with the new crown epidemic, in the eyes of both right-wing conservatives in the United Kingdom who oppose restrictive measures and those on the left who believe that more restrictive measures should be taken to extinguish the epidemic, Johnson's approach on this matter is extremely hypocritical.
What's more, in addition to the political enemies asking themselves to resign for this matter, within the British Conservative Party to which Johnson belongs, those conservative politicians who were originally more supportive of Johnson on the Issue of "Brexit" in the United Kingdom have also begun to demand Johnson's resignation because of this matter, and such voices have become more and more intensive in the past two days.
Therefore, when Johnson suddenly announced on Wednesday local time in the United Kingdom that he would cancel a series of relatively strict restrictive epidemic prevention measures in England on January 27 - such as the mandatory order for masks in public places, the "health code" incantation for large-scale events, and the proposal to work from home, and even said that he would further cancel other restrictive epidemic prevention measures such as "positive cases must be quarantined at home" in March this year, people will naturally suspect Johnson's motives for doing so. Is it to appease right-wing conservative politicians who hate restrictive anti-epidemic policies so that these party colleagues will not force him to resign in order to retain his position as prime minister and power?
But Johnson's political gamble of "betting" on people's lives has really had some effect. Some right-wing conservative media in the UK are currently posting support for Johnson's policies, and a right-wing conservative media has also conducted a "poll" online, which shows that more than 90% of respondents are supporting Johnson's policy tendency to eliminate all epidemic prevention measures.
Some right-wing conservative netizens in the United Kingdom who supportEd Johnson's actions have even taken France as a "counter-example", saying that France has been taking relatively strict measures, requiring vaccinations and masks to restrict going out, but the number of new cases there is constantly approaching 500,000.
Johnson also came up with some "scientific data" to prove that his decision to completely eliminate restrictive epidemic prevention measures is "scientifically based". For example, from the data point of view, the number of new cases in the UK in recent days is less than the previous 7 days of new cases, although the number of new confirmed cases per day is still as high as 100,000.
However, some people pointed out that the current reduction in new cases in England is due to the British government's adjustment of the requirements for new crown testing, no longer requiring nucleic acid testing for quick-screening positive cases without symptoms, and many positive asymptomatic cases have not even been tested.
Some Public Health England experts also pointed out that although the number of new cases seems to be few, the number of cases in hospitals is still very high, and more than when the UK launched stricter restrictive measures such as masks and "health code" injunctions last December, twice as many as at the time. Therefore, these experts also posted online that Johnson's decision-making was not based on "science" but "politics".
The epidemic prevention expert interviewed by Canada's "Globe and Mail" also said that whether the epidemic has really reached an inflection point still needs further observation, after all, the epidemic in Europe is still raging, and the pressure on the British medical system is still very large, and it is not appropriate to cancel the restrictive measures early.
However, there is also disagreement among academics on the matter. Judging from the report of the British "Guardian", some experts believe that if the development of the epidemic is indeed fading as Johnson said, then his decision is not "unreasonable".
Finally, according to the Associated Press report, in addition to England, Scotland and Wales are also beginning to relax the restrictive epidemic prevention policies formulated by the two places. However, northern Ireland has not followed the trend because the epidemic is still serious and hospital pressure is still huge.
The Associated Press also said that many business organizations welcomed Johnson's decision.