I refuse to be gaslighted by Boris Johnson into believing Covid doesn’t exist

I will grudgingly fork out for the testing kits. I will wear a mask outdoors. I will avoid public transport and indoor crowded settings, as far as I can. I will generally live a less free life than I did pre-pandemic – because Covid isn’t going anywhere

I will certainly self-isolate, will test regularly and encourage others to do the same (PA Wire)

So, Boris Johnson wants me to “get my confidence back”. Well, prime minister, I’ll judge that for myself thanks very much. I rather think that I’ll continue to be cautious in the face of a potentially deadly disease: I will certainly self-isolate, will test regularly and encourage others to do the same.

I will grudgingly fork out for the testing kits. I will wear a mask outdoors. I will avoid public transport and indoor crowded settings, as far as I can. I will generally live a less free life than I did pre-pandemic. That’s because Covid is not the flu. It is not, as Chris Whitty reminds us, trivial or “mild”.

Case rates are very high. Omicron can finish you off, though it’s less likely than with the previous variants, and it can leave you weak and with life-changing disabilities. The danger is real, and I refuse to be gaslighted by Johnson into believing that I’ll just have to accept infection as a everyday fact of life.

“Living with Covid” does not mean you pretend it doesn’t exist. It means, individually and as a community, we continue to bear down and minimise it, as we do with cancer by banning smoking in bars, or heart disease through health education.

Forget all the stuff about “shackles” coming off. For too many, this is a moment of fresh fear and imprisonment. Johnson’s policy is foolhardy and a reckless gamble with other people’s lives, and I realise I’ll only be helping make it look a success by continuing to live by the old rules and guidance, and by taking personal responsibility – but I can do no other.

My regret – indeed, horror – is there is no longer any support for those unable to afford to “do the right thing”; or penalties for those who can afford to do so but are too selfish. Johnson, of all, people, seems to think the entire British population, without exception, are entirely selfless and public-spirited. Sadly, experience teaches us otherwise.

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Given that he broke his own lockdown rules, almost took the life of the monarch and once declared himself willing to “let the bodies pile high” rather than impose another lockdown, I’m not that interested in taking public health advice from your man Johnson, thanks very much. Indeed, he is the last man I’d take public health guidance from (well, not counting Lawrence Fox and other cranks) and generally I don’t believe a word he says.

As I’ve mentioned before, he always reminds me of what Harry S. Truman said of one his successors as president of the United States: “Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he’d lie just to keep his hand in.”

It seems perfectly obvious to me that Omicron case rates will rise as a result of this premature lifting of free testing, with the poorest, oldest and most vulnerable citizens paying the highest price for Johnson’s political survival.

I’ve really no idea why Covid-scepticism has infected the Tory party in the way Euroscepticism did before it, but it is quite detached form reality and public opinion. I am not going to live my life according to what some irresponsible Tory backbenchers want, even if Johnson – spineless as he is turning out to be – is so craven to do so.

This is a day of shame. If we do not live to revert it, it will be because we all ignored what he said and lived our lives responsibly. What a place to be.