On March 27th, Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson tested positive for COVID-19. He isolated at his home for 10 days, but then on April 5th he was taken to the hospital for “further testing,” and a day later he was in intensive care. He was not put on a ventilator, or so they said, but he was given oxygen. It looked and sounded bad, and BoJo was the first world leader to need that kind of hospitalization for corona-related symptoms. But now… he’s fine? Well enough to be released from the hospital on Easter Sunday.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been discharged from St. Thomas’ Hospital in London one week after he was admitted with “worsening” symptoms of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
“The PM has been discharged from hospital to continue his recovery, at [his country residence] Chequers,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday. “On the advice of his medical team, the PM will not be immediately returning to work. He wishes to thank everybody at St Thomas’ for the brilliant care he has received. All of his thoughts are with those affected by this illness.”
In a video message shared on his official Twitter account, Johnson also thanked NHS staff for saving his life.
“I have today left hospital after a week in which the NHS has saved my life, no question. It’s hard to find words to express my debut but before I come to that I want to thank everyone in the entire UK for the effort and the sacrifice you have made and are making,” he said, before extending a special mention to two nurses. “The reason in the end my body did start to get enough oxygen was because for every second of the night they were watching and they were thinking and they were caring and making the interventions I needed.”
People are already yelling at him about NHS funding and such, but honestly, I’m glad he seems to be doing better. And I’m also glad that he doesn’t seem to be putting up a fight about not returning to work immediately. Incidentally, the death toll in Britain surpassed the 10,000-mark this weekend and the total number of confirmed cases in Britain is around 79,000. Keep in mind that Britain (like America and everywhere else) isn’t really counting ALL cases of the virus. They’re just counting the number of people who test positive, not presumptive positive cases. The numbers are completely screwed up all around the world and I wish more people would acknowledge that.
Here’s BoJo’s video message. He still sounds a bit froggy, but he *does* seem to be recovering.
It is hard to find the words to express my debt to the NHS for saving my life.
The efforts of millions of people across this country to stay home are worth it. Together we will overcome this challenge, as we have overcome so many challenges in the past. #StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/HK7Ch8BMB5
— Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) April 12, 2020
BoJo’s pregnant partner Carrie Symonds (who also had the virus and is also recovering) tweeted out her thanks too:
I cannot thank our magnificent NHS enough. The staff at St Thomas’ Hospital have been incredible. I will never, ever be able to repay you and I will never stop thanking you. 🌈
— Carrie Symonds (@carriesymonds) April 12, 2020
Thank you also to everyone who sent such kind messages of support. Today I’m feeling incredibly lucky.
— Carrie Symonds (@carriesymonds) April 12, 2020
Photos courtesy of WENN.
While I wouldn’t wish anyone ill (well.. maybe an orange tinted rotted fruit and its seedlings), I’m glad he’s recovering from being hit hard by the Karma bus. This is the guy who said it “wouldn’t be so bad” for “herd immunity” to run through the country. The same one who went around making light of it all.
And didn’t the gov’t start cracking down on the 1-2%ers, who were running to their 2nd/3rd homes to get out of London? And what does he do upon release? Runs to Checquers.
He is really just a better spoken/educated version of the sh!t stain we have here.
“This is the guy who said it “wouldn’t be so bad” for “herd immunity” to run through the country. The same one who went around making light of it all.”
This isn’t true and people should stop repeating it. He’s an arsehole but he didn’t say what you’re quoting him as saying (and, yes, selectively quoting a couple of words from a larger piece, or taking words out of context and arranging them in a way that goes against what was actually said is still misquoting someone. It’s like me saying “I hope there is no surge in the disease, otherwise all we will have is lots and lots of bodies” and someone quoting me as saying “All we have is lots of bodies”. We’re supposed to have better standards here, people).
Thanks for replying, Boris…. or is this Carrie?
People who run to their second homes, country mansions with gardens, should give their spacious city flat for people who are quarantined in ten square feet apartments. I know it’s about possibly spreading the virus and lack of hospital care in small towns, but still, if they insist on going, at least make someone else’s life easier too.
Boris 100% was promoting the “herd immunity, let elderly people die for the greater good” approach which Cummings came up with.
He only backed down after global condemnation.
Remember, the UK has twice the number of Corona deaths per head as Ireland, our nearest neighbour, and a country whose healthcare system and social structures are not vastly different from ours. There are lots of valuable articles online comparing how poorly the UK has mishandled the crisis compared to Ireland.
I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy but … I have my doubts about whether or not he was actually as unwell as they are making out. A lot doesn’t add up here, and it also takes the responsibility of the worst weeks of the virus off his shoulders – ‘I was sick, I was in hospital, it wasn’t me’.
I really agree with you. It had got to the point where even the staunch Tory supporting newspapers were calling him out and saying he was doing a bad job. The same newspapers are now saying he’s the second coming of Churchill, a fighter etc.
Yeah, I agree the press hyped how ill he was. I believe he had it but I don’t think it was as bad as is being made out – it was made clear he was moved into ICU as a PRECAUTION as his breathing got worse but I also have my doubts he was a deaths door.
He effed up the UK’s response and as a result we are on track to be the worst affected country in Europe. He and his cabinet need to be held accountable.
You all need to take your tinfoil hats off. I work in healthcare. This is an erratic and fast acting disease. Stable pts with it go into rapid cardiac arrest even on a non icu med surg unit. The disease causes something called ARDS—it can kill you very quickly, even when a hospitalized pt seems stable. he was in the 2nd week of his illness when he was hospitalized, which is the most dangerous week. please don’t be one of those crazy people spreading conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact.
I disagree, the evidence suggests that the opposite is true, and that in fact he was far more ill than has been reported. The entire time the government and the media have been massively downplaying his illness and flat out lying that he was okay when he clearly wasn’t okay (claiming that he was doing well hours before he was admitted; claiming it was a planned admission which is incredibly unlikely for a Sunday night; claiming he was only admitted “for tests” hours before he was moved into ICU; claiming he was only admitted to ICU as a precaution which is laughably false). Even when he was in ICU, the government was insisting he was “sitting up” and that he was “in good spirits.” Yet Raab and others look utterly panic-stricken and ashen at the same time they were claiming he was doing well.
The whole “Brave Boris fights back from the brink of death” stuff didn’t start until after he was released from hospital. The narrative up until that point was very much “he’s fine, he’s going well, it’s just a precaution.” If you look at the actual facts, there’s no question the government was at the very least downplaying the seriousness of his condition to avoid a panic. (I’m not a fan, but the PM dying in the middle of such a major crisis would have been disastrous and would have created a panic.)
Agreed. I listened to that press briefing by Raab, and he sounded like something had knocked the stuffing out of him, very unlike his usual bravado. I think Johnson was quite seriously ill.
There is a lot that I would like to say about Boris and his stay in intensive care but in the spirit of Easter weekend I won’t..
Side note – the number of deaths are just those that have died in hospital. It does not take into consideration those that have died in care homes etc so the true number is likely to be much higher and will only be known when the ONS release the figures of those that have coronavirus on their death certificate. I don’t know if this is the same as the US?
There will NEVER be an accurate count. The coroners here are told no testing of bodies, even if it *looks* like corona. The few tests are for those few who are admitted to the hospital in dire straights. Look how many are told, “Yes, *most likely* you have it, go home and “ride it out””. So they are not counted. ONLY THOSE TESTED… and only about ONE PERCENT of the pop. is tested, to keep the nos. artificially low.
I’m starting to think there is something seriously wrong with the existing tests. John Prine’s test came back as “undetermined” three days after he died of his symptoms. There’s a news report of someone who had to be hospitalized with all the classic symptoms, but her test came back negative. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-tests-are-being-fast-tracked-by-the-fda-but-its-unclear-how-accurate-they-are/ar-BB12tP0l?li=BBnb7Kz
If you look at the percentage of tests that come back as positive it seems almost laughably low, especially since only those with obvious symptoms are getting tested. You know something is fishy when neither the CDC nor the FDA will publicly acknowledge what the accuracy rate is. The CDC rejected the WHO test early on because it showed too many false positives, and they wasted weeks getting their own test developed. What if that test is also flawed, but in the opposite sense?
Also – out of hospital on Easter Sunday, risen from (near) death, Messiah-like. A few weeks off now to ‘recover’ and he will likely be going on paternity leave soon after that. All very suspicious.
Jemima that is complete nonsense. The only “suspicious” thing about it is the fact the government lied that he was doing much better than he was, and downplayed and tried to hide how ill he really was.
I honestly doubt he’ll go on paternity leave while the crisis is ongoing, and anyway that’s months away.
Plus, the UK is one of the most atheist, secular countries on the planet. Hardly anyone in the UK associates Easter as anything other than a chance to eat chocolate and paint cute bunnies. Linking this with Messianic imagery is intensely American, and simply not something that would register here in the UK. I promise no one here regards BJ as Messiah-like just because he happened to be released from hospital on National Chocolate Day.
@Jemima…my gosh you conspiracy theorists are on a roll today aren’t you…he was wayyyy more ill than the government was saying. Do you honestly think an ICU bed and a dozen doctors, respiratory technologists and nurses would be wasted on him if he were only showing mild symptoms? Especially since so many other people are gravely ill and requiring time in ICU? BoJo is many unpleasant things but he’s not a malingerer, nor did he use Easter as a back-drop to rise Jesus-like from near death.
I don’t celebrate Easter, so I’ll say it. He is in a role where his choices have a significant impact on the lives and health and safety of many many others. And his choices (and arrogance) have done harm. I hope that sits on his chest and constricts his breathing and gives him a good long time where he’s too weak to do anything but think about all of that and whether or not he has the will to survive.
as long as it takes.
Yes, supposedly a full half of C19 deaths are in care homes, and people in care homes are being denied hospital admittance.
So interesting that the nurses he mentions in his speech are Jenny from New Zealand and Luís from Portugal… the ones he considers not to have any need for since he is a Brexiteer… Also, apparently he considers being ill as moral weakness as per his friends so one can understand that up until now he thought that COVID 19 was for the peasants and the weaklings… Boris the ableist… and now he is a hero 🤦🏽♀️
And the doctor who treated him is Italian (correct me of I’m wrong)…karma has a strange sense of humor.
And my fervent hope is that all of this is prompting him to re-think his philosophy and his approach to governing. He seemed chastened in his TV address, is that just of the moment, or will it stick?
I’m glad he recovered, but hopefully this makes him re-think some things (ha, yeah right.)
I don’t think we’ll ever know true numbers unless there is full antibody testing.
We aren’t just not counting cases – the death count is also likely off because they don’t have enough tests to verify suspected deaths, and without verification, it’s not counted statistically. A lot medical examiners have spoken out about this. They will do their best to cover up how badly they flubbed this as much as possible.
The thing is that even if it wasn’t as bad as people were saying, he could still have been knocked off his feet. There a lot of variances with this virus and the ones being put on ventilators are not the only ones that are off their feet for 2+ weeks.
Take it from me… a person who has been taking care of her husband for eleven days as he self isolates in a room away from me and my two boys. He may not need a hospital but he can barely have a conversation much less work.