Why Is Johnson Isolating?

Boris Johnson is isolating because he was contacted by the NHS Test & Trace and told to do so.  But why?  Everyone knows that he was a high profile sufferer from COVID19, and having recovered now has immunity from it.  At least, its to be hoped that is the case, or else all the billions being spent on developing vaccines is a waste of money, because they work in exactly the same way of getting the body's own immune system to produce the antibodies, T-Cells and so on required to destroy the virus, and, thereby also prevent future infection.  And, by preventing infection, and so stopping the virus being present in the body, they also prevent anyone with such immunity being contagious.  That is how herd immunity works whether created by natural infections, or vaccination.

So, why is Johnson who has such immunity self-isolating?  Just for show.  Politicians became embroiled in the whole process of creating the moral panic surrounding COVID19, because they responded to all of the hype whipped up by social and mainstream media, and in responding with populist measures, they legitimised all of the hype, and closed down rational debate.  Starmer is proposing to extend that further with his general Bonapartist, authoritarian tendencies on a range of issues.  The Overton Window is being reduced to a slit.  The Age of Big Brother is upon us.

Having tied themselves to the underlying meme of the COVID19 moral panic, the politicians, thereby, contributed to it.  The mesures of lockdown they introduced had absolutely no rationale to them, as witnessed by the fact that everywhere they have been implemented across the globe they failed miserably to stop the virus, and as soon as they were lifted the virus spread even more quickly, and now having also mutated into several different strains, complicating the problem of producing an adequate vaccine to deal with them.  The fact that it has mutated in mink in Denmark, and that its reported that it may now have spread to domestic dogs and cats, in mutated form, potentially able to leap back to humans, not only illustrates that problem, but illustrates the way lockdowns have made the problem worse.

Lockdowns did nothing to kill the virus, but simply slowed its spread.  By slowing its spread, they also slowed the development of herd immunity.  By slowing the development of herd immunity they extended the length of time that the virus remained endemic within populations, and by extending that period, they gave he virus longer to be able to mutate.  This is nothing more nor less than the application of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.  Those viruses that were able to make a leap to other species such as mink, dogs or cats were self-selected, because by doing so they could survive and find new hosts.  Had herd immunity developed in humans their spread and survival would have been cut short, so that they did not have time for such self-selection and mutation to occur.  We can expect other mutations to have arisen, such as those viruses able to survive for longer outside the body.

Rather like the way the misuse of antibiotics has given rise to mutations of pathogens, which then have resilience to antibiotics, so lockdowns, by extending the duration of COVID19 within populations, rather than killing it off, has given time for its own mutation, and greater resilience.  Lockdowns were a big, visible populist measure that governments could take as a short-term solution to assuage the moral panic, but they neither dealt with the problem in the short-term, and in the process they have created a much bigger longer-term problem.

But, having been sucked into such populist measures to assuage that moral panic,  governments have then been sucked into all the other nonsense that goes with them.  When Dominic Cummings and Imperial's Neil Ferguson, provoked ire for having broken lockdown regulations, the message was sent to politicians, don't get caught doing this.  The message was reinforced when SNP MP, Margaret Ferrier, travelled to Westminster by train, having tested positive.  So, when the government is telling everyone else to follow the rules if contacted by Test & Trace, its clear why Johnson has to isolate, even though there is absolutely no point in him doing so!

It again shows why the current tests are useless, and why only tests to identify if people have immunity are of any use.  If we had accurate tests to determine the latter, then millions of people who have such immunity could be going about their business as normal, safely.  But, none of the funding that has gone into the current tests, or into vaccine development has gone into the development of that testing.  Why?  Well, for one thing, its not in the interest of the medical-industrial complex to do so. 

If such tests showed that 20-30% of the population already has immunity, that is 20-30% of the population that does not require the cost of regular testing, and still less does it require the expenditure of an expensive vaccine.  But, also, if it was found that such large scale immunity exists, it further undermines the narrative that everyone is equally susceptible to the virus, which is the narrative required for lockdowns.  Finally, governments do not want to identify a large section of the population who have immunity, who could go about their business, because it would create a section of the population seen to be in a privileged position.  In order to continue going about their business, and not losing wages, people would actively seek to get infected, as people used to do with kids in the 1950's, so as to rapidly get immunity, and get on with their life.

So, rational solutions and behaviour are being blocked, simply in order to comply with what is expected, even where what is expected is not rational.  Its not rational for anyone who has COVID19 immunity to have to self-isolate, but still less is it rational for Johnson, as Prime Minister to have to self-isolate, at the present time.  Not only should he be at his post dealing with the pandemic, but more importantly, he should be dealing with the bigger, longer lasting crisis that is Brexit.

Britain is weeks away from a catastrophic crash out of the EU.  In the end, I do not believe that Britain will commit such suicide.  Johnson will capitulate again, and either the Transitional Period will be extended, giving time for Brexit to wither on the vine, or else some kind of Brexit In Name Only will be agreed, again meaning that it will die out after a short period, during which Britain will remain bound to Single Market and Customs Union rules.  Already, Michael Gove and Rishi Sunak have caved, and said that Britain will have to compromise to get such a deal and avoid a crash out.  Cummings and Cain have gone, and whilst the supposed hard Brexiter Frost remains in charge of he negotiations, the FT has dug out his comments from 2016, when he said what has been obvious all all along.

“it will be Britain that has to make the concessions to get the deal”, he wrote.

The FT writes,

"“Britain will be demandeur,” he wrote, a reference to the fact that the UK would be the applicant seeking new trade deals after Brexit. The demandeur is usually regarded in trade circles as having less leverage.

“After leaving, the UK will have to renegotiate trading arrangements simultaneously with many major countries, including the EU, in a two-year window,” he wrote. 

“There may not be goodwill,” he said, adding that it would be “Britain that has to make concessions to get the deal”. He continued: “True, other countries will want deals too, but they won’t be under anything like the same time pressure and can afford to make us sweat.”"

Given that Britain has behaved appallingly in relation to the EU, and has even said it will break international law, to say that “There may not be goodwill" is an understatement.  Moreover, Britain has also pissed off the US with its support for Trump, and refusal even now to criticise his dictatorial behaviour.  Britain is in the worst place it could expect to be.  So, Johnson being absent from proceedings is important.  Cummings and Co. brought in the whole Vote Leave team to run government, and although the head of the snake has been cut off, the venom remains in the system, and the rest of he snake continues to function.  Frost himself is locked into the hard Brexit, crash out logic, at this stage of proceedings.  Only Johnson himself can make the required capitulation to prevent them being sent over the precipice, and taking the rest of us with them.