Boris Johnson: UK Prime Minister desperately needs lockdown gamble to pay off

London CNN — The UK is taking a tentative step in its slow emergence from coronavirus lockdown. The government really has to get this right and pray it’s not too early, as some people claim it may be.” These claims that lockdown is being lifted too soon range from the editorial pages of the left-leaning Guardian newspaper, which believes Johnson is “seeing polls, not science” and “gambling with the health of the nation,” to scientists advising the government who have called it a “political decision.” So, given the risk of it going wrong, why unlock now? Johnson’s opposite number, Labour leader Keir Starmer, pointed out that the country is now in “a ridiculous situation where next week betting shops and theme parks will be open, but parents are not clear when their children will go back to school.” Video Ad Feedback Black Lives Matter movement presses UK to confront colonial past 03:03 - Source: CNN To critics, it’s simply the latest example of this government’s incompetence in handling a major public health crisis. The UK went into lockdown later than many other European nations, a decision that Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist and former government adviser, admitted last week was perilous: “Had we introduced lockdown measures a week earlier, we would have reduced the final death toll by at least a half.” And the government’s core strategy to protect the national health service and abandon testing in the wider public on March 12 has been widely criticized by public health experts, who believe it has led to thousands of unnecessary deaths in the community. “The whole atmosphere has been enflamed by the terrible black death toll from Covid, which has left the community feeling under siege.” She, along with many others, has found the government’s response to be underwhelming.