Boris Johnson can blow out the candles on his premiership. The U.K. press is consumed with the revelation that the British Prime Minister held a birthday party for himself during the height of government-imposed coronavirus restrictions. The controversy has left Boris Johnson fighting for his job. 

Worse still, the party was just one of more than a dozen parties Johnson and other Downing Street officials held while banning ordinary citizens from such gatherings. The latest YouGov poll shows 73% of Brits think Johnson is doing a poor job as PM. His unpopularity is taking down the Conservative Party, too. Support for the Tories has dropped to 10 points behind the Labour Party. Now some MPs are planning on submitting letters of no confidence that could trigger his fall from power.

The "Partygate scandal" has been increasing in scope by the day. In December 2021, photos of Johnson's many parties first leaked out. Then on Jan. 11, it was reported that invites were sent to over 100 people during Britain's first national lockdown. Johnson even held an illegal party on the night before Prince Philip's funeral while Queen Elizabeth was mourning alone.

Johnson decided to end all social distancing rules to distract from the controversy. So let the peasants eat cake, too!

Johnson thinks he can't be a hypocrite if he lets everyone have parties and throw away their masks. But he can't put the wine back into the bottles he emptied throughout 2020 and 2021. Nor can he find an excuse for all the lies he uncorked.

The tired representatives of the PM's office keep issuing all manner of laughable denials. For example, Johnson said a May 2020 gathering with wine and cheese was just a "work meeting." His office also said that a mass gathering held on Johnson's birthday, where he was presented with a birthday cake, wasn't a "birthday party." Whatever it was, it was against the rules Johnson imposed on the whole country. Only two people were allowed to meet together indoors at the time – and there was no exception for birthday parties.

How will the coronavirus spread if everyone in the U.K. indulges in Johnson's careless behavior? We shall see.

On Jan. 20, the British administration announced proudly that it was dropping the "Plan B" measures, meaning that masks are no longer required anywhere, the vaccine pass has ended, and workers are encouraged to return to the office. 

The reasoning, Johnson said, is that the Omicron outbreak "has peaked." Indeed, the numbers show new cases have dropped from an average of 180,000 a day the first week of January to just over 90,000 this week. "This is a moment that we can all be proud of," U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said. 

Considering the actual number of cases, the situation does not look like rainbows and unicorns. Ninety thousand cases a day in the U.K. translates to 1,200 per million per week and is twice as high as the rate of cases the U.K. faced in November when many of the rules Johnson scrapped were in place.

Likely, cases will never return to the pre-Omicron levels. Cases are rising everywhere. On Jan. 9, there were 4 million cases discovered across the globe. Before December 2021, there had never been more than 1 million new cases recorded in a day. Omicron, fortunately, is triggering cases with less severe symptoms than previous outbreaks, and vaccinations protect most people. But Omicron can still wreak havoc due to its unchecked spread and vast numbers.

Many countries around the world, seeing this reality, are plotting their next stages of pandemic policy. But, of course, nowhere can remain locked down forever. It may be nearly impossible to crush Omicron, but that doesn't mean reasonable social distancing rules won't lessen the impact of the virus.

There are gradients of nuance in between lockdown (for everyone but Johnson) and no rules. Wearing a mask to school, for example, doesn't interfere with one's freedom to learn, nor their freedom to drink and party, for that matter. But Johnson has such an aversion to masks that he even refused to wear one when visiting a hospital in November. 

Britain is getting rid of all rules, even obvious, un-burdensome rules, at a time of continuing high numbers of COVID-19 transmission. It's absurd. They aren't yet winning the fight against coronavirus and they haven't yet even staged the comeback.

Javid said Brits should be proud. Getting rid of mask mandates "is a reminder of what this country can accomplish when we all work together." Imagine what they could have accomplished if their Prime Minister was working with them.

Mitchell Blatt is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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