Boris Johnson Coronavirus Diagnosis

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Overview

Boris Johnson Coronavirus Diagnosis refers to the confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. After his diagnosis was confirmed in March of 2020, his condition worsened and he was taken to a hospital. On April 6th, he was moved to an intensive care unit.

Background

On March 27th, 2020, Boris Johnson confirmed he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in a video posted to his Twitter account.^[1] He planned to continue working in isolation during the illness.

Over the last 24 hours I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus.I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government’s response via video-conference as we fight this virus.Together we will beat this. #StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/9Te6aFP0Ri
— Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) March 27, 2020

Developments

On April 5th, 2020 Johnson was hospitalized for COVID-19, which his office insisted was a precautionary measure.^[2] On April 6th, Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit.^[3] A spokesperson said, "Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the Prime Minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital."

The news was largely met with schadenfreude from his critics online. Twitter user @KenKlippenstein^[5] tweeted, "Boris Johnson called for a batshit plan that sought to let people get sick and could've killed millions; he bragged about coronavirus not stopping him from shaking people's hands. If you can't understand why some people are gonna find this funny, I don't know what to tell you," gaining over 920 retweets and 4,300 likes (shown below, left). User @charles_kinbote^[6] wrote, "Boris Johnson's strategy up until like 3 weeks ago was to kill a lot of people and hope for the best so it's actually an international imperative to get these jokes off."

A /pol/^[4] thread about the news started with the post "Press S to spit on grave." Threads with jokes about the news appeared in /r/ChapoTrapHouse^[7] and /r/ShitPoliticsSays.^[8]

Others wished the Prime Minister well. His former political opponent Jeremy Corbyn wished him well in a tweet that gained over 1,300 retweets and 10,000 likes^[9] (shown below, left). Others said jokes about his illness were in poor taste. Piers Morgan^[10] wrote that the jokers were in poor taste and wished the prime minister well.