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indy100
indy100
Politics
Kate Plummer

This 10 second clip from Boris Johnson’s latest Covid briefing might be the most awkward thing you see today

Boris Johnson faces scrutiny over his coronavirus response (Jack Hill/PA)

(Picture: PA Wire)

Boris Johnson is well-known for stumbling other his words and ‘umming’ and ‘ahhing’ his way through speeches and safe to say it is not the most useful trait to possess when trying to deliver vital Covid briefings to the public.

So a clip of him saying nothing at all and making weird noises for ten seconds during his briefing yesterday comes across as pretty cringe.

He says: “Er you’ve got to make sure, er, that, er, you, um, for instance, er, do not, um, er...”

It is not clear what he was trying to say in that particular clip but more broadly when Johnson did get his words out, he announced that he was not putting in place further restrictions to deal with the spread of Omicron.

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Instead, Britain will “ride out” the wave though he acknowledged doing so will be difficult for the NHS as cases topped 200,000 for the first time.

He said high vaccination rates and public compliance with existing restrictions gave England a chance to “find a way to live with this virus” without shutting down social and economic life and said we will be sticking with plan B restrictions.

Chief medical officer Chris Whitty added that deaths and hospitalisations have not reached the same level as in previous waves.

So we just need to er... boosted.... now and er, ride out, the, um, virus?

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