The U.K.’s 72-year-old National Health Service is as close as many in the now largely secular British political class get to a religion.
And Boris Johnson has more to lose than most prime ministers if he allows the revered national institution to collapse on his watch.
The prime minister locked down England for a third time Monday as coronavirus infections pushed hospitals to the breaking point and the death toll rose above 75,000. Failure to act, his top medical officials warned, would put the NHS in danger of being overwhelmed within the next three weeks.