UNITED KINGDOM
On 19 December lastyear Boris Johnson told Britons more bad news about Covid-19 that would affect the plans of millions at Christmas. Reading from a script that, a year on, seems depressingly familiar, the prime minister said a new strain of Covid-19 (which would become known as the Alpha variant) was taking hold.
“We know enough already to be sure we must act now,” Johnson said. So grave was the situation that the prime minister had convened an urgent
