**tl;dr: The Eat Out to Help Out scheme demonstrates how Boris Johnson has not prioritised the health of British people, as this scheme put the economy before the protection of the nation from the virus.** In a speech on the 26th of January 2021, Boris Johnson claimed he and his government ‘did everything they could’ to prevent 100,000 deaths from the Covid-19 pandemic. The most striking contradiction of this statement was Johnson’s introduction of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme of August 2020. This scheme introduced 50% off restaurant food as an incentive for people to eat out and boost the economy- in the middle of a global pandemic. If the British Prime minister was truly sincere about doing everything he could to prevent the deaths of thousands, why introduce a highly persuasive scheme for people to go out and spread the virus in a public space as crowded as a restaurant? The reason the prime minister and British Government introduced this scheme was to boost the economy. The scheme saw up to a 200% increase in restaurant visitors and made a £250 Million positive impact on the economy. [1] While this is great for the largely failing economy in 2020, the scheme drove up Covid infection rates up to 17%.[2] While the government claim to have done the best they could to save the lives of thousands, they have very clearly instead prioritised the economy over the health and wellbeing of British people. [1] https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/food-and-drink/eat-out-to-help-out-scheme-money-government-saved-jobs-restaurants-640942 [2]https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/news/30-10-20-eat_out_to_help_out_scheme_drove_new_covid_19_infections_up_by_between_8_and_17_new_research_finds/

**TL;DR Boris Johnson has tried his best to tackle COVID-19 in the UK. Although he has made many errors, we have the ability to look back and critique his actions with newer knowledge about the virus which was not previously known.** It's very easy to look back and use hindsight to argue that Boris Johnson did not do his best to tackle COVID-19. There have certainly been many errors in the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, however I believe that he tried his best to handle a situation that we have not really ever seen before in recent history. The difficulty of handling an entire country's response to a new virus means that mistakes were likely to be made by Johnson no matter how hard he could have tried, as the majority of countries also learned through their mistakes also. For the most part of this pandemic, Johnson has made decisions based off scientific advice/guidance and although many decisions were made too late or were incorrect, that doesn't mean that he has not done his best to tackle the virus. The overall handling of the coronavirus pandemic by Johnson and his UK government has, and continues to have, many errors. Despite this I still believe that Boris Johnson has done his best to attempt to tackle COVID-19. Although his responses to the virus have been weak, I'm not sure whether any other UK politician would have done significantly better when responding to the pandemic in real time, and not in retrospect where we have the luxury to look back and critique.