Margaret MacMillan Puts COVID-19 in Historical Context

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: But when it comes to trust and leadership, as you know very well, the prime minister of this country, Boris Johnson, was taken ill. He was taken to hospital. He was then taken to the ICU. Now, he is out. But in his video message afterwards he said, thanking the NHS, that it could have gone either way. That’s pretty dire. I mean, he actually said, it could have gone either way. The whole time the government was telling us he was in great spirits. He was interacting, you know, with the nurses and there’s been a pretty big backlash about the way they described his condition. Can you talk about that? But also, compare it to your own great, great grandfather or great grandfather, David Lloyd George, who was prime minister and ill during the Spanish influenza of 1918?

MARGARET MACMILLAN, HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR: Well, in the case of Lloyd George, he was prime minister. He was fighting an election campaign in November, December 1918, and he may or may not have had the Spanish influenza. He was sick and he had to be put into isolation in Birmingham where he was, Birmingham or Manchester, I think. We’re not sure. But I think there were enough government officials and the cabinet was strong enough that government could continue even though he was locked up. Boris Johnson, I think has suffered — well, of course, he suffered through the illness and I think everyone is very relieved he came through. But I think the government will pay a penalty for not being honest at first and I think they are also paying a penalty for not seeming to know what to do when the virus began to hit the U.K. What I think has made a difference in Britain is that people trust things beyond the government. They tend to trust the civil service and above all, they trust the National Health Service. And there’s this extraordinary statistic when the National Health Service asked for volunteers, they were overwhelmed. I think they got something like 750,000 volunteers in the first 24 hours. So, I think it’s not just a question of trusting a particular leader, it’s trusting the institutions and the organizations that surround that leader and trusting your fellow citizens as well.