Right wing politics are bad for your health. That's one of the lessons we have learned from Covid-19.
Hand-washing and face masks are important, but those precautions can be undermined by that most infectious of diseases: the belief that political ideology comes before the common good.
In place of scientific evidence, it offers a virus-like mutation from denial, through dishonesty to delusion. Parties which have exhibited it include British Conservatives, US Republicans and, to a much lesser extent, the DUP.
When the virus arrived in Britain, Boris Johnson failed to act because he believes government should have a limited role in society. Forty five thousand deaths later, his three-stage response to journalists was straight from the TV series, Yes Minister: there was no government failure (denial), your question is based on an untruth (dishonesty); the point you are making is treasonous (delusion).
He claimed that government stuck "like glue" to scientific advice (including Dominic Cummings?) Now Johnson says he wants to speed up his agenda to "double down on levelling up".
He may be suffering a linguistic hangover from his old school, where they play the Eton Wall Game. It is a sort of rugby, in which neither team may "furk" the ball in a "Bully", except in a "Caix Bully". (That is the language of Eton College, which has "educated" 19 British prime ministers.)
Treating his citizens like soldiers going to the First World War, Johnson recently claimed that it will all be over by Christmas. He is now entrenched in permanent delusion.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, does denial, dishonesty and delusion most days before breakfast. (Trump is an advanced form of Johnson, unburdened by an Etonian education.)
Trump's right wing presidency began with a promise to exclude foreigners. Now other countries are excluding Americans. His inability to understand anything beyond his own self-love leaves him divorced from reality, imprisoned in a self-created political Disneyland.
Responsibility for over 1,000 US deaths every day lies firmly with the president, because of what the New York Times has called his rush to abandon his leadership role on the virus. Trump is president for himself, not his people.
The DUP are different. They began with delusion and worked backwards. Their delusion is that the north is part of the same land mass as the rest of the UK. While they have a credible record in government on tackling the virus, they refuse to recognise that the only way to defend against a second wave is to create fortress Ireland. That would mean an all-island policy of testing everyone who arrives at every seaport or airport.
But the DUP opposes testing for travellers from Britain, because it threatens the concept of a united kingdom. However, individual UK states, and some English cities, already have a variety of different anti-virus measures.
The north has an open land border with another state, which makes all-island Covid-related health regulations essential. (Testing those crossing the border would mean testing some families moving from the kitchen to the bedroom in their own homes.)
But the Dublin government also needs to act. People returning from Spain to Belfast must quarantine for 14 days. Those arriving from Spain to Dublin can simply drive to Belfast unchecked. Without all-island monitoring of all incoming travellers, we are inviting a second coronavirus wave.
Oddly, science may rescue Trump, Johnson and the DUP from the consequences of their political beliefs. If scientists develop a vaccine soon (the Oxford study looks promising) all three will gain both forgiveness and political support for being in office at the right time.
A vaccine might even resurrect Trump's career. His opponent, Joe Biden, is not exactly an inspiring candidate. The Sun newspaper will claim that it was "Boris wot won it" and the DUP will say it defended the integrity of the United Kingdom ("What integrity?" you ask.)
But, sadly, a vaccine will just allow them to continue to put politics before people. As the coronavirus has shown, it's what right wing parties do.
