the prime minister is to carry on
working from home
after being told to self-isolate by the
nhs
taste and trace system boris johnson
says he was pinged as he put
it because of a meeting he had last week
with the conservative mp lee anderson
who since tested positive
for covert 19. mr johnson said in a
video message that he felt great and was
bursting with antibodies after having
the virus earlier this year
but the order to stay at home for
another 10 days
has come at a crucial time for the prime
minister as he tries to move on from the
sudden departure of two of his
closest advisers and enters an important
week
on brexit negotiations well this was
boris johnson's announcement on twitter
the good news is that nhs test and trace
is working
ever more efficiently the bad news is
that they've pinged me and i've
got to self-isolate because somebody i
was in contact with a few days ago
has developed uh kovid and
it doesn't matter that uh we were all
doing social distancing it doesn't
matter that i'm
fitness butcher's dog feel great so many
people do
in my circumstances and actually it
doesn't matter that i've had the
disease and i'm bursting with antibodies
we've got to interrupt the spread of the
disease and one of the ways we can do
that now
is by self-isolating for 14 days when
you get contacted by nhs
test and trace let's talk to our
political correspondent chris mason
he's outside number 10 for us where
boris johnson of course is
self-isolating chris he sounds very
chirpy
uh how frustrated do you think he really
is though
i suspect he's mighty frustrated as i
guess any of us would be when you get
that
notification that you've got to hold
yourself up
wfh working from home uh so
yeah i guess the human reaction would be
one of
frustration and the political context is
one that will underline that frustration
i think because this was meant to be the
kind of big reset moment before we heard
from downing street
last night that uh the prime minister
would have to self-isolate
we'd been told that there was a big plan
for a kind of energetic
relaunch that's my word rather than
theirs but that was the clear
subtext after all of the turbulence and
vitriol of the last few weeks with those
departed
advisors on friday there was talk that
he'd be out meeting
conservative mps from the north of
england who've been grumbling about a
lack of attention the imminent need for
a brexit deal in the eyes of many with
that deadline just around the corner
a big plan on climate change talk about
meeting the chancellor to talk about
the spending review a real sense of
plastering up on a billboard but like
you might get outside a
kebab shop saying under new management
when they've had a recent visit from
environmental health
none of that though is going to happen
at least physically
instead this is going to be a remote
reset
all that said the health secretary for
england matt hancock said that shouldn't
make too much difference because
we're all getting used to working
remotely
well it doesn't change the amount of
work the prime minister will be able to
do driving forward the
the agenda at all i mean the the wonders
of video conferencing
mean that you can be incredibly
effective
even when self-isolating if you're in
the sort of
job where you where you can do that
where you can
communicate in fact i'd say that the you
know
probably the majority of my meetings
with the prime minister are over
uh video conference of course i see him
as well um
and um and you can be really effective
that way
mr hancock has also been defending the
prime minister
after a photo was dredged out of
facebook that had been put up there by
lee anderson the conservative mp
in question who met the prime minister
on thursday morning and then went on
over the weekend
to test positive the two of them are
stood further apart
than would have been conventional in
2019 but perhaps a little closer
together
than the two meter regulation given that
they were inside and weren't wearing
a face covering downing street insist
that
through that door is a covered secure
working
environment even though for at least the
second time now we know that
the coronavirus has managed to make its
way through that door
and in so doing disrupt the prime
minister's plans
chris good to talk to you christmas
mason there our political correspondent
well danny altman is professor of
immunology at
imperial college london and he joins us
now
picking up on what chris was saying
there we know that
boris johnson has to self-isolate
because he's come into contact with
someone who's tested positive
those are the rules aren't they are they
good rules
i think they're very good rules and i
was pleased to hear him taking it
seriously
as in test trace and isolate means what
it says it's there for a reason
even if you've had the infection or
think you've had the infection or think
you have antibodies on board you know we
can't be blasphemy about this
um if he was social distancing
properly would it be possible
to pick up the virus
or terribly hard for me to say isn't it
but um you know this is a
movable feast where we're trying to
assess the risks all the time
and you know i take quite a conservative
view that this is a very
infectious virus a very dangerous virus
and if i'm
in an enclosed space i want to be in a
really well ventilated space
wearing a mask probably at more than two
meters
boris johnson we know had covered in
april
how likely do we know is he still to
have antibodies
i suppose i'm asking you what do we know
about how people can be
reinfected yeah i think it's a really
good question so
um obviously there's been lots and lots
of work on measuring people's antibody
levels
and trying to work out what this means
and who's protected and how long for
and the simple answer is that people are
very variable that antibodies
do wane and there's a significant
minority of people perhaps 10
plus who at three or four months have
virtually no protection on board
and around the world we are seeing some
cases of reinfection
can you pass on covid19 even if you
don't have symptoms
absolutely and i i think that's one of
the reasons that this has been so
devastating
compared to for example sars or mers you
know the last coronaviruses
that you just can't see where it's
coming from you know you can't you can't
spot it
because it's it's spreading before you
know you have it
we know that other people were in that
meeting room someone must have taken
that picture mustn't they of the prime
minister and the conservative mp he was
meeting
will they all need to self-isolate as
well
well you know i don't know any of the
details and it's certainly not for me to
be the
the policeman or pronounce but one of
one would assume so yes
my question is if you've all been in a
room together
then you're all going to get pinged as
boris johnson would say you would have
thought so
yeah yes yes one would have thought so
yes yeah um okay
uh danny altman from imperial college
really good to have your thoughts thanks
for joining us on bbc news