Boris Johnson's Christmas COVID-19 gamble may be paying off

For much of the last couple of months, it seemed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson couldn't make anyone happy with his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A sizable part of his Conservative backbench — more than 100 MPs — voted against him in December, furious that Johnson and his cabinet introduced requirements just before Christmas for COVID-19 passes for large events, as well as mask mandates for other venues that they felt were harsh and unnecessary.  

At the same time, Johnson resisted immense pressure from forces outside his party to go even further. 

With Omicron cases soaring and threatening to overwhelm hospitals, he made England an outlier among other parts of the United Kingdom — and most of Europe — by refusing to impose stay at home orders or limit private social gatherings over the holiday period. 

People would simply have to "act responsibly," said Johnson, triggering an outcry from public health experts who warned of the dire consequences of putting politics before science.

In the midst of attempting to walk the tightrope, he also had to deal with a damaging scandal over a previous COVID-19 lockdown last year, when many of his own staffers were found to have enjoyed a Christmas party at 10 Downing Street while the rest of the country was told they had to hunker down.

The voters of Shropshire in central England, among many other Britons, were not impressed. On Dec. 17, they delivered their verdict on Johnson's performance, rejecting the Conservative candidate in a byelection for a seat the Tories had held for almost 200 years. 

It all added up to a significant nightmare before Christmas for the British leader.

Even usually friendly conservative voices in the British media began openly wondering if his charm and the Teflon political coating that had helped Johnson avoid so many political messes over the years might have finally deserted him.

But Britain's first COVID-19 update of the new year delivered on Tuesday may have provided some qualified good news for Johnson.

Chief Medical Health Officer Chris Whitty suggested Omicron cases in London, especially among younger people, may be levelling off.   

Crucially, Whitty also said, the U.K. is not seeing a surge in COVID-19 mortality despite more than 200,000 new cases every day.   

Moreover, serious hospital cases requiring intensive care have largely remained flat.

"We have a chance to ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country again," said Johnson, alongside Whitty, at a news conference Tuesday.