< href="https://www.theguardian.com/focus/2020/apr/11/boris-johnsons-darkest-hour-one-week-that-shook-the-nation">'I owe them my life': how Boris Johnson's illness shook him, and the nation

By this account, Boris issued a statement on Saturday recognising that he owes them his life. Ok, I accept it could be PR, but it could also be a genuine recognition that he would not be alive without the NHS staff. Other people have said that Boris did not really believe in illness: it was just something to be worked through, and having time off because of it suggested a weakness of character. I can certainly imagine that Eton stressed the "Be a Man! Never show weakness" line, and his friends and colleagues seem to be suggesting he had that attitude.

A near-death experience can change a person, and it is quite possible that Boris comes out of this like the wedding guest:

He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man,
He rose the morrow morn.

If so, he could come out with much more understanding of what it means to be ill, that many who claim illness are not malingerers, that NHS really does need the right equipment, that Patel's non-apology about being "sorry for what people feel" is totally inadequate and, in short, "a wiser man."

We can but hope.