Covid-19: When lawmakers turned lawbreakers

Close to a year now since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been numerous instances of prominent politicians – including heads of state – flouting coronavirus-related restrictions.

Often, the violators were the faces of stay-at-home public campaigns in their countries, and were eventually caught for flouting their own rules and widely ridiculed.

The latest instance was that of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who last week raised eyebrows by jauntily taking a trip to Scotland to promote the rollout of coronavirus vaccines.

His visit came amid growing calls in Scotland for independence and was seen by critics as a largely political one – aimed at showing the Scottish people the benefits of staying with Britain.

Days before Johnson’s trip, Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon had called the visit “non-essential”.

Incidentally, Johnson himself had contracted the deadly disease last year, having spent several days in the ICU.

The UK PM isn’t the first British politician to face ire for not observing Covid-19 curbs. In May, the prime minister’s most senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, sparked outrage when, days after Johnson told the public to stay at home, he drove 435km to Durham on a personal trip.

Then in early January, Scottish police arrested and charged 60-year-old Scottish National Party MP Margaret Ferrier over “reckless conduct” following an investigation into her alleged breach of restrictions.

Ferrier had travelled to London between September 26 and 29 of last year to attend a House of Commons debate without waiting for the result of her Covid-19 test. After learning that she had tested positive, she travelled home to Rutherglen via Glasgow on public transport and even visited some local businesses.

Her party suspended Ferrier, but she has defied calls to step down.

In Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was forced to apologise publicly after members from his coalition were found to visited night clubs despite government advisory for people to refrain from non-essential outings.

“I’m terribly sorry that this happened,” Suga told parliament. “Each lawmaker should behave to gain the public’s understanding.” No penalties were slapped on the violators, though.

In Canada’s Alberta’s province, where cases are the highest in the country, a politician was compelled to resign after it emerged she had undertaken a trip abroad with her family over Christmas.

Municipal minister Tracy Allard admitted to taking a trip to Hawaii, saying it was part of a “family tradition”. Later, at least eight ministers from Alberta admitted to travelling abroad.

Also in Canada, Ontario’s finance minister Rod Phillips resigned after he took a holiday trip to the Caribbean during a lockdown in his province during December. His trip triggered further outrage when it emerged that his social media activity, including a video that urged people to stay home, was recorded ahead of his departure.

The minister’s move was widely seen and ridiculed as an attempt to mislead the public into thinking he was camped at home, when he was actually holidaying in the Caribbean.

In even more bizarre violations, health ministers and those directly responsible for the country’s response to the pandemic have been caught breaching restrictions.

Among the violations reported in the United States, the most high-profile one came from Deborah Birx, who was part of the White House coronavirus taskforce under former president Donald Trump.

Birx had travelled to her vacation property in Delaware and was accompanied by three generations of her family from two households a day after the Thanksgiving holidays.

Just ahead of the holidays, Birx had warned Americans to “be vigilant” and limit celebrations to “your immediate household”.

In New Zealand, health minister David Clark had to resign after several breaches of local restrictions had been reported.

He was first demoted in April last year after he drove his family 20km from Durnedin to the Doctor’s Point beach during the first weekend of the lockdown.

He resigned soon after in July following at least one more violation of rules when his van was photographed near a mountain trail at least 2km from his home.

While New Zealanders were allowed to exercise outside their homes, there was no clarity on how far they were allowed to travel to exercise.

In October, new Czech health minister Roman Prymula was sidelined and then replaced by Prime Minister Andrej Babis after he was spotted in Prague exiting a restaurant and entering a car without a mask - in clear violation of a mandate he himself had advocated two days back. Prymula only served for 38 days as health minister.

Scottish chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood quit in April last year after a photo of her appeared in a local paper, showing her travelling from Edinburgh to her family home in Fife.

She later admitted to having made another trip to Fife in contravention of government instructions. Public anger eventually forced Calderwood to resign.