he knows that his supporters are a simple folk, who demand an anti-intellectual ideology, so i guess if/once covid-19 is truly out the picture, he'll be back to pandering to mass denial, ignorance, and insanity. in the meantime however, I believe ol' Boris has been successfully scared-straight, and doesn't want to fiddle with covid-related social distancing, containment, medical research, etc.
I used to wish trump would learn the same lesson, in the same manner. but then I remembered he's a psychopath, so that's impossible