Tonight, the coronavirus epidemic in the United Kingdom became very real. The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson - one of the best known figures in the land - is now stricken with Covid-19.
And everyone knows Boris - or at least feels they do: it's one of the secrets of success of this highly able political communicator that people think they kind of know him, and use his first name, almost as if they do.
So the fact that he is now in intensive care - by definition, seriously ill - will have hit home to a lot of people how serious this disease is, and how it is blind to rank, wealth or position.
Boris Johnson was moved into an intensive care unit at 7pm this evening after his condition deteriorated. That was 23 hours after he first arrived at St