Looking back at the Boris headlines over the past tumultuous 10 days, one finds a reasonable balance between the grave – “Many more families are going to lose loved ones” – and the hopeful – “12 weeks to turn the tide”. The Prime Minister has shown roughly the right deference to the experts who flank him at press conferences, and asserted with roughly the right emphasis his own role as leader.

Last night, he offered relief to millions on the verge of unemployment, but at the same time reminded us that “thousands of lives could be lost needlessly” if health advice was not followed. Again, a balance.

Although the Government’s reluctance to clamp down on everything all at once worried many, it did have the effect which a free society should always seek – voluntary buy-in. With little intervention by police, army or action of the courts, and little disorder, most people have decided to do what is asked of them.

It is much better if people do the right thing because they want to help than because they are made to do so at the point of a gun. It means they will feel empowered to go on helping. That is happening. The reality – both virtual and actual – is that the British are looking out for one another in this. “It’s on all of us,” as the Chancellor said yesterday. That “it”, of course, includes the enormous, but justified bill.

This public acquiescence is all the more remarkable if – as many allege – the Government got its earlier analysis of the disease wrong. It thought at first that it could manage the peak of the disease by delay, so that “herd immunity” could develop. Last weekend, confronted with the Italian example, it changed its mind, and switched to “suppress”. People noticed all right, but the remarkable thing was how little execration there was.

On Monday evening, Mr Johnson admitted, but played down, his change of strategy by telling the press that the experts had decided the virus had reached “the fast-growth part of the upward curve”. Fiercer measures were therefore needed, he said. Most people seemed to accept his change of tune without serious protest. That suggests that trust is quite high.

When this is all over (which as Boris rightly reminded us, it eventually will be), a study of the sequence of events may show that our Government made culpable errors here. I do not feel I can judge. Nor – more to the point – should people in general waste time doing so at this moment. It will be a matter for historians.

What is true, however, is that from the beginning of this week, the Government has finally “owned” the coronavirus crisis. It has decreed that the moral need to save as many lives as possible overrules our normal attitude to choice and to cost. It has moved from being a key player to putting itself fully in charge. So it cannot duck the responsibilities.

The first of these, of course, is medical. But the second, affecting more people than the first, is economic. If you shut down large parts of the economy, even mostly by nudge rather than by law, you are responsible for the consequences.