Boris Johnson's popularity has increased by 30% during coronavirus lockdown, survey shows

Quite a few strange things happen can happen to the brain when humans are thrust into unprecedented situations which upend our lives.

People are shaving their heads, baking banana bread like it's the end of days and actually talking to their neighbours. Clearly we're all having a moment.

But perhaps the most unexpected way in which it's affected British people is by making them suddenly stan the prime minister, who has by almost any measure completely botched our response to the coronavirus epidemic.

According to a survey conducted by Morning Consult, Boris Johnson has fared the best out of all the world leaders included when it comes to public approval post-lockdown.

The survey questioned hundreds of people per day to see how perceptions of their countries' leaders have changed throughout the crisis.

Other world leaders included in the survey were: Emmanuel Macron (France), Angela Merkel (Germany), Shinzo Abe (Japan), Donald Trump (do we really need to clarify this one?), Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico), Scott Morrison (Australia), Justin Trudeau (Canada) and Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil).

In times of trouble it seems even the least expected politicians are getting more popular. Morrison for instance has seen a sharp uptick despite Australia seeming to run out of toilet paper, like, every other day, while Trump has bafflingly also seen his support rise even though the US has now overtaken China as the country in the world with the most cases of coronavirus and related deaths, and the president's response has been all over the place.

But the biggest increase in support over the past week has been for British prime minister Boris Johnson, whose net approval rating has risen by nearly 30 points in a matter of days.

Ironically, Johnson is also the only world leader to be diagnosed with Covid-19, and he has been sharply criticised on a number of fronts, including being slow to enforce social distancing measures, a lack of testing across the country and his own seeming inability to stick to his own government's guidance to limit the spread of the virus.

It's hard to imagine how any of this has led to Boris Johnson's popularity becoming the winner of the coronavirus epidemic.

Perhaps now that no one can leave the country some kind of Stockholm's syndrome is kicking in...