{"id":115316,"date":"2021-05-28T05:15:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T05:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=115316"},"modified":"2021-05-28T05:15:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T05:15:43","slug":"uks-johnson-dismissed-covid-19-as-a-scare-story-ex-chief-adviser-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/uks-johnson-dismissed-covid-19-as-a-scare-story-ex-chief-adviser-says\/","title":{"rendered":"UK's Johnson dismissed COVID-19 as a 'scare story', ex-chief adviser says"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (Reuters) -Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the British state failed to appreciate the deadly threat from the novel coronavirus as it raced across the world in early 2020 and were disastrously slow to impose a lockdown, his former adviser said on Wednesday.<\/p>

Dominic Cummings, former special advisor for Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, arrives at the Portcullis House, in London, Britain, May 26, 2021. REUTERS\/Henry Nicholls<\/figcaption>

With almost 128,000 deaths, the United Kingdom has the world\u2019s fifth worst official COVID-19 toll. Reuters has reported how Britain was slow to spot the infections arriving, it was late with a lockdown and it continued to discharge infected elderly hospital patients into care homes.<\/p>\n

In a blistering attack on the British state, Dominic Cummings told lawmakers that Johnson in early 2020 thought COVID-19 a \u201cscare story\u201d while many ministers, including the prime minister, were on holiday in February 2020, some skiing.<\/p>\n

Cummings cast the administrative system as woefully disorganised, dominated by \u201cgroupthink\u201d and run by ministers such as Health Secretary Matt Hancock who, he said, should be sacked for lying to the public and the government.<\/p>\n

The health ministry declined to immediately comment on Cummings\u2019 accusation.<\/p>\n

Such was Johnson\u2019s scepticism about COVID-19, he even told officials he was considering getting the government\u2019s chief medical advisor to inject him with the novel coronavirus to reassure the public, Cummings said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister regarded this as just a scare story,\u201d Cummings said, adding the view of officials was Johnson\u2019s attitude was \u201cdon\u2019t worry about it and I\u2019m going to get Chris Whitty to inject me live on TV with coronavirus\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the public needed us most, the government failed,\u201d Cummings told lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Cummings, the strategist behind the 2016 Brexit campaign and Johnson\u2019s landslide election win in 2019, left Downing Street, carrying his personal belongings in a box, in late 2020 after falling out with Johnson.<\/p>\n

Related Coverage<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

His evidence before lawmakers gave an alarming insight into the heart of the British government as it grappled with the onset of what would become the most tumultuous public health crisis in decades.<\/p>\n

Johnson rejected the criticism from his former adviser, saying he did not accept Cummings\u2019 accusation that government inaction led to unnecessary deaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody could credibly accuse this government of being complacent about the threat that this virus posed, at any point. We have worked flat out to minimise loss of life,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

So far, Cummings\u2019 accusations have failed to harm Johnson\u2019s government, which has seen its popularity rise due to the rapid roll out of COVID-19 vaccines to the public.<\/p>\n

The committee of lawmakers hearing Cummings\u2019 testimony has little power to sanction ministers, but their report will feed into full public enquiry into Britain\u2019s response to COVID-19 due to begin in 2022.<\/p>\n

COVID \u2018DISASTER\u2019<\/p>\n

The West, Cummings said, failed during the COVID crisis and British officials were resistant to accepting that they should follow the example of Asian powers in locking down the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is that senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me, fell disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this,\u201d Cummings said.<\/p>

Slideshow ( 4 images )<\/span><\/figcaption>

He related meetings in early 2020 when it started to dawn on some officials that Johnson\u2019s resistance to a lockdown was a deadly mistake. Cummings said there was no COVID plan and certainly no plan for a lockdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come through here to the Prime Minister\u2019s Office to tell you, quote, I think we are absolutely fucked. I think this country is headed for disaster. I think we\u2019re going to kill 1000s of people,\u201d Cummings quoted Helen MacNamara, deputy cabinet secretary, as saying.<\/p>\n

Bank of England and finance ministry officials worried early on that the bond markets could turn against Britain because of the huge sums that would need to be borrowed, he said.<\/p>\n

Cummings, played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the film \u201cBrexit: The Uncivil War\u201d, said he was sorry for being too slow to hit the emergency button.<\/p>\n

\u201cI failed and I apologise,\u201d he said, adding that at one point, he pointed to images of Italy on the television in an attempt to convince Johnson that a lockdown was essential.<\/p>\n

Cummings said he had told Johnson on March 14, 2020, that the United Kingdom would have to go into lockdown but that there was no plan for a lockdown and there was a fundamental failure to appreciate how swiftly the virus was spreading.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said in March 2020 that 20,000 deaths would be a good outcome. Soon after, a worst-case scenario prepared by government scientific advisers put the possible death toll at 50,000. The toll is now close to 127,739.<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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