Boris Johnson’s main scientific advisor during covid: “There was a complete lack of leadership”

2023-11-20 20:56:55

He Scientific advisor head of the British Government during the pandemic, Patrick Vallancehas harshly attacked the top political leaders of the United Kingdom in his appearance this Monday before the covid commission. During more than five hours of testimony, Vallance has reviewed the notes from his personal diary, written during the worst months of the pandemic, in which he recorded the “absolute lack of leadership” of the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the inability of the members of the Government to make decisions that would help stop the escalation of deaths and infections in the country.

The scientist has assured that Johnson had difficulties understanding statistics on many occasions and appeared “bewildered.” “Sometimes it was difficult to ensure that he had understood what a graph or a specific piece of information said,” acknowledged Vallance, who highlighted the poor scientific training of the former prime minister, who graduated in classics at the University of Oxford. “The prime minister wonders if we have exaggerated the lethality of this disease. He oscillates between optimism and pessimism… and remains confused with the different types of tests,” Vallance wrote in his personal notes, presented this Monday before the commission.

Erratic decisions

Los constant swings in decision-making by Johnson and his ministers were for months cause of frustration of the scientific advisors, who have denounced the lack of clear instructions and the enormous influence that the media, some of them openly opposed to confinements, had over the former prime minister. Vallance has also criticized the then Minister of Health, Matt Hancock, whom he has accused of making statements without any knowledge. “He definitely said things with too much conviction and that surprised me, because I knew that They had no scientific basis”.

The former Government advisor has also attacked the current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak (then Minister of Finance), for having a “dogmatic” attitude when defending the reopening of the economy. In one of his personal notes, Vallance collected some statements from Johnson’s then right-hand man, Dominic Cummingsin which he claimed that Sunak thought that “It was okay to let people die.”. The then Minister of Finance promoted the campaign ‘Eat out, help out’which aimed to stimulate the economy of the hospitality sector with financial aid for consumers, something that according to Vallance contributed to the increase in infections in the second half of 2020.

Slow response

The slowness in the response of the ministers had a inevitable impact in the number of infections and deaths in the United Kingdom, explained the scientist, who pointed out that decisions had to have been made “faster, stronger and broader”. In one of the notes consulted this Monday by the commission, Vallance describes the ministers as “tame as mice” and criticizes their misgivings when it comes to supporting the application of new restrictions. Some notes that the former Government advisor has attributed to the “chaotic” situation that was being experienced at that time.

Vallance’s statements are part of the investigation of the independent commission of covid, created in mid-2022 with the aim of clarifying what the preparation level of the country’s medical services in the face of a pandemic of these characteristics, as well as shedding light on the processes that were followed in decision-making and debug responsibilities. Several senior Government officials, including Hancock and Sunak, have already appeared before the president of the commission, Baroness Heather Hallett, who plans to take statements this week from other scientific advisers to the Government. The final conclusions of the research will not be published until 2026.