{"id":126611,"date":"2021-05-28T03:24:47","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T03:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=126611"},"modified":"2021-05-28T03:24:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T03:24:47","slug":"factbox-mistakes-secrecy-and-no-preparation-ex-adviser-criticises-pm-johnson-over-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/factbox-mistakes-secrecy-and-no-preparation-ex-adviser-criticises-pm-johnson-over-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Factbox-Mistakes, secrecy and no preparation: Ex-adviser criticises PM Johnson over COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (Reuters) -Dominic Cummings, Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s former top adviser, accused government on Wednesday of failing the British public in its early response to the coronavirus pandemic, apologising to the families of those \u201cwho died unnecessarily\u201d.<\/p>

FILE PHOTO: Former special advisor to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, looks on outside of his house, in London, Britain, May 4, 2021. REUTERS\/Toby Melville<\/figcaption>

After leaving Johnson\u2019s team late last year, Cummings has become one of his former boss\u2019s most vocal critics over how the prime minister led his team in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, describing it as \u201cdisastrous\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cummings, who was part of Johnson\u2019s senior team during that period, accused the government of moving too slowly to try to tackle the spread of COVID-19 and health officials of making ill-judged conclusions about the nature of the virus.<\/p>\n

The government has repeatedly denied many of his accusations that he has tweeted since leaving, with Johnson\u2019s spokesman saying this week that \u201cat all times we have been guided by the data and the latest evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following are the main charges Cummings made against Johnson\u2019s government to a parliamentary committee.<\/p>\n

GOVERNMENT FAILURE<\/h2>\n

Cummings accused Johnson\u2019s government of failing the public by reacting too slowly to the spread of the novel coronavirus, leading to unnecessary deaths.<\/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<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019d like to say to all the families of those who died, unnecessarily, how sorry I am for the mistakes that were made and for my own mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNPREPARED<\/h2>\n

\u201cNumber 10 was not operating on a war footing in February on (COVID) in any way shape or form. Lots of key people were literally skiing in the middle of February.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until the last week of February that there was really any sort of sense of urgency I would say … in terms of Number 10 and cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n

LATE TO LOCKDOWN<\/h2>\n

Cummings said Johnson was told on March 14, 2020, he needed to implement a lockdown, but the government did not have a plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the 14th we said to the prime minister: \u2018you are going to have to lockdown\u2019 – but there is no lockdown plan, it doesn\u2019t exist,\u201d Cummings said.<\/p>\n

He quoted Helen MacNamara, former deputy cabinet secretary, as saying \u201cwe are absolutely fucked … I think we\u2019re going to kill thousands of people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Johnson announced a lockdown on March 23.<\/p>\n

DOWNPLAYING THE NEW \u201cSWINE FLU\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings accused Johnson of playing down the threat of the pandemic, saying the prime minister regarded it as just another scare story and that the prime minister offered to be injected with COVID-19 live on television.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe basic thought was that in February the prime minister regarded this as just a scare story … he described it as the new swine flu,\u201d Cummings said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe view of various officials inside number 10 was if we have the prime minister chairing COBR (civil contingencies committee) meetings and he just tells everyone it\u2019s swine flu, don\u2019t worry about it, and I\u2019m going to get (Britain\u2019s Chief Medical Officer) Chris Whitty to inject me live on TV with coronavirus … that would … not help.\u201d<\/p>\n

HERD IMMUNITY<\/h2>\n

Cummings accused the health ministry of believing that so-called herd immunity was inevitable because if the government moved to try to suppress the spread of the coronavirus during the summer of last year, it would only rear its head again in the winter putting the health service under strain.<\/p>\n

So, in March last year the government was aiming to establish \u201cherd immunity\u201d, where the virus spreads through the population to increase overall resistance, by September, he said, adding no one thought it was a \u201cgood thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also said the cabinet secretary called on the prime minister to go on television and explain herd immunity by describing it \u201clike the old chicken pox parties\u201d.<\/p>\n

The government has repeatedly said that \u201cherd immunity has never been a policy aim or part of our coronavirus strategy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCRACKERS\u201d THAT JOHNSON IS PM<\/p>\n

Talking about Britain\u2019s political situation, Cummings said there were thousands of people who could offer better leadership than the two men who vied to run the country in a 2019 election – Johnson and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely crackers that someone like me should have been there, just the same as it\u2019s crackers that Boris Johnson was in there,\u201d he told a parliamentary committee.<\/p>\n

SECRECY<\/h2>\n

Cummings described the secrecy surrounding decisions made by a grouping of top scientific advisers to the government as a \u201ccatastrophic mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s absolutely no doubt at all that the process by which (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) SAGE (took decisions) was secret, and overall the whole thinking around the strategy was secret, was an absolutely catastrophic mistake because it meant there wasn\u2019t proper scrutiny,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the process of deciding how to tackle the spread of coronavirus in the early days was \u201cclosed\u201d, describing it as a \u201cgroup think bubble\u201d that struggled to change course.<\/p>\n

HEALTH MINISTER \u201cLIES\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings said health minister Matt Hancock should have been fired for \u201clying\u201d in government meetings on COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the Secretary of State for Health (Hancock), should have been fired for at least 15, 20 things including lying to everybody in multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the cabinet room and publicly,\u201d Cummings told a parliamentary committee.<\/p>\n

He listed two occasions when he believed Hancock had lied, including when the health minister told Johnson and Cummings that the situation with PPE (personal protective equipment) was fine when, Cummings said, the government did not have enough.<\/p>\n

The health ministry gave no immediate comment to the charge.<\/p>\n

BOND MARKET FEARS<\/h2>\n

Cummings said the British government and Bank of England worried that bond markets could turn against them in early 2020 due to the sums being borrowed to finance the pandemic response.<\/p>\n

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

LONDON (Reuters) -Dominic Cummings, Prime Minister Boris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23054],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nFactbox-Mistakes, secrecy and no preparation: Ex-adviser criticises PM Johnson over COVID - Pre Coin News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/factbox-mistakes-secrecy-and-no-preparation-ex-adviser-criticises-pm-johnson-over-covid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Factbox-Mistakes, secrecy and no preparation: Ex-adviser criticises PM Johnson over COVID - Pre Coin News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LONDON (Reuters) -Dominic Cummings, Prime Minister Boris\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/factbox-mistakes-secrecy-and-no-preparation-ex-adviser-criticises-pm-johnson-over-covid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pre Coin News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-28T03:24:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Factbox-Mistakes-secrecy-and-no-preparation-Ex-adviser-criticises-PM-Johnson-over-COVID.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/factbox-mistakes-secrecy-and-no-preparation-ex-adviser-criticises-pm-johnson-over-covid\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/factbox-mistakes-secrecy-and-no-preparation-ex-adviser-criticises-pm-johnson-over-covid\/\",\"name\":\"Factbox-Mistakes, secrecy and no preparation: Ex-adviser criticises PM Johnson over COVID - 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