Status: 23.05.2021 4:02 p.m.
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Former Chief Advisor to Premier Johnson Cummings accuses the government of using herd immunity and lying about the strategy. Several lockdowns could also have been avoided.
British ex-government advisor Dominic Cummings accuses Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government of lying about its original strategy to fight the pandemic.
Cummings: Herd immunity was the goal
In reality, at the beginning of 2020, the government initially planned to treat the coronavirus like the flu and to achieve herd immunity by spreading through the population by September of the year, he said in a series of tweets.
It was only after the government had been made clear from several quarters that this plan would lead to disaster that this strategy was changed.
Cummings accused Health Secretary Matt Hancock of lying to the public about it. Hancock told “nonsense” with his denials.
Cummings questions lockdowns
Cummings went on to say that with “the right preparation and competent people in charge” the government could probably have avoided the initial lockdown. Certainly there would have been “no need” for the two later lockdowns.
The government denied the allegations. When asked if herd immunity was the original plan, Home Secretary Priti Patel told the BBC: “Absolutely not.”
The current head of the health protection agency and then vice chief advisor to the government on medical issues, Jenny Harries, also said: “I can categorically say that I have not been to any government meeting where herd immunity was proposed as a control mechanism at the time of the pandemic . ”
Cummings left his Downing Street post in December after a bitter argument among his closest advisors and has made a number of allegations against Johnson in the past few weeks.
Hearing before the Corona Committee
Cummings attacks give a taste of his hearing next Wednesday before a parliamentary committee examining the government’s response to the pandemic.
Cummings had previously expressed his willingness to provide the committee with detailed information on the Prime Minister’s alleged misconduct.
He will be available to answer questions from MPs “for as long as they want”. He also recently threatened to reveal secret documents at the hearing.
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