Boris Johnson said that the coronavirus was “nature’s way of dealing with old people” while refusing to implement lockdown limits that could have saved lives.
The Covid Inquiry heard how he neglected to adequately prepare for the pandemic because he did not consider it a “big deal.” On a day of stunning revelations, his chief spin doctor conceded he was the “wrong” PM to handle the issue.
Dominic Cummings also stated that the initial lockdown may have been prevented if the government had moved faster when Covid began to spread throughout China.
Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance’s diary entries also revealed Mr Johnson’s private attitude towards the pandemic.
The senior scientist lamented “quite bonkers” meetings with the then-prime minister, who he claimed was “obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going.”
Sir Patrick recorded Mr Johnson telling him in December 2020 that Conservative MPs think “the whole thing is pathetic and Covid is just nature’s way of dealing with old people,” before adding, “I am not entirely sure I disagree with them.”
Newly-released WhatsApp messages also showed that Mr Johnson in October 2020 wrote: “Hardly anyone under 60 goes into hospital (4 per cent) and of those virtually all survive. And I no longer buy all this NHS overwhelmed stuff.”
Mr Cummings and former No. 10 communications director Lee Cain both testified to the panel about how Mr Johnson dithers over critical choices and constantly changes his mind.
Mr Cummings cautioned the then-PM in a harsh WhatsApp message a fortnight before the first lockdown: “The overwhelming danger here is being late and the NHS implodes like a zombie apocalypse film – not being a week early.”
Top scientist’s explosive Covid diary
Notes written by Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
August 26, 2020
PM WhatsApp group kicks off because PM has read in FT that IFR [infection-fatality ratio] is 0.04%. Age-related IFR explained and that overall looks more like 0.4 to 1%. He is obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going. Quite a bonkers set of exchanges.
December 14, 2020
Sir Patrick Vallance: PM pre-meet/Dashboard […] Numbers are going up & up […] PM told he has been acting early and the public are with him (but his party are not). He says his party ‘thinks the whole thing is pathetic and Covid is just Nature’s way of dealing with old people – and I am not entirely sure I disagree with them. A lot of moderate people think it is a bit too much.’
December 15, 2020
Cabinet… agreed that things need to be scaled back. Christmas must be smaller, shorter & local… Chief whip says ‘I think we should let the old people get it and protect others’. PM says ‘a lot of my backbenchers think that & I must say I agree with them’.