Boris Johnson told scientists he was in favour of a Swedish-style approach to the pandemic, rather than more lockdowns, in Autumn 2020, Professor Sunetra Gupta has said in her written evidence to the Covid Inquiry. The Telegraph has more.
Professor Gupta took part in a “round table” with Mr. Johnson, Rishi Sunak and several other scientists in September 2020 as the Government debated how to tackle Covid. At the time, restrictions had been eased.
Mr. Johnson had been keen to seek a range of views during the meeting on Zoom titled: “Should the Government intervene now and if so how?” and he asked Professor Gupta and Professor Carl Heneghan, both prominent critics of lockdown, for advice as well as Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist.
Unlike the rest of the world, Sweden took a different approach to the pandemic, only introducing social distancing, limited travel restrictions and bans on mass gatherings.
While Mr. Johnson later introduced the tiered system of local restrictions and the country endured two further lockdowns, Professor Gupta said that other than one scientist, Professor John Edmunds, everyone else in the meeting agreed about the benefits of the Swedish approach. Her comments are the first time a scientist in the meeting has publicly spoken about Mr Johnson’s support for the Swedish model.
Professor Gupta, a theoretical epidemiologist at Oxford’s Department of Biology, advocated a “focused protection” approach to protect the vulnerable, which she said was “the only humanitarian route out of the crisis” .
In her witness statement, seen by the Telegraph and submitted to the Inquiry, she said that Dame Angela McLean, now the Government’s chief scientific Adviser, who the Inquiry has heard mocked lockdown critics, was also in favour of a Swedish-style approach.
“Anders Tegnell gave a general outline of the ‘Swedish’ strategy, which corresponded to the opinions he had already expressed on multiple occasions in the press; Angela McLean expressed the opinion that we should be doing whatever Tegnell was doing,” her statement says.
“As the ‘Swedish’ strategy is effectively synonymous with focused protection of the vulnerable, it could be said that other than John Edmunds, all invitees were broadly in favour of proposals outlined by Tegnell. Boris Johnson interrogated each of us on our position, but there was no opportunity for a panel discussion.”
Mr. Johnson was later reported to have said in September 2020 that he would rather let coronavirus “rip” than introduce a second lockdown because of the economic impact. However, a second lockdown was introduced in November 2020 and a third in January 2021.
The disclosure comes as the inquiry prepares for a crucial week with Lee Cain, the former Director of Communications at Number 10 and Dominic Cummings, the former Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister, set to give evidence.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Nicola Sturgeon, along with 100 senior members of the Scottish Government, has deleted all her WhatsApp messages relating to Scotland’s pandemic response and won’t, therefore, be able to submit them to either the Scottish or the U.K. Covid inquiry. The Daily Record has more.
That’s not good news for Sturgeon, who’s already under investigation by Police Scotland in connection with the SNP’s finances. As Andrew Neil points out on X:
ON Aug 24 2021 then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was asked:
“Can you guarantee to the bereaved families that you will disclose emails, WhatsApps, private emails if you’ve been using them. Whatever. That nothing will be off limits in this inquiry?”
She replied: “I think if you understand statutory public inquiries you would know that even if I wasn’t prepared to give that assurance, which, for the avoidance of doubt, I am, then I wouldn’t have the ability. This will be a judge-led public inquiry.”
Stop Press 2: Humza Yousef has retained all his WhatsApp messages and will hand them over, thereby increasing the pressure on his predecessor. The Telegraph has more.
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So what changed?
What changed was that they were now in government. They now could not call renewable energy the “green crap” and the covid lockdowns nonsense, because they were having to be subservient to the world government people at the UN and WEF calling the shots, and we see what happens if politicians don’t do that. They end up going the way of Liz Truss.
What nonsense. He made no public statements of the kind. He was full on supporting the Rona fascism with his heavy heart sermons in the Church of the BBC every night at 6 pm. No evidence exists that any of these corrupt totalitarians were against their own policies, their own emergency powers, their own fascist stabbinations and LDs.
Doris is just another criminal. How much money did these criminals in Pharma-ment make from the Scamdemic? Maybe the fat dame Hallett, that great lump and expert on ‘health’, can ask the question. Oh wait, she would have to incriminate herself, so that won’t happen.
Why the resuscitation of Doris, GB News etc and now this ‘leak’? He should be in prison.
I guess Doris is easily led & may be useful to form an attack on his previous colleagues before the GE.
Or maybe he is planning to leave Nut nut & needs the cash?
I think it’s pretty obvious that he’s been recruited by GB News in prep for the General Election and, more importantly, the Not-a-Conservative-Party’s impending Civil War, which will kick off straight afterwards.
It’s about the future direction of the Not-a-Conservative-Party. It’ll be interesting to see how the Oaf backtracks from his Eco Lunacy.
It will be very interesting as his family have their spending money & profile from his Eco Lunacy.
I agree also I think they are using him as a shield for the offcom witch hunt. They would have been better off fighting it loudly with Farage as their defender, all GB news has done is alienate its audience, and they will possibly lose people like Neil Oliver. Mr Oliver gave a wonderful monologue last week where he talked about the Boris Johnson lack of culpability, clearly the gloves are off, I hope Mr Oliver gets to question Johnson on air.
I also think based on his historic lazy behaviours that Johnson will not last long as he simply will not put the work in required, or will just fail to turn up.
GB News owners should take note of the old saying. When you sup with the Devil you need a long spoon.
Why does the name ‘Hallet’ always make me think of a fish?
i remember reading in the daily mail back in march or april 2020 maybe? that boris johnson said britain would be going for herd immunity and i excitedly told friends and
family. they were not at all excited and turned out to be the ones who treated me like a leper for years , still no apology either .
is too bad he gave in or caved in after his first excellent decision .
Clearly, Politicians where not ‘following the science’ as this evidence shows. They were following whatever the commie-led behavioural science unit and the MSM were demanding at the time.
Is it possible that he would say one thing to one group of people and something quite different to another group of people.
I mean, politicians blowing with the wind isn’t exactly unheard of is it.
In the end he went for lockdowns so, we can assume that’s what he really favoured.
That might well be true (and I tend to trust Sunetra’s view on this). Unfortunately, he tends to behave like a sailing ship with the wind behind him. I can remember what the political output was like in early 2020, before he spent a few days in hosp on account of his infection. I can remember that one of the workers at that place “accidentally” broadcast his body mass index, in effect. If he had a healthy weight etc, his attitude could well have been different, if he was less vulnerable to start with; who knows. But then he did what he was told and went ahead with the bollocks.
He might do alright as a presenter on the telly, but he’s not a real leader, and the cabal was, and is, a more sophisticated group.
Yes, I also don’t recall any ‘social distancing’. There may however have been an ‘encouragement’ rather than a requirement. Likely that the DT article is inaccurate in this respect.
Sorry – that was intended to be a reply to transmission of flame.
I certainly saw no evidence of anyone worrying about social distancing in Stockholm, though my maskless hairdresser, who shook my hand, did tell me a lot of people were working from home – and it was quiet (no tourists to speak of either).
“Unlike the rest of the world, Sweden took a different approach to the pandemic, only introducing social distancing, limited travel restrictions and bans on mass gatherings.”
A number of things wrong with this sentence.
1) There was no pandemic. We need papers like the Telegraph to take this on board. They won’t.
2) At least South Dakota in the US had no lockdown, and Florida followed soon after, Tanzania I think, Belarus.
3) I don’t recall Sweden having any travel restrictions or “social distancing” (when I was there in autumn 2020 people kept shaking hands with me, hugging me, brushing past me in shops and on the street). Public gatherings were max 50 people. Don’t think they ever had restrictions on what people could do in their own homes.
We’ve been led by children to the cliff edge. Smaller children applaud as the bigger children whistle and wave their flags. Will a real leader please step forward.
In that case (if we can believe it) every day Johnson stood at the podium flanked by Whitty and Vallance he was LYING to the British people.
So – he’s either a coward for refusing to implement lockdowns / restrictions …… or a liar for implementing them and telling us they were essential to “save granny.”
Either way, he’s not fit to be PM. And that’s before we get onto his Net Zero lunacy.
He disgusts me.
“which she said was “the only humanitarian route out of the crisis” .”
I love you, Sunetra, but what crisis? There certainly was no crisis of the pandemic variety, if that’s what you’re referring to.
Regardless of what he said, its what he did that caused so much damage, he was and is either a liar or a coward. I suspect both.
Next he’ll pretend he hasn’t banned affordable cars and boilers, what a PoS Johnson is!
Then did Gates call and remind him the Cartel still had pictures of him holidaying on Epstein Island? Or did Carrie attack him in his sleep again with soap in a stocking? Or was he just a well paid bit part actor in a giant grooming pantomime? Will we ever know?
Is this sucking up really necessary Toby?
Johnson is a WEF darling, and as sick as they come.
The DS is going downhill.
Alexander Johnson was quite a good journalist. Here he is on fracking (no, not the Battlestar Galactica definition):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/ignore-doom-merchants-britain-should-get-fracking/
Well he talks a good fight, sometimes, but sadly he seems to be one of those people who think they have the gift of the gab and that this makes up for them not actually achieving much in the way of concrete results – a bit like Trump though unlike Trump Johnson always was very much part of the “liberal” establishment.
Johnson has an awful lot of deaths to answer for. He destroyed thousands of businesses, ruined the lives of a generation of children, oversaw the running down of our admittedly failed Parliamentary system, ensured the economy was trashed via grotesque “mates” contracts and thoroughly enjoyed himself throughout. If these acts don’t meet the threshold for TRAITOR I don’t know what does.
In my shorthand way – he’s on a par with the most evil person ever to hold a British passport.
Then he’s a firkin coward and way too easily swayed. I’m guessing being with nutnut didn’t help, but that’s no excuse for being weak and unprincipled.
When Johnson got a 80 seat majority I thought that he could achieve some good things.
But he turned out to be an extremely weak leader. If his conviction had been not to use lockdowns he could have changed the narrative. Instead he went along with lockdowns time and time again.
So from what I have seen he is weak and lies.
and what use is that now to those who suffered? Boris is nOT exonerated. he was the PM
he was one of THEM