Sir Patrick Vallance privately referred to his colleague Sir Chris Whitty as “a delayer” after “palpable tension” between the two scientific advisers emerged about lockdown policy, the Covid Inquiry has heard. The Telegraph has more.
Sir Patrick, the Chief Scientific Adviser during the pandemic, said he wanted to introduce the first national lockdown more quickly than Sir Chris, who was worried about the number of deaths from the knock-on effects of shuttering the country.
It led to “friction” between the two men, who regularly stood either side of the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson at daily press conferences to keep the public informed.
Mr. Johnson, who was instinctively against the idea of lockdowns, has been accused by some critics of failing to prevent deaths by reacting too slowly to the emerging threat from coronavirus.
But the U.K. COVID-19 Inquiry heard that his two most senior scientific advisers did not agree with each other about the best way forward.
The Inquiry was shown an entry from the diary of Sir Jeremy Farrar, a member of the SAGE group of scientific advisers chaired by Sir Patrick, in which he talked of the “friction” between the two experts and described “a palpable tension between Patrick and Chris in the early weeks of 2020, particularly given the apparent absence of political leadership in that period”.
Sir Patrick made an entry in his own diary in February 2021 in which Sir Chris had spoken to him about the inquiry they knew was coming, and whether the lockdown in March 2020 had been imposed too late. He wrote: “He was a delayer of course.”
Sir Patrick told the inquiry in London that Sir Chris was a public health specialist and was rightly concerned about the impact of what were termed non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as telling people to stay at home. …
Sir Patrick said he did not personally have the same worry, as: “I was more on the side of we need to move on this, but I think that’s partly why the two of us found it useful to work together… I think sometimes I would want to push and he might not, and sometimes he was right and sometimes I think we should have gone earlier. This was an occasion when I think it’s clear that we should have gone earlier.”
Separately in his written witness statement Vallance has made clear that “the most important lesson that I learned and stated repeatedly from the first lockdown onwards, in respect to the timing of interventions, was that you had to go earlier than you would like, harder than you would like and broader than you would like”. He added:
As I mentioned, in the first wave I think we didn’t go early enough and there was a trickling of measures when I think we should have gone with more measures simultaneously. …
So my rider that it’s ‘than you would like to’ is very clear, and that is because the observation I made was that everyone’s instinct is to not to do any of these things.
It’s to delay just a bit too much, it’s to argue that the measures shouldn’t be quite as strict at the moment – and we saw this very clearly during October, where every MP argued that their areas shouldn’t be in a higher tier, they should be in a lower tier.
So, everyone’s arguing to do things just a little bit less than they should do.
The Telegraph‘s Gordon Rayner adds that “the inquiry is not questioning whether lockdowns should have happened at all”. Ain’t that the truth. And doesn’t it show the danger we’re in, when the U.K.’s official Covid Inquiry doesn’t think the question of whether lockdown was the right policy is even worth the time of day.
Stop Press: Vallance also admitted there is “no such thing as ‘the science'”. “Science by its definition is a moving body of knowledge that tries to overturn things by testing the whole time,” he said. That’s odd, because the Government told me it was about a consensus that supports its political agenda.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Not only does it show us the danger we’re in when the Inquiry doesn’t question whether lockdown was the right policy. It shows what a colossal waste of time and public money this Inquiry is.
It was always a setup. We all knew they would conclude LD faster, go door to door with the poisons, shoot any who leave their house etc. This was a given.
Fake news is mildly questioning this. I doubt the sheeple will. They proved themselves imbeciles once, they will prove it again when the next fake scariant hits.
unless of course the BBC tells them.
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/11/08/covid-infections-peaked-prior-to-lockdown-any-policy-riding-the-down-wave-would-have-worked/
I wonder what Lady Hallett will make of this when she reads it.
Oh, wait
“Science by its definition is a moving body of knowledge that tries to overturn things by testing the whole time”. Perhaps he would like to re-evaluate this comment in the light of this subsequent analysis.
‘Science’?
No. $cience is whoever pays the most money wins the argument and whatever crap they spew is a ‘law’. Add in pages of abstract maths and philosophical vomit to impress the peasants.
Lady Hallett has had her lines given to her before the inquiry began, she has rehearsed and learned them well, she won’t be accepting any re-writes now.
Most likely she has received her instructions, which if not followed will result in harms to her nearest & dearest. When faced with those types of threats, would any of us be honestly able to say that we’d defy the instructions?
This is something which I have only recently come to mull over.
The evil malignant actors who are behind all of this – she is just a puppet – will stop at nothing to ensure their control.
The inquiry is just another waste of money, distract, divide & conquer tactic whilst the real agenda is quietly imposed in the shadows.
Yup the enquiry is something they can refer on as a buffer so as to avoid any hard questions about the whole Covid scam, and they can kick it further down the road while distracting us with MSM BS!
He said, she said, a naughty word!
Written to the Hallett Office twice to “put them on notice” regarding the very partial basis to the scope of this whitewash as it plays out; both replies do not bear any resemblance – with my honest broker face firmly switched on – to what is happening day to day and the author clearly is sticking to a script. Not the most stunning revelation folks will read here today I readily admit…
What a clown. He was claiming in February 2021 that the first lockdown should have been earlier and harder? Besides the fact that pre-2020 research showed that a virus that had already spread around the world could not be “contained”, and that at most you would be delaying the spread by a marginal amount of time, the more recent “firebreak” of Wales in October/November 2020 showed that this approach was utterly pointless. Johnson was berated for not following suit, but it made zero difference – when Wales opened up 2 weeks later, it’s infection numbers had indeed dropped. Two to three weeks after opening up, the infection numbers were significantly higher than when it had first closed down. Outside of unnecessary economic damage, what exactly was achieved?
Whenever someone says lockdowns are necessary, they must be required to give up their own salary for 3 x the length of time they propose to lockdown and to pay the salaries and loss of income of the self-employed out of their own pocket for the duration of the lockdown. When they put some skin in the game they can talk, otherwise they can shut the hell up. Not only are they utterly failing to whitewash their crimes with this nonsense inquiry, they are making themselves to look like uneducated fools, in addition to being sell-outs.
Clown doesn’t cut it , I was thinking ( soz in advance ) C- NT !!
Flying viruses containing DNA material of a disease simply don’t exist.
But as we all know, skill at climbing greasy poles transfers to expertise in every field.
I will post this before tof does:
There was NO PANDEMIC.
Of course not, in the same way that many deaths were due to a refusal to prescribe antibiotics to people who had bacterial pneumonia despite this being entirely normal for 75 years prior to 2020.
Indeed not; thanks
Vallance is an especially egregious individual who almost certainly was a key conduit between shady global figures and the UK
To recite a nice verse from before the £5 watershed:
Wouldn’t it be nice if Unbalanced unbalanced and fell below an amublance?
[Forgot the name of the original author.]
Indeed- Witless and Unbalanced
Except he is anything but unbalanced. More like cold and calculating
I’m not so sure about that. As I tried to point out in another comment, the the most important lesson that I learned is statement really just stupid, because it sets a bar that’s impossible to meet. And that’s just the superficial stupidity. It’s also dangerously stupid on a deeper level. The demand is basically Always more than considered sensible according to your own best judgement! There are two things which are very wrong with this:
1) Someone who constantly gets it wrong is simply incompetent and shouldn’t be allowed to wield any power over others.
2) Humans are fallible and this works in both directions: They’re just as likely to overdo as to underdo but this possibilty isn’t accounted for.
Vallance may be a master of a lot of complicated and fairly arcane stuff. But wrt leading people or even just giving sensible advice to those who do, he’s clearly out of his depth.
Disagree fundamentally – was he jabbed? He is gaslighting and the extent of his knowledge and participation as identified by the Fauci emails is not being tested AT ALL – inconceivable this is an innocent oversight by Hallett & co
Of course he is. But just as vessel/ puppet.
It seems to my tiny brain that, as with Farrar, his involvement goes a lot deeper. Hallett’s HMG sanctioned starting point for this shite waste of money gaslighting is way way forward of the point where it should be imho; it enables some to give spurious “evidence”. As I understand it none of this is given under oath? He knew and knows a great deal more than he is letting on – his TV appearances were cringing once he was first named as a “cc” in the Fauci emails. Makes me wonder what DD/clearing/vetting was done before he was appointed UK CSO….
I can’t believe anyone that intelligent and politically savvy could be that stupid, so I’m going with wicked.
In German, there’s a nice word for such people: Fachidiot¹, someone who excels in his (typically fairly narrow) area of expertise but who’s completely incapable of understanding that there’s more to the world than this (fairly narrow) area and who thus ends up as boy blunder everywhere else. That’s nicely exemplified in his inane ranting about The Blonde Jelly® quoted in another comment.
Insofar he appears politically savvy, that’s probably because he’s really reading from a script the more professional propagandists working for the WHO handed to him. They’re behind this inquiry and would have loved to be behind the inquiry which wasn’t set up in Canada, something they complained about a while ago.
¹ Could perhaps be translated as idiot of letters.
He may be a useful idiot, but I would place a small bet on him knowing all about the scam. I can’t imagine we will ever know the truth of who knew what, when.
100%: he was , with Farrar , as the head of research at GSK , a key part of the group of people communicating by email about the gain of research results as highlighted in emails to and from Fauci: this culminated with the “it looks engineered” comment by ?Farrar?
To my mind it is the grossest of deliberate blind eyes position by Hallett – Vallance knows one hell of a lot more about mRNA drugs and SARS COV2 provenance because of his connection to Fauci Farrar and others – has he been questioned about that ? No it appears . Why ? I think we all know why…
I wonder if they will enquire about the Oxford study on Hydrocychroloquine conducted in 2020, where it was said that up to eight times the standard dose was used on sick patents and many died. UKC did an article and it’s in their archives.
I recall this – I cannot remember where but I do recall it was described as an outrageous exercise in setting a drug trial to fail; I wonder what the endpoint was stated to be in the official application to, presumably,MHRA?
Therein lies the issue; MHRA apparently actively prevented IVM to be prescribed because of weasel words indicating it was not authorised for human use. Raine has blood on her non hereditary peerage hands – I also recall she/MHRA sanctioned by her diktat the confiscation, by UK Borderforce, IVM drugs legally bought by UK citizens. We all know how Tess Lawrie was scuppered, by one A.Hill/Unitaid aka Gates and others, from confirming IVM should be authorised.
By preventing early treatment in the UK, she is an accessory to the regime that mandated patients who became infected – or affected – to “stay at home, isolate” – also known as “incubate, increase your viral load, become more sick” – before being admitted to hospital as an emergency case and put with others in a similar position.
She also has to explain, on oath, why she said “no short cuts were taken” overseeing the UK EUA drug trials when disclosure after disclosure has shown that oft repeated statement on national TV and to the press to be a complete stranger to the truth….
To be clear, I would like to vote twice for your post, to show my total support, but nocando…be great to hear from Sir or LadyDowntick or the pet Troll why they think a Pandemic did occur..just for some light relief on a drab overcast day.
Vallance has made clear that “the most important lesson that I learned and stated repeatedly from the first lockdown onwards, in respect to the timing of interventions, was that you had to go earlier than you would like, harder than you would like and broader than you would like”.
The idea behind this is obviously to suggest that the COVID monsters were human beings, after all, and had something like a conscience which troubled them because of all the damage they were doing to everyone else instead of envisioning themselves as master vets of the human race who get to arrange the cattle, ie, all other humans, as they see fit and the cattle themselves having no voice in all of this. If this means some of them die, well, though shit – ils faut ecraser des oeufs pour faire une omelette.
It’s also a nice exampe of the muddled thinking of this bloodthirsty would-be priests seeking to make human sacrifices to pacify their allmighty virus god: Whatever someone does, it’s always done at the time that someone wanted to do it, as hard for others as he desired to make it and affecting as many people as he wanted to target (ideally). In other words, no COVID measure, presumably short of culling the infected and all their closer acquaintances, is ever extreme enough.
While Vallance and his ilk are still alive, we’re all living our lives on borrowed time.
Turtles all the way down.
Chief “$cientific” Shareholder speaks with forked tongue.
Not at all uncommon for certain kinds of reptiles, I was taught.
From:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/20/covid-inquiry-boris-johnson-bamboozled-briefings-vallance/
Sir Patrick Vallance said Boris Johnson was “bamboozled” by the science in a series of scathing diary entries about the former prime minister shown to the Covid Inquiry.
The former chief scientific adviser to the Government was giving evidence to the public inquiry on Monday when he was asked about several extracts from his nightly notes, in which he described Mr Johnson as finding much of the scientific evidence at the height of the pandemic “almost impossible to understand”.
He wrote about watching the former prime minister trying to get his head around statistics being “awful” and questioned whether Mr Johnson was “colour blind” because of his apparent inability to read graphs.
In one diary entry from May 4 2020, Sir Patrick wrote:
:
:
.
Sir Patrick told the inquiry of Mr Johnson: “I think I’m right in saying that the prime minister at the time gave up science when he was 15 and I think he’d be the first to admit it wasn’t his forte and that he did struggle with some of the concepts and that we did need to repeat them often.”
What a patronising bastard. So Mr Johnson ‘gave up science when he was 15’ did he? What was Sir Patrick’s job at the time? Oh yes. It was his bloody job to make his advice clear to the PPE and classics educated politicians. Remind me, what was he made a ‘Sir’ for?
Key points from the above:
models will not provide the answer!
From https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/bamboozle
Sir Patrick says our PM at the time had been tricked or deceived by confusing him.
What? That’s not what Sir Patrick meant? Oh well, I think I’m right in saying the young Vallance concentrated on Science rather than English from an early age.
The PM gave up science at 15, I wonder when Valance gave up his humanity.
I wonder when Valance gave up science.
“tricked or deceived”….There goes the Freudian slip. You could also flip around Sir Patrick gave up classics when he was 15 and is not very good!
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/inside-the-transgender-empire/
A very informative essay about the rise of transgenderism in the USA and which has sadly crossed the pond.
Some of the surgical procedures are a tad gruesome.
On a slightly related note, ‘Green Helmets’ to enforce climate compliance propaganda video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZwdn2kBcmY
Can’t reply to my own comment as it’s awaiting moderation – possibly banned for calling him a b*****d. Sir Patrick was knighted in 2019 for ‘services to open clinical science‘ – whatever that means.
Money.
If we suppose that he was telling the truth about his opinion at the time, he was taking an extremist view about his role in life. Too narrow and too specialised, and undemocratic, and should not have grabbed hold of the politicians, even if they were incompetent in general. Political overreaction is a real problem, especially if it masquerades as a health measure.
I heard this man criticising Johnson for not understanding the science, saying Boris had given up studying science in his early teens.
That is why politicians have scientific advisers – to interpret science for them. Vallance was Chief Scientific Adviser.
Indeed, but it is perfectly clear that Sir Pat didn’t understand the data himself or he did and was wielding power for profit. Could be both, but definitely the latter.
Don’t call him Sir , it’s making me feel queasy
Agreed and what would you expect from an ex big dog from a huge pharma multi – national ….. with his reputation shattered because he is shown to be heavily involved with arch health criminal Fauci ?
The Covid Enquiry whitewash will shield his reputation.
In my personal experience, coming from a family of engineers, these people will over-complicate everything and have scant capacity for lateral-thinking. “This is going to be a problem” precedes every furniture-building/DIY endeavour in our homes; it should be etched on their gravestones. “Dad/Husband, your first mistake was thinking reading the IKEA instructions would help you build this thing; let’s follow the pictures.” Can’t see the wood for the trees/all brains and no common sense. Problem is, I don’t think BJ could listen to advice from all quarters and then formulate his own plan of action. And he cared too much about that people thought of him. Someone like that is never going to do the right thing.
My personal experience as a retired engineer is that there are plenty of us that end up looking a bit weak, and overreact when something nasty happens. Often along the “something must be done” route, with scant judgement across the big wide world. That’s supposed to be when proper broad band politicians/servants influence important decisions. We’re not there yet! Also, some organisations appear to be more concerned about their loss of reputation than real improvements for normal people.
They certainly don’t care much about excess deaths now!
To be fair to engineers everywhere, they (unlike Vallance) are at least open-minded when presented with to alternative solutions.
But he is totally compromised by virtue of his prior connections with Fauci – and the HMG set parameters mean he is getting off Scot free and is not being subjected to the scrutiny and scathing attitude that was used against Carl Heneghan by the so called lead KC?? It stinks to high heaven – Hallett is holed below the waterline and she will be damned just as the Iraq enquiries by Hutton et al were exercises in state instigated whitewashing – how did it ever come to this ???
We must burn more witches because this is how we eradicate the forces of evil. No one is safe until all witches have been rooted out at burned – zero witches!
UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency): “Statement: No-one is safe until everyone is safe – why we need a global response to COVID-19”
WHO: “No one is safe from COVID-19 until everyone is safe.”
UN: “No one is safe, until everyone is”
GAVI: “No one is safe until everyone is safe”
USGLC: “FACT SHEET: No One Is Safe Until Everyone Is Safe”
And…The FT/Euro News/Education International/ ‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’
Even ‘ourworldindate’ repeated this assertion even though it’s title professes a dispassionate scientific ethos. Obviously not.
During the latter part of the hysteria when Covid had lost it’s feeling of menace there was a full page advert in the Daily Telegraph titled virtuously ‘GLOBAL VACCINE EQUITY’ paid for by the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.
The advert went on about inequality in global vaccination and how Covid ‘vaccines’ need to be given to the Global South – “Committing to producing at least 15 billion mRNA doses in the next 6 months, including investing in manufacturing capacity in the Global South.” All this, even though Covid had already been round the planet including all the poorer ‘global south’ countries where life expectancies is too low to be susceptible to this particular virus.
The advert ends:
“The nations of the G20 can change the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic while building global resilience and global solidarity. The Health of each country impacts the health of all countries – the time to act is now.”
BBC local Radio adverts still calling Pregnant women to get their Covid 19 vaccines ! I feel like I’m in a parallel universe ! Two things ! Correct me if I’m wrong ! The jabs are useless , this has been admitted ! & there is no Covid 19 (whatever it was) anymore ! It was 3,1/2 facking years ago !!!..
Not just useless but potentially dangerous for the healthy.
Not just BBC – NHS is covering up the deaths of pre term foetuses and STILL is actively pushing these jabs – very hard…
Still too many normies including my mother would read that and say…That sounds reasonable!
It is sobering to think that all those witches were burnt without anyone saying, stop, this is ridiculous – and cruel. Everyone believed that witches had some sort of mystical power. The last person to be burnt as a witch was Janet Horne in 1727, which was just under 300 years ago and about 20 years after the invention of the steam engine. We now have ‘Climate Change’ hysteria and of course Lockdown hysteria. We are mentally and physiologically the same as people 300 years ago and here’s the challenge: “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into” – Jonathan Swift
https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-global-government-ultimate-goal-billionaires/5835182
I would urge people to read this.
‘You will own nothing and be very firkin miserable, or dead.’
Having worked in STEM industries for decades, without having a technical/scientific degree, I have often witnessed people intimidating and railroading less technically-endowed colleagues with overly complex and technical language. It is 100% by design; to bamboozle, slap down, manipulate and control. Now, what you need to have, in order to challenge and safeguard against this behaviour, to ensure the best/right outcomes, is the ability to ask the right questions, critical thinking, an unwavering commitment to logic and a willingness to ask ‘the stupid questions’ rather than save face. The PM, senior politicians and SPADs clearly lacked all of this. I suspect this is also why the NHS is a lost cause; very smart people very adept at bamboozling and protecting their own interests. No-one brave enough to challenge it.
Of course, what also contributes to the dysfunction is that the public sector seems to have a toxic tendency to brief, very publicly, against their own employer and colleagues. With the exception of whistleblowing, this does not happen in the private sector. Not if you want to hold on to your job and employability elsewhere. The only answer is to massively reduce the state and its destructive reach.
“Which means that/ what exactly”
The question or something very similar to strike fear into the technical bullshitters you describe very adroitly…seen it in another sphere for decades with the victims rarely understanding how “ they “ had been had.
This (Vallance) is arse-covering if the highest nature. “You were just too stupid to understand what I was telling you.” Cos Science.
And yet his admission that Science is never settled, in effect, is very telling – how easy was it to unsettle a S1/2 invalided ex journalist…..very easy..
Good analysis. There are one or two examples of how some places did a better job, e.g. in Sweden, where Anders Tegnell seemed to have more authority, and a handful of US states, e.g. Florida. On the other side of the coin, Australia & NZ looked as if they were well out of order.
Sweden had a stronger Constitution that faired better against the Globalist onslaught.
It’s a pity Boris and Whitty didn’t stick to their instincts!
A £500bln pity, and counting.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s gov. debt/GDP ratio is not just back to but below(!) where it was before the ‘pandemic’.
Funny that…The “Let them die” comment would save more lives in the long run. It is not like people like Peter Hitchens was pointing this out, and the inflationary effects of this coupe de etat!
A few things trouble my mind about Mr Valance’s “Diary”. Its quite unusual for people to keep a daily record every day, of their thoughts,actions and events of the day, ALan Bennet famously keeps a diary as have some other politicians, but to write a diary every day especially in such a time of extreme activity for Mr Valance, that’s quite an achievement. My questions would be has he always kept a daily journal? if so can we see evidence of them?. When was this diary written? and was it the intention to publish it in future as a bit of extra revenue and fame on top of the multi millions he has enjoyed over the past 4 years plus from his pay masters in Big Pharma, and associated billionaires.
I wonder what his lifestyle and expenses have been post the Covid dark years. He is a dangerous man, a misanthrope, he should not be allowed near another human, and he certainly should not be allowed anywhere near policy making or influence, his mind is twisted.
Perhaps he is a bit abnormal; Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ADHD)? Or just a learning technique that he acquired in his trade and carried on with it obsessively?
What a sceptic you ARE!!!!
A properly constituted enquiry with the widest of parameters might have asked for a copy of the diary; was it handwritten or typed/ If the latter, using what software…………bingo if so – just look at the properties of the digital document…..might be all a “nothing to see” event but if there is ANY suspicion that some/all was not contemporaneous, I as a taxpayer would like that being made public….
I enjoyed the clip when two pissheads got hold of Whitty & Sir Pat (think it was him) scuffed them about and run off….I’d grab him and say, get back in your house you naughty boy, or something along those lines.
Correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t Sir Patrick “bamboozle” Boris with RCP 8.5 and a slide show of rising sea level, worsening hurricanes, droughts and fires (all dodgy), before the PM went to the Glasgow COP and signed us up for more green tithes?