By Harry Hutchinson, Labour Party Northern Ireland
Giving evidence to a House of Commons select committee, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, exposed what many of us already believed, that the Government initially had a policy of allowing “allowing the bodies to pile up”.
Although they camouflaged their policy with a litany of lies, Cummings confirmed the Government had a “herd immunity” policy from the beginning of the pandemic. This would explain Johnson continuing to deny the seriousness of Covid in the early stages, even at one time making an analogy with chicken pox. It was additionally suggested that Covid parties should be encouraged to spread the infection.
When the ‘Cobra’ emergency committee met to discuss the pandemic, Johnson couldn’t bother himself to attend the first five of them. At one stage the science adviser, Chris Witty, even jokingly suggested injecting the Prime Minister with Covid to alleviate fears amongst the public as to its seriousness.
Cummings’ further testimony also confirmed that Health Secretary Matt Hancock lied to the Cabinet, telling them that hospital patients were going to be tested before returning them to care homes. In fact, only a few were tested, with the result that infected elderly patients effectively ‘seeded’ care homes with the virus all across the country. It was no surprise that care homes bore the brunt of Covid deaths in the UK as the infection ran riot though this elderly population, resulting in 40,000 of the 150,000 deaths, one of the highest in the world.
Lockdowns called too late
On March 13, 2020, Government adviser, Helen McNamara, informed the Cabinet that there were no plans in place for a lockdown. “We’re in huge trouble”, she said, “we’re fucked.” It also emerged that there were no border controls in place. According to Imperial College London, 33,000 lives could have been saved if the Government had locked down even one week earlier that first time.
By the second lockdown, from the end of September to December 1, two and a half million people had been infected. According to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 8,000 people could again have been saved if the Government had imposed that second lockdown one month earlier. The Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care claimed that tens of thousands of deaths could have been avoided. By Christmas, the Government were encouraging people to “eat out to help out”, thereby spreading the virus even more and leading to more unnecessary deaths in the New Year.
After the start of the new year, there would not have been another lockdown had it not been for the massive resistance shown by teachers and in particular by the National Education Union. The Tories were blithely going ahead for schools reopening ‘as normal’ in January.
SAGE, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies
The advice from SAGE was ignored by the Government, despite claims by Johnson and Hancock that their coronavirus strategy was led by the science. Decisions were made directly from Johnson himself, and his only aim was to keep the economy ‘open’ no matter how many deaths. It was no accident that the UK has one of the highest Covid death rates in the world.
Although Cummings is no friend of working-class people, he was made the scapegoat at that time by the media, for all the Government’s incompetence and the Covid deaths. Yet according to his testimony, he claims he was trying to direct some sanity into Government strategy. Cummings is no more believable than Johnson in reality, and his work in the Brexit campaign and the 2019 general election could be described as professional lying on a grand scale. Yet his testimony, aimed at Johnson out of personal spite, has at least confirmed what we all knew.
Full public inquiry
There is a groundswell of support for a full public inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic, but Boris Johnson is doing his best to delay it, with its start put right back to Spring 2022 at the earliest. The findings of a judge-led inquiry would be published years after that.
No doubt Johnson is hoping that a lot of evidence would be forgotten or could be hidden in the meantime, and he must know that an inquiry report could end his days in office. Labour must demand a public inquiry into the ‘herd immunity’ strategy of the Government starting immediately. It should have terms of reference that include the dishing out of contracts to the private sector for tests, PPE and other elements.
Above all, it should be fully open and transparent, and it should not be led by a single judge, however ‘notable’ he might be, but by a panel of health and legal experts that should include representatives of health and other trade unions whose members were in the front line throughout. One way or another, Johnson, Hancock and the rest should answer in full for their role in the massive loss of life from the pandemic in Britain.
