I'm quite surprised no one has mentioned Patrick Vallance's diary evidence to the Covid inquiry yesterday...
Sir Patrick Vallance criticises Boris Johnson's 'impossible flip-flopping'The government's former chief scientific adviser criticised Boris Johnson's "impossible flip-flopping" and "bipolar decision-making" in diary entries released to the Covid inquiry.
Sir Patrick Vallance also wrote of "chaos as usual" in Downing Street after a meeting on social-distancing.
The entries were read out at the start of stage two of the inquiry, which will examine the political decision-making.
Sir Patrick served as the government's chief scientific adviser from 2018 to 2023 and was a familiar face at the podium for Covid news conferences.
Extracts of daily diaries he wrote during the pandemic were read out by the inquiry's lead counsel, Hugo Keith KC, as part of his opening statement on Tuesday.
In one note Sir Patrick wrote: "Number 10 chaos as usual.
"On Friday, the two-metre rule meeting made it abundantly clear that no-one in Number 10 or the Cabinet Office had really read or taken time to understand the science advice on two metres. Quite extraordinary."
In other entries Sir Patrick described how he felt scientists were "used as human shields" by ministers.
On 19 September 2020, around the time a possible "circuit-breaker" lockdown was being discussed, he wrote: "[Johnson] is all over the place and so completely inconsistent. You can see why it was so difficult to get agreement to lock down first time."
Mr Keith also said WhatsApp exchanges between ministers and advisers in Downing Street painted a "depressing picture" of factional infighting and a "toxic atmosphere" during the pandemic.
He said messages showed "disharmony" between Number 10 and the DHSC, and contained repeated references to Mr Johnson's loss of confidence in former Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
"It appears to be the case that the prime minister and a number of officials and advisers held him in low regard," said Mr Keith.
"In particular, on account of his apparent tendency to get over-excited
and then make stuff up."
Also for Wanderlust and other conspiracy nutjobs...
The Guardian also reported that Mr Johnson had been unable to access messages sent earlier than 7 June 2020 because of an unspecified technical issue.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said the loss of these messages was a "remarkable and unfortunate coincidence" and called for experts to examine the phone to see if the messages could be recovered.
Mr Keith told the hearing that although it was right to say the inquiry had not received all the messages asked for, "we have a very good picture of what happened".
"There are unlikely to be any hidden corners which have escaped the inquiry's attention," he added.
Full article here -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-66998218