Matt Hancock has mentioned he was warned the COVID pandemic may kill tons of of 1000’s of individuals within the UK two months earlier than the nation was put into lockdown and claims ministers “did not really believe it”.
The former well being secretary mentioned the chief medical officer for England, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, knowledgeable him in January 2020 that, in a “reasonable worst case scenario”, as many as 820,000 may die.
Mr Hancock mentioned when he handed on the warning to different ministers at a cupboard assembly three days later, the response was “shrug shrug” as they didn’t actually consider it.
The particulars are revealed in Mr Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries: The Inside Story Of Britain’s Battle Against Covid, serialised within the Daily Mail and The Mail+.
He mentioned that on 17 January, Sir Whitty warned that there was a “50:50” likelihood that the virus would attain Britain and laid out the figures.
“The whole room froze. We are looking at a human catastrophe on a scale not seen here for a century.”
However, when he shared the warning with a Brexit Day assembly of the Cabinet on 31 January, he mentioned it was met largely with indifference.
“The reaction was somewhat ‘shrug shrug’ – essentially because they didn’t really believe it. I am constantly feeling that others, who aren’t focused on this every day, are weeks behind what’s going on,” he mentioned.
Johnson: ‘It will in all probability go away’
Mr Hancock additionally prompt that Boris Johnson had been reluctant to interact on the problem.
When he first raised the outbreak in China with him in early January, his response had been: “You keep an eye on it. It will probably go away.”
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A month later he mentioned he warned Mr Johnson that whereas it’d nonetheless be attainable to include the virus, it was “more likely we’re going down”. The reply, he mentioned, was merely: “Bash on.”
More than 200,000 folks with COVID have died within the UK, figures present.
The particulars had been launched as Mr Hancock returned to Westminster for the primary time after his controversial look on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!
Hancock defends launch of care house residents
Mr Hancock additionally defended his dealing with of the controversial resolution to launch care house residents from hospital with out testing, which was blamed for 1000’s of deaths.
On 2 April, he famous: “The tragic but honest truth is we don’t have enough testing capacity to check anyway. It’s an utter nightmare, but it’s the reality.”
In April, the High Court dominated the federal government acted unlawfully by discharging untested hospital sufferers into care properties in the course of the early levels of the pandemic.
The first nationwide lockdown started on 23 March 2020.
Source: information.sky.com”