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Covid Inquiry: Rishi Sunak called 'Dr Death' after Eat Out to Help Out [1]
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Date: 2023-10
Prime minister Rishi Sunak was labelled “Dr Death the Chancellor” by one of the UK’s top scientific advisers following his controversial Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
The latest batch of WhatsApp messages and emails shown at the Covid inquiry also reveal opponents of lockdown measures were referred to as the “let it rip brigade” by then-chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance.
And one member of a WhatsApp group made up of top scientists was even called a “fuckwit” in an exchange between senior figures.
John Edmunds, a professor in epidemiology and population health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the inquiry: “There were many people – well, not that many, but they were vocal people – who took the view that we shouldn't have locked down in the first place and that we shouldn’t be considering that again.
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Asked by Hugo Keith, lead counsel to the inquiry, who “fuckwit” referred to in messages between himself and Angela McLean, who became government chief scientific adviser earlier this year, he said it referred to Carl Heneghan.
Heneghan, director of Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, was scheduled to follow Edmunds in giving evidence to the inquiry.
Reflecting on the meeting that prompted the exchange between himself and McLean, Edmunds told the inquiry: “I had interrupted Dr Heneghan at one point because he was making some really basic epidemiological errors, the things we teach our students on day one.
“I couldn’t let it go after a while, so I did interrupt and that slightly took the wind out of his sails.”
The reference to the “let it rip brigade” was included in an email from Vallance to Edmunds ahead of a meeting with Boris Johnson.
According to Vallance, this gathering was supposed to represent a “balanced group across views”.
But Edmunds and McLean gave short shrift to the anti-lockdown arguments they heard.
In one WhatsApp message, Edmunds claims “every statistic [presented] is wrong”.
McLean later sent a message referring to “Dr Death the Chancellor”, believed to be current PM and then-chancellor Sunak.
Edmunds took aim at the government’s flagship Eat Out to Help Out campaign, spearheaded by Sunak.
He added: “The optics of it were terrible – this was a scheme to encourage people to take an epidemiological risk.”
Asked if the “Dr Death” comment referred to Sunak and the Eat Out to Help Out campaign, Edmunds replied: “It’s so long ago I don’t really know, but it might well be.”
Concerns about Eat Out to Help Out were also raised at yesterday’s evidence session, when behavioural science expert Lucy Yardley said the scheme “came at a really crucially problematic time”.
Naomi Fulop, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said: “This inquiry has made clear that there was absolutely no consultation with the government’s scientific advisers on Eat Out to Help Out, that it contributed to the loss of thousands of lives, put unnecessary pressure on the NHS and plunged the country into a brutal second lockdown.
“It’s unbearable to think that if it wasn’t for Rishi Sunak’s reckless, unscientific and callous approach, my mum might still be with me.
“When our current chief scientific adviser has referred to our prime minister as ‘Dr Death’, how can any of us have faith in our government if another pandemic strikes?”
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https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/covid-inquiry-rishi-sunak-dr-death-eat-out-to-help-out/
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