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Updated March 18th, 2021 at 07:08 IST

Boris Johnson's ex-aide Dominic Cummings criticises UK government's handling of pandemic

Boris Johnson’s ex-chief adviser criticised the govt’s response to the pandemic and compared the health dept to a “smoking ruin" when the virus hit the UK hard.

Reported by: Bhavya Sukheja
Boris Johnson
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UK PM Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser on March 17 criticised the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and compared the health department to a “smoking ruin” when the virus hit Britain hard. Making his first public appearance since he stepped down last year, Dominic Cummings testified to parliament’s science and technology committee and said that the vaccination program has only been a success because it was taken out of the hands of civil servants. Cummings was also scathing about the bureaucracy that he said prevented an effective UK response to the pandemic. 

Cummings, who was widely criticised last year when he violated national lockdown rules, said that the health department was “just a smoking ruin in terms of procurement and PPE (personal protective equipment) last spring”. He added, “In February, March, April last year there was no entity in the British state, zero entities, including the prime minister himself, who could make rapid decisions on science funding."

UK citizens demand inquiry into pandemic  

The Prime Minister’s office, however, defended the health department’s work and said that COVID-19 challenged health systems around the world. It is worth mentioning that the United Kingdom has Europe’s highest coronavirus death toll, which stands at over 125,900 in total. A year after the coronavirus outbreak jolted communities and medical infrastructures across the world, people in the UK also continue demanding a "public inquiry" into Britain's handling of the Covid-19 situation, right from the lockdown in March-April 2020 till date. 

Several prominent people representatives from medical, education, civil service, research, and other fraternities have now stressed that the Boris Johnson government must initiate the inquiry. President of the Royal College of Physicians in Britain Professor Andrew Goddard said that the inquiry if launched will only make people aware of the preparedness that the country needs to have to face such pandemics in the future. The inquiry he detailed must "Look at how prepared we were and the decisions we took in terms of very practical things, such as stocks of PPE, the size of the NHS workforce and how many critical care beds we have … [as well as] the greater impact of Covid-19 in the UK because of the state of public health. [sic]”.

(Image & inputs: AP) 

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Published March 18th, 2021 at 07:08 IST

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