Rishi Sunak has claimed the government “empowered” independent scientific advisers too much during the Covid lockdowns – but experts are hitting back.
In an interview with The Spectator magazine published on Thursday, the Tory leadership hopeful (who was the chancellor during the pandemic) alleged that official scientists tried to “scare people” through advertising campaigns at the height of Covid.
He claimed the three UK lockdowns could have been “shorter” and “different”, but that ministers were not allowed to “ever acknowledge” potential trade-offs that came with the social distancing measures.
Recalling his government meetings where they discussing locking down the nation, Sunak said: “I was like, ‘forget about the economy – surely we can all agree that kids not being in school is a major nightmare.’ There was a big silence afterwards. It was the first time someone had said it. I was so furious.”
His words come at a time when the struggles of the NHS, primarily due to staff shortages, are at the forefront of the news cycle, with many people blaming the lockdowns for creating the Covid backlog in the first place.
At the time, those who did not need urgent care were pushed down the priority list so that medical professionals could treat Covid first.
But scientists have attacked the former chancellor’s claims, and pointed out that the government was reluctant to follow their advice in the first place.
Clinical epidemiologist Dr Deepti Gurdasani tweeted: “Um, I have news for you...we weren’t empowered.
“The govt (which you are a part of) continued to make policies which had no basis in science, and killed >200,000 people & disabled hundreds of thousands while we screamed helplessly at every step.”
She pointed out that specialists had actually been calling for lockdowns much earlier than the government implemented them, a decision which had serious consequences for the entire nation.
Gurdasani said: ”[This was] an action that very likely cost tens of thousands of lives. That’s on you. Do you think SAGE were ‘empowered’ then? They were dismissed. By you.
“You can try to revise history all you like – because the dead can’t speak. But there are many who won’t let them be forgotten.”
Dr Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor, also dubbed Sunak’s claims “nonsense”, although she added: “Nobody would pretend the way we handled the pandemic was perfect.
But, she pointed out Sunak’s sudden confession comes at a time when he is trailing his competitor Liz Truss in the polls.
“He is pandering to his Conservative Party base because he wants to be prime minister, he’s saying what he thinks people want to hear,” Clarke said.
Referring to the January 2021 lockdown, she said those were the “worst weeks of my careers” because people were dying due to a shortage of ventilators, beds and staff.
“People were dying before our eyes, they were so desperate at home they were calling paramedics, they were being told it would be hours for an ambulance, booking an uber to get to the hospital and arriving dead, in the back of the uber, outside London hospitals.
“That’s how bad things were – with lockdown. And patients who didn’t have covid at that time were also dying, because we were overwhelmed.
“So to now pretend that that was bad practise and that lockdown was unnecessary was absolute nonsense.”
Another specialist, social psychologist Professor John Drury, also ripped into Sunak’s claims, tweeting: “We had more and longer ‘lockdowns’ because Sunak and the others *didn’t* listen to scientists.”
Former aides who used to work for No.10 have come out to attack Sunak, too.
Dominic Cummings, once the chief of staff for Boris Johnson and now a staunch critic of the prime minister – also dubbed the interview “dangerous rubbish”.
Similarly, Lee Cain – once the director of communications for Downing Street under Johnson – said these claims from Sunak were “simply wrong”.
He notes that “without lockdown the NHS simply could not have survived and would have been overwhelmed”, leading to an even greater backlog than the one the health service is currently dealing with.