London, Thanasis Gavos

The former Chief Scientific Adviser to the British Government Sir Patrick Vallance criticized the then prime minister during the pandemic Boris Johnson for “unbelievable butt-flips” and “bipolar decision-making”, as revealed at the launch of the second phase of the independent inquiry for handling COVID-19.

Sir Patrick’s comments are included in his diary which has been given to Baroness Hallett’s team, which is leading the inquiry.

Sir Patrick also recorded, among other things, his view of “chaos as usual” in Downing Street after a meeting on social distancing.

The second phase of the investigation deals with him handling the pandemic from government and relevant agencies and is expected to receive evidence from politicians and scientists, including Boris Johnson.

The first phase had preceded in the summer, with statements from more than 60 experts, regarding how prepared the UK was for a pandemic.

The inquiry’s lead lawyer, Hugo Keith, who read the excerpts in the public hearing room in central London, also said that messages exchanged between Downing Street and the Department of Health officials at the time revealed “disharmony”, infighting and a “toxic atmosphere” that did not help in handling the situation.

He pointed out that it appeared from the messages that Prime Minister Johnson and other officials around him did not like Health Secretary Matt Hancock, particularly because of “his tendency to get excited easily and make things up”.

Mr. Hancock allegedly did not realize in time that there were asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus.

Also, the then controversial chief of staff to Downing Street, Dominic Cummings, had sent a message to Boris Johnson before the lockdown saying that the decision was inevitable but that there was no plan for such a thing.

The messages also reveal Boris Johnson’s initial underestimation of the risk and the admission among government officials at the start of the pandemic that “the country is headed for disaster”. A Cabinet Office official, noting the lack of preparation, commented a few days before the first lockdown: “I think we’re going to kill thousands of people.”

Deaths due to coronavirus in the UK stand at almost 230,000.

The investigation is in possession of thousands of messages from at least 250 different WhatsApp groups. However, according to the Guardian, these do not include messages from the then Minister of Finance and current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has changed his phone without saving the messages from the disputed period.