London, Thanasis Gavos

The image of one British government where he was slow to realize the seriousness of the situation regarding him coronavirus and then almost panicked, then Cabinet Secretary Lord Sedwill, the senior government official responsible for coordinating the work of ministries, testified to the independent inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.

Admitting that indeed at the beginning of the pandemic he had suggested gatherings of people as an option so that as many people as possible could be infected with the coronavirus in order to develop immunity, he apologized. He noted, however, that the comment had been made in a private conversation as an “allegory”, revealed by Downing Street chief of staff Dominic Cummings, and stressed that he was in no way treating the situation unsympathetically or recklessly.

In his lengthy testimony on Wednesday, Lord Sedwill mainly said that the magnitude of the threat was not immediately perceived by the government what the coronavirus would be if it escaped China, as the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance first warned on 21 January 2020. “The government did not consider a pandemic inevitable”, he said, also referring to the hitherto insufficient scientific data.

He admitted that at the beginning of February, as can be seen from the minutes of the then prime minister’s statements, the emphasis was on avoiding excessive reactions and causing concern to the public.

Until the middle of February, however, he continued, there was widespread information at the government level about the threat in a worst-case scenario, but at the same time there were also assurances of adequate planning to deal with this threat.

As he added, “I felt like I had to lead a system that was on the verge of panic at that point.” He even said that in order to prevent panic, he did not talk about the inadequacy of preparation against the pandemic and perhaps that is why he gave the impression that he did not understand the danger, as other witnesses have accused him in the investigation.

And Lord Sedwill criticized then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock for his handling of the situation, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his working methods were devastating to his colleagues, a reference to comments by other pandemic-era figures who accused Mr .Johnson for indecisiveness.

In his own evidence to the commission investigating, led by Baroness Hallett, on Tuesday Boris Johnson’s then adviser Edward Udney-Lister confirmed earlier reports that the then prime minister intended to be injected with the coronavirus on live television.

He noted, however, that it was an “unfortunate comment” from Mr Johnson when COVID-19 had not yet begun to be considered the serious disease it quickly turned out to be.

Mr Udney-Lister also confirmed the allegation made by then Downing Street chief of staff Dominic Cummings that Boris Johnson had said “let the bodies pile up by the thousands” instead of imposing a second lockdown in September 2020 .

The former prime minister has denied, both in his statements and in the House of Commons, that he made this comment.