Former top Johnson adviser: Early UK COVID-19 response was ‘disaster’

Dominic Cummings, a former chief adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, reportedly said in a series of since-deleted tweets on Saturday that the British government’s early response to the COVID-19 pandemic was a “disaster.”

“If we’d had the right preparations + competent people in charge, we wd probably have avoided lockdown1, *definitely* no need for lockdowns 2&3,” Cummings wrote on Twitter, Reuters reports.

His account has since been taken down.

Although the U.K. has vaccinated much of its population, it has the highest number of COVID-19 related deaths in Europe, has gone through three lockdowns and is experiencing an economic slump, Reuters notes.

“Given the plan was AWOL/disaster + awful decisions delayed everything, lockdown1 became necessary,” Cummings reportedly added.

The Guardian reports Cummings claimed that the U.K. government initially adopted herd immunity as its official plan to combat the pandemic in its early days.

“In week of 9/3, No10 was made aware by various people that the official plan wd lead to catastrophe. It was then replaced by Plan B. But how ‘herd immunity by Sep’ cd have been the plan until that week is a fundamental issue in the whole disaster,” Cummings reportedly wrote.

A spokesperson for Downing Street told The Guardian that, “Herd immunity has never been a policy aim or part of our coronavirus strategy. Our response has at all times been focused on saving lives and ensuring the NHS was not overwhelmed. We continue to be guided by the latest scientific advice.” 

The pointed remarks from Cummings come just days before he is set to appear before the Health and Social Care Committee as well as the Science and Technology Committee of the U.K.’s lower house of Parliament.

Cummings played a key role in the U.K.’s exit from the European Union, Reuters notes, and had been an essential part of Johnson’s successful 2019 election campaign. However, Cummings left Johnson’s administration in November of last year, reportedly over the resignation of Lee Cain, a close ally of his and the former director of communications for Johnson.