LONDON — Boris Johnson requested the U.Okay.’s most senior scientist and medical skilled if it was attainable to make use of a hairdryer to kill coronavirus, his former prime aide Dominic Cummings claimed Wednesday.
In his written submission to Britain’s ongoing coronavirus inquiry, Cummings — who was sacked by Johnson in 2020 and has made clear his ongoing disdain for his previous boss — was extremely vital of each Johnson’s administration of the COVID pandemic and Britain’s governing techniques.
Within the 115-page doc, Cummings mentioned Johnson at one stage “circulated a video of a man blowing a particular hair dryer up his nostril ‘to kill COVID’.” The video, which Johnson despatched to prime advisers and officers by way of WhatsApp, has since been faraway from YouTube.
The previous adviser mentioned Johnson then requested the U.Okay. authorities’s Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance and Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty “what they thought.” Cummings didn’t element how the highest officers responded.
Johnson and different senior politicians, together with the previous Well being Secretary Matt Hancock and present PM Rishi Sunak, will face the coronavirus inquiry later this yr, the place they are going to be capable to give their very own account of occasions.
In her personal written proof Wednesday, former Deputy Cupboard Secretary Helen McNamara — who performed a key civil service function through the U.Okay.’s response to the pandemic — criticized what she referred to as “an absence of humanity” within the administration because the pandemic raged, and mentioned there had been over-centralization of energy within the fingers of the prime minister’s workplace.
She mentioned Downing Road underneath Johnson and Cummings had sidelined feminine workers and created an unwelcoming setting for them.