The Spectator Day 5 of the Telegraph’s Lockdown Files and the most startling stories yet. Here’s what’s new:
- Matt Hancock asked when he could ‘deploy the variant’
When the more contagious Alpha (then ‘Kent’) variant started spreading in December 2020, many were scared. Good, thought Hancock. The former health secretary told his adviser that ‘we [can] frighten the pants of [sic] everyone with the new strain’ on 13 December, and wondered when ‘do we deploy the new variant’. Five days later, Boris Johnson cancelled Christmas.
2. Simon Case saw the benefit in fear-mongering
At least Sir Humphrey was subtle. The Cabinet Secretary told Hancock early in the third lockdown that ‘the fear/guilt factor’ was ‘crucial’ in keeping restrictions in place, if not going further. Case also told Hancock that the Nightingale hospitals would be full within days. Our data editor Michael Simmons points out that Nightingale admissions peaked at 57 a day (capacity 4,000 beds).
3. Other advisers thought scare factor was no bad thing
Chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance told Hancock that it wasn’t a bad idea for him to ‘suck up [a] miserable interpretation’ of case numbers in front of the public, and then ‘over deliver’. Worse, Hancock’s adviser Damon Poole said in October 2020 that he didn’t mind not releasing surveillance data, since it ‘helps the narrative that things are really bad if we don’t publish’. Not the facts, the narrative.
Read Full Article Here…(spectator.co.uk)
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Yup! Their plan is exposed. The whole covid response was and is still BS!