 was a regular participant in televised news conferences during the pandemic The government's former chief scientific adviser criticised Boris Johnson's "impossible flip-flopping" and "bipolar decision-making" in diary entries released to the Covid inquiry. Sir Patrick Vallance also wrote of "chaos as usual" in Downing Street after a meeting on social-distancing. The entries were read out at the start of stage two of the inquiry, which will examine the political decision-making. The government has said it acted to save lives and protect the nation. Mr Johnson will give evidence in person to the inquiry later this year, along with other ministers, advisers, civil servants and health officials. Sir Patrick served as the government's chief scientific adviser from 2018 to 2023 and was a familiar face at the podium for Covid news conferences. Extracts of daily diaries he wrote during the pandemic were read out by the inquiry's lead counsel, Hugo Keith KC, as part of his opening statement on Tuesday. In one note Sir Patrick wrote: "Number 10 chaos as usual. "On Friday, the two-metre rule meeting made it abundantly clear that no-one in Number 10 or the Cabinet Office had really read or taken time to understand the science advice on two metres. Quite extraordinary." In other entries Sir Patrick described how he felt scientists were "used as human shields" by ministers. On 19 September 2020, around the time a possible "circuit-breaker" lockdown was being discussed, he wrote: "[Johnson] is all over the place and so completely inconsistent. You can see why it was so difficult to get agreement to lock down first time." Meanwhile, long Covid support groups said Mr Johnson used colourful language to describe the condition in October 2020. Speaking on behalf of the groups, Anthony Metzer KC said that when the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was publishing guidance for people with long Covid the form){kind=link}
The government’s former chief scientific adviser criticised Boris Johnson’s “impossible flip-flopping” and “bipolar decision-making” in diary entries released to the Covid inquiry.
Sir Patrick Vallance also wrote of “chaos as usual” in Downing Street after a meeting on social-distancing.
The entries were read out at the start of stage two of the inquiry, which will examine the political decision-making.
The government has said it acted to save lives and protect the nation.
Mr Johnson will give evidence in person to the inquiry later this year, along with other ministers, advisers, civil servants and health officials.