Rishi Sunak was described as “Dr Death” by one of the government’s top science officers at the height of the pandemic, WhatsApp messages have revealed.
A text conversation between Professor Dame Angela McLean and Professor John Edmunds from September 2020 – shortly after the then chancellor launched his Eat Out to Help Out scheme – was shown to the UK COVID-19 Inquiry on Thursday, with the pair appearing to be talking during a briefing.
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Dame Angela, who was then an adviser to the Ministry of Defence but is now the government’s chief scientific adviser, referred to someone else in the meeting – thought to be prominent lockdown sceptic Professor Carl Heneghan – as a “f***wit” during the discussion.
And COVID modeller Prof Edwards replied by saying: “Every statistic is wrong.”
But a few messages later, Dame Angela then sent a WhatsApp message to her colleague saying, “Dr Death the Chancellor”, followed by: “In ONS you’d see it.”
Prof Edmunds appeared at the COVID inquiry hearing on Thursday and was asked by lead counsel Hugo Keith if the comments were made in relation to Mr Sunak’s scheme.
Eat Out to Help Out offered discounts to diners throughout August 2020 to get them back to restaurants and pubs as people cautiously came out of the first lockdown.
But a study in 2021 later showed the scheme had contributed to a rise in infections.
Replying to the question, Prof Edmunds said: “Honestly, it’s so long ago I wouldn’t know, but it could well be.”
However, earlier in the session, the professor of epidemiology and population health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine did say he was “still angry” about Eat Out to Help Out.
“It was one thing taking the foot off the brake, which is what we had been doing by easing restrictions, but to put your foot on the accelerator seemed perverse and to spend public money to do that when 45,000 people had just died,” he told the inquiry.
“I don’t want to blame Eat Out to Help Out for the second wave as that’s not the case, but the optics of it. Yes, the pub and restaurant sector needed support, but this is not really just about supporting them, they could have just given them the money.
“This was a scheme that encouraged people to take an epidemiological risk. It only applied if you went into the restaurant and ate in the restaurant – it didn’t apply to take out.”
The WhatsApp conversation took place between Professor Dame Angela McLean and Professor John Edmunds. Pics: PA/Shutterstock
A spokesperson for COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, Naomi Fulop, said the public inquiry had already shown there was “absolutely no consultation with the government’s scientific advisers on Eat Out to Help Out, that it contributed to the loss of thousands of lives, put unnecessary pressure on the NHS and plunged the country into a brutal second lockdown”.
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She added: “It’s unbearable to think that if it wasn’t for Rishi Sunak’s reckless, unscientific and callous approach, my Mum might still be with me.
“When our current chief scientific adviser has referred to our prime minister as ‘Dr Death’, how can any of us have faith in our government if another pandemic strikes?”
A government source said: “We designed the Eat Out to Help Out scheme to protect two million jobs in hospitality, and statistics show that the scheme brought back 400,000 people from furlough whilst safely restoring consumer confidence.
“Local take-up of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was not positively correlated with COVID rates in any English region or country.”
