The UK’s top scientist referred to Rishi Sunak as ‘Dr. Death’ during the pandemic, as revealed by WhatsApp messages revealed to Covid Inquiry.

Dame Angela McLean, who this year succeeded Sir Patrick Vallance as the government’s chief scientific adviser, sent the WhatsApp message to a government scientist colleague during a crucial meeting with former prime minister Boris Johnson and then-chancellor Mr Sunak.

At the time of the September 2020 meeting, the rule of six was in place following Mr Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out plan and Mr Johnson had confirmed that the UK was “now seeing a second wave arrive” .

The government’s scientific advisers urged Johnson to impose a circuit-breaker lockdown, but Sunak was concerned about the impact on the economy.

During the meeting, Dame Angela, who at the time was chief scientist at the Ministry of Defence, also called one of the scientists who opposed the closure an “imbecile”.

Dame Angela Ruth McLean, who was chief scientist at the Ministry of Defense at the time, sent the WhatsApp message to a fellow government scientist during a crucial meeting with former prime minister Boris Johnson and then-chancellor Sunak.

The inquiry was shown WhatsApp exchanges between Professor Edmunds and Dame Angela during the meeting, in which she referred to ‘Dr. Death, the Chancellor’ and said: ‘at the ONS you would see it’.

Professor John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the inquiry today that he attended the meeting on Sunday, September 20, along with officials including the then Mr Johnson, Mr Sunak and former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.

Email exchanges between Sir Patrick and Professor Edmunds claim the meeting was so Mr Johnson could hear a “variety of views on the vision for the future” of the “let it rip brigade”.

Professor Edmunds told the inquiry this referred to “people who were of the view that we should not have locked down in the first place and that we should not consider that again”.

They included Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Carl Heneghan, epidemiologists at the University of Oxford, and Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s leading epidemiologist, whose advice allowed the country to avoid lockdowns.

The scientists were each given 15 minutes to argue that a lockdown was unnecessary at that time, Professor Gupta later said. The times.

In an email to Professor Edmunds, shown to the inquiry today, Sir Patrick said: “We have tried to form a balanced group with all points of view and so I think what you need is your opinion on the future direction of the epidemic. “.

The inquiry was shown WhatsApp exchanges between Professor Edmunds and Dame Angela during the meeting, in which she referred to “Dr Death, the Chancellor” and said “at the ONS you would see him”.

Senior counsel Hugo Keith KC asked Professor Edmunds: “Did you understand that these were references to the eat out to help out campaign that you had talked about?”

Professor Edmunds said: “Honestly, it was so long ago that I don’t know, but it might well be.”

The brief WhatsApp exchange was introduced after Professor Edmund criticized the Eat Out programme, which was introduced in August 2020 and offered a 50 per cent discount on food and non-alcoholic drinks to customers eating inside participating restaurants. .

Professor Edmunds, who has participated in almost 100 SAGE meetings during the pandemic, told the inquiry: “To be honest, (the plan) made me angry and I still am angry about it.”

“It was one thing to take our foot off the brake, which is what we have been doing by easing restrictions, but putting our foot on the accelerator seemed perverse to me.

‘Spending public money to do that, when 45,000 people had just died… the look was terrible. It was a plan to encourage people to take an epidemiological risk.

The lawyer said that after the meeting, Professor Heneghan and Professor Gupta argued that they had “not had a fair hearing”.

Professor Edmunds told the inquiry: ‘I had interrupted Professor Heneghan at one point because he was making some really basic epidemiological errors, the kind of errors we teach our students on day one.

“And I couldn’t let it go after a while, so I interrupted him, and that took the wind out of his sails a little bit, and yeah, and he hadn’t interrupted me, so it’s only fair that they complained.”

Mr Keith said: “I think you described your arguments as half-hearted.” But in any case, his arguments and his views, to use his own words, did not “find favor with the Prime Minister.”

While giving evidence at the inquiry this afternoon, Professor Heneghan (pictured) was asked about email exchanges saying his approach was “half-baked nonsense”, Dame Angela calling him “wit” and accusing him of not understanding. ‘basic epidemiology’

Johnson subsequently imposed new restrictions, including a return to working from home and a 10pm curfew for the hospitality sector.

It was not until October 14 that a second national lockdown was imposed, which lasted until November 5.

While giving evidence at the inquiry this afternoon, Professor Heneghan was asked about email exchanges saying his approach was “half-baked nonsense”, Dame Angela calling him a “wit” and accusing him of not understanding the ” basic epidemiology”. ‘.

He said: ‘I would never, in a professional capacity, use that language about other people.

‘It is not unusual to find yourself in disagreement, in a position of disagreement.

‘We call it uncertainty and the job of an evidence-based approach is to try to reduce the uncertainties, so that an informed decision can be made.

“The very fact that they have opposing views shows that there is a problem with interpretation.”

He said he was asked to provide opinions that challenged those of those who make up the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE).

Mr Johnson’s notes after the meeting show that he was “certainly prepared to be persuaded by the lockdown skeptics, but found that they were actually reluctant to argue such a case”.