COVID-19: Dominic Cummings Says Ministers Supported COVID ‘Collective Immunity’ and Lockdowns Could Have Been Avoidable | World news

Dominic Cummings claimed the government originally planned to let the coronavirus tear the country apart in an attempt to build ‘herd immunity’.

Boris Johnson The former senior adviser said the plan was to build resistance among the population in the months leading up to September after the illness appeared in early 2020.

In a series of tweets, he said it was not dropped until early March last year after Downing Street was warned it would lead to “disaster”.

Mr. CummingsThe latest intervention comes as he prepares to testify Wednesday to members of the Commons health and science committees.

Committees are studying the government’s response to the pandemic.

Downing Street is bracing for a potentially very damaging attack following Mr Cummings’ acrimonious departure from Number 10 late last year.

In a taste of what to expect, he said there might not have been a need for a lockdown if the country had had “the right preparations and the right officials”.

Instead, he said that in early March last year the plan was “collective immunity” and that Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s claims to the contrary were “bull *** * “.

He also strongly attacked the media for accepting the government’s denials.

Mr Cummings wrote in a series of tweets: “The media is generally appalling on coronavirus but even I was surprised by one thing: how many hacks took up Hancock’s line that “ herd immunity was not the plan ” while “ herd immunity by September was “ literally the official plan in all documents / graphics / meetings ” until it was dropped. “