At first glance, Matt Hancock’s speech in Oxford was aimed at celebrating the success of the UK’s immunization program ahead of a meeting of G7 health ministers.
But while leading international diplomats, journalists, and scientists were in the physical audience of the Jenner Institute, another unmentioned figure was important.
On several occasions, the Secretary of Health appeared to use his half-hour speech to refute aspects of the explosive testimony Dominic Cummings gave to the Special Committees on Science and Health last week.
It has at times seemed like a dry race before Mr Hancock’s own appearance before that same joint committee next Thursday.
At the start of the speech, Mr Hancock described how he ‘vividly remembered’ his very first meeting to discuss the need to commit all possible resources to the development of a coronavirus vaccine.
It was, he said, in January 2020 – long before the first case of the virus was even confirmed in the UK, but even then he claimed it was already understood that a vaccine would be the best way out of the pandemic.
Matt Hancock delivered a speech at the Jenner Institute
Such a memory seems a clear effort to push back two aspects of the narrative presented by former chief adviser to Boris Johnson Mr. Cummings.
First, that the government had betrayed the public by acting too slowly and only taking the virus seriously until March, and second, that until mid-March, the government’s strategy was focused on achieving the herd immunity needed to end the pandemic through natural infections rather than vaccines.
Mr Hancock went on to describe how he spoke to Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam at that time and asked him what was the best scenario in terms of delivering a vaccine, and was given the answer it would take. 12 to 18 months. – but work started in earnest in the hopes that it could be faster.
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-06-02 15:02:00
