Sir Patrick Vallance who was the government’s chief scientific officer during the pandemic appeared in the Covid inquiry on Monday and said that Boris Johnson was “bamboozled” and “confused” by Covid science.
Vallance told MPs during the Covid enquiry that the former Prime Minister had a “problem in scientific understanding.”
Vallance said that Johnson “gave up science when he was 15,” adding, “I think he would be the first to admit it wasn’t his forte.”
For his mental health Vallance kept a diary which he would write in every evening which was given to the Covid enquiry.
Vallance wrote in one extract that Johnson “looked broken – head in hands a lot” and then quoted the former Prime Minister saying, “We are too shit to get our act together.”
Johnson’s former chief advisor Dominic Cummings was “extremely keen to get scientific advice,” Vallance told the enquiry.
He added, “As you can see, it wasn’t always easy to provide it in a way that was understandable and actionable.
“It was hard work to make sure he had understood what a particular graph or piece of data was saying.”
He said, “I can’t be sure he kept it in his mind all the time, it was difficult at times.”
