Boris Johnson had asked two prominent scientists, advisers to the British government, whether it would be possible to use a ... hair dryer in the nose to "kill" the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the Covid-19, his former special adviser claims.
In his written statement, released today as part of the public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic, Dominic Cummings claims that in March 2020 the then British Prime Minister shared with others "a video of a guy using a special nose dryer of killing Covid and asked the government's scientific adviser Patrick Vallance and chief medical officer Chris Whitty what they thought about it.
The video in question is no longer available online because it was taken down by the YouTube platform.
Cummings described Boris Johnson as "extremely careless" at the time, due to the financial problems he was facing as his divorce neared finalisation. "His current partner wanted to finalize the announcement of their engagement" and he "was saying he wanted to work on his Shakespeare book", which is still out.
The release of this testimony comes a day after Johnson's extremely unflattering testimony from other advisers about his handling of the pandemic. As they argued, "events had overtaken him" and he cared little for the victims, even though the country had been hit very hard, with 230.000 dead.
Today, senior civil servant Helen McNamara, who says she was the target of "violent and misogynistic" messages from Dominic Cummings, denounced the "toxic" climate created in Downing Street by Johnson's then adviser. Cummings himself was at the center of a scandal for traveling during the curfew, but Johnson supported him and kept him in his post despite the allegations against him.
Johnson resigned as prime minister in July 2022 due to a series of scandals that had come to light in the past, many of them related to the violation of health regulations for the pandemic.
Source: RES-EAP