Category: Corona Virus

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Boris Johnson Live: COVID-19 Inquiry, Resignation, Apology – TIME

December 7, 2023

The U.Ks COVID-19 Inquiry into the governments response to the pandemic picked up again on Wednesday morning. The hearings for the initial stage of the investigation were heard in London in June. Today, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who served as the nations leader from 2019 to 2022, was sworn in to give evidence in front of the panel. Shortly into his opening statement, he said that he was sorry for the suffering experienced by COVID victims and their families.

I understand the feelings of these victims and their families, and I am deeply sorry for the pain, and the loss, and the suffering of those victims and their families," Johnson said. "And grateful though I am to the hundreds and thousands of healthcare workers... who helped to protect our country throughout the dreadful pandemic, I do hope that this inquiry will help to get the answers to the very difficult questions that those victims and those families are rightly asking... so that we can protect ourselves better in the future and prevent further suffering."

The U.K. has had 325 COVID deaths per 100,000 citizens, one of the highest death rates in Western Europe, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The inquiry was created to help examine the governments response to the pandemic and identify potential lessons for the future. The panel will not bestow criminal blame on those involved in the decision making process.

Among those in attendance are bereaved families, who lost loved ones during the pandemic. Boris Johnson is expected to issue an apology this morning. Yet, he will claim he saved thousands of lives. For many of the bereaved, that will be a grotesque distortion of the truth, said a spokesperson for the bereaved families ahead of Johnsons opening statement on Wednesday.

Some believe that Johnson's initial hesitancy to implement lockdowns was to blame for the U.K.s high death rate. In a press conference on March 12, 2023, when the nation had hundreds of confirmed cases, Johnson's government gave only soft guidelines, saying that people over the age of 70 and immunocompromised individuals should avoid going on cruises and recommending that school children did not travel overseas.

The U.K. did not legally enforce lockdown measures until March 26, 2020. Previous questioning from the inquiry has put forward the claim that Johnson believed that the pandemic was "nature's way of dealing with old people."

Nevertheless, Johnsons supporters have pointed out that the U.K. had one of the earliest vaccine rollouts in the world, and was the first nation to deploy an approved vaccine for the virus.

Inevitably we got some things wrong. But I think we were doing our best at the time, Johnson said at the inquiry.

The atmosphere in the hearing room has been tense. At one point, members from the bereaved families stood up, each holding a paper with a single word. Together, they formed the sentence: The dead cant hear your apologies. According to a BBC journalist present at the inquiry, later on when the panel paused for a break, a protester shouted at Johnson: "Youre a murderer."

Hugo Keith, the lawyer responsible for questioning Johnson today, suggested that based on technical reports he had received, it seemed possible a factory reset had been carried out on Johnsons phone, leaving an estimated 5,000 WhatsApp messages missing that were supposed to be investigated by the inquiry. Johnson denied doing such a thing. I havent removed any WhatsApps from my phone and Ive given you everything that I think you need, said Johnson.

Johnsons voice quivered during the hearing, causing speculation that he was on the verge of tears. This came after he was asked to what extent his decision making was influenced by fear of imposing interventions too early and causing behavioral fatigue in the population. We have to be realistic about 2020. That whole year. That whole tragic, tragic year, he said before pausing as his voice seemed to break. We did lock down. But then it bounced back.

Keith came down hard on Johnson throughout the course of the inquiry, bringing up graphs that showed that even with moderate measures, the NHS would be massively overwhelmed as the pandemic grew exponentially. Johnson said that he was bewildered looking at the graph and admitted that there was a certain amount of incoherence in our thinking. Keith asked why he was presented with this data and still did not consider pressing for more significant interventions.

I remember looking at that graph and thinking that in either case we were facing an absolutely intolerable situation, and though I clocked it, I thought there must be a reason why we arent told to act more urgently, said Johnson. I was afraid given the advice I was being given about timeliness and looking at the graphs with puzzlement.

Later, inquiry chair Baroness Hallett asked Johnson if he had ever considered not implementing a lockdown at all. The former Prime Minister responded saying that he did briefly consider it but felt it was the duty of the government to protect human life. He also said that he wanted to give healthcare workers the best chance he could and that lockdowns were his only tool to do that.

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Boris Johnson Live: COVID-19 Inquiry, Resignation, Apology - TIME

UK COVID Inquiry: Scandal-prone Boris Johnson apologises for ‘pain’ and ‘loss’ of victims – Euronews

December 7, 2023

The former UK leader will speak at the ongoing inquiry on Wednesday and Thursday, following criticism from colleagues and the public on how he handled the pandemic.

Disgraced former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has apologised for the "pain and the loss and the suffering" of the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.

Speaking at the ongoing COVID inquiry in London, he added that he "understands the feelings of these victims and their families", repeating that he is "deeply sorry".

Adding that he remains grateful to healthcare workers and other public servants who were on the frontline during the pandemic, Johnson explained that he hopes the inquiry will get "the answers these families are rightly asking".

Johnson acknowledged that his government was too slow to grasp the scale of the crisis, although he skirted questions over whether any of his decisions had contributed to the countrys high death toll - one of the worst across the globe.

Testifying under oath at the inquiry, Johnson acknowledged that we underestimated the scale and the pace of the challenge when reports of a new virus began to emerge from China in early 2020.

The panic level was not sufficiently high, he admitted.

Last week, the former Health Secretary told the inquiry last week that he had tried to raise the alarm inside the government.

Matt Hancock claimed that thousands of lives could have been saved by putting the country under lockdown a few weeks earlier than the eventual date of 23 March 2020.

Britain went on to have one of Europes longest and strictest lockdowns. With the deaths of more than 232,000 people, it comes in at close to the top of the continent's highest death tolls

Johnson acknowledged the government had made mistakes but put emphasis on apparent collective failure rather than his own errors.

He claimed that ministers, civil servants and scientific advisers had failed to sound a loud enough klaxon of alarm about the virus.

If we had collectively stopped to think about the mathematical implications of some of the forecasts that were being made we might have operated differently," Johnson said.

Grilled by inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith, he acknowledged that he did not attend any of the governments five Cobra crisis meetings on the new virus in February 2020. He admitted to looking only once or twice meeting minutes from the governments scientific advisory group.

Johnson also claimed he had relied on distilled advice from his science and medicine advisers.

His testimony was interrupted as four people stood up in court as he spoke, holding signs saying: The dead cant hear your apologies," before being escorted out by security staff.

Following their removal, he admitted his government had made mistakes.

Inevitably, in the course of trying to handle a very, very difficult pandemic in which we had to balance appalling harms on either side of the decision, we may have made mistakes, Johnson said, adding Inevitably, we got some things wrong.

He did assert, however, I think we were doing our best at the time.

The former prime minister had arrived at the inquiry venue at daybreak, several hours before he was due to take the stand, avoiding a protest by relatives of some of those who died after contracting the virus.

A group gathered outside the office building where the inquiry was set, some holding pictures of their loved ones. A banner declared: Let the bodies pile high - a statement attributed to Johnson by an aide. Another sign read: Johnson partied while people died.

Johnson agreed in late 2021 to hold a public inquiry after heavy pressure from bereaved families. The probe, led by retired Judge Heather Hallett, is expected to take three years to complete, though interim reports will be issued starting next year.

Johnson has submitted a written evidence statement to the inquiry but has not handed over some 5,000 WhatsApp messages from several key weeks between February and June 2020. They were on a phone Johnson was told to stop using when it emerged that the number had been publicly available online for years. Johnson later said hed forgotten the password to unlock it.

At the inquiry on Wednesday, he reiterated: Can I, for the avoidance of doubt, make it absolutely clear I havent removed any WhatsApps from my phone?.

Wednesday marks the first day hes expected to be questioned by the Inquiry. He will also face them on Thursday.

The controversial leader, who resigned his post last June, will be grilled over his handling of the pandemic - as well as his governments response.

The inquiry has so far heard and seen clear evidence of disarray inside Johnsons cabinet, especially during the early weeks of the outbreak.

There has been public outcry, too, over lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street which Johnson long denied even happened.

Senior officials got drunk and partied during these events, while the country was in full lockdown, with some people unable to say goodbye to dying loved ones.

Earlier this year, a Parliament committee found that he had repeatedly and deliberately lied about breaking COVID lockdown rules.

In a damning 30,000-word paper, the body said his denials were so disingenuous that they were deliberate attempts to mislead the Committee", also referring to the "frequency with which he closed his mind to the truth."

As a result, he stepped down with immediate effect as an MP and Johnson, his wife Carrie and now Prime Minister - then Chancellor - Rishi Sunak among more than 100 staff fined by police.

At the COVID Inquiry, Johnson is likely to be asked to explain why he initially tried to play down the threat posed by the deadly virus. Hell also face questions over whether he failed to chair Cobra meetings coordinating the governments response early on in the pandemic.

The Inquiry has already heard several pieces of damning evidence against the former PM.

One particularly condemnatory example came from chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance. In a diary entry written on 19 September 2020, he wrote: [Johnson] is all over the place and so completely inconsistent. You can see why it was so difficult to get agreement to lock down the first time.

Speaking in front of the Inquiry panel in November, Vallance also claimed that Johnson had been bamboozled by the myriad scientific evidence about the pandemic.

Dominic Cummings, Johnsons former chief adviser, had similar criticisms.

In written evidence presented to the inquiry, he claimed that, at the start of 2020, Johnson was distracted by financial problems, his divorce and pressure from his then-girlfriend Carrie wanted to finalise the announcement of their engagement.

Early that year, Lee Cain, Johnsons former director of communications sent a message to Cummings asserting that the PM doesnt think [COVID] is a big deal and he doesnt think anything can be done and his focus is elsewhere.

He thinks itll be like swine flu and he thinks his main danger is taking the economy into a slump, Cain added.

Rishi Sunak is also expected to give evidence later in December.

The inquiry will not find any individual guilty of a crime. It aims to take lessons away from how the crisis was handled and how the UK could put in place preparation for a similar event in the future.

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UK COVID Inquiry: Scandal-prone Boris Johnson apologises for 'pain' and 'loss' of victims - Euronews

Boris Johnson: I wasnt properly warned about seriousness of Covid – The Guardian

December 7, 2023

Boris Johnson's first Covid inquiry appearance video highlights Covid inquiry

Ex-PM tells inquiry abusive messages between staff were inevitable passion of people doing their best under great stress

Boris Johnson has insisted he was not properly warned about the potential seriousness of Covid during early 2020, as he dismissed abusive messages sent between his staff as the inevitable passion of people who were doing their best.

In a sometimes combative start to his evidence before the Covid inquiry in London, which began with protesters being removed from the hearing room, Johnson apologised for mistakes made, but then argued that these were not necessarily errors that could have been avoided.

Asked why he had not acted more urgently in January and early February 2020 amid warnings that Covid was spreading fast and could infect and kill large numbers of people, Johnson portrayed himself as at the mercy of a government-wide mindset of understandable complacency, given that earlier viruses such as Sars and Mers had not led to this.

When you read that an Asiatic pandemic is about to sweep the world, you think youve heard it before, and that was the problem, the former prime minister told the inquiry.

I was not being informed that this was something that would require urgent and immediate action.

He similarly rejected the idea that he had taken his eye off the ball later in February, when he spent most of the half-term holiday at the prime ministers Chevening country retreat, with cases rising fast. There were clearly things we could and should have done if we had known and understood how fast it was spreading. But we didnt, he said.

Johnson continued to argue this despite being shown evidence of greater alarm by some in government at this time, including a WhatsApp message from Dominic Cummings on 6 February in which his chief adviser told a group including the prime minister that he had been briefed that the virus was probably out of control now and will sweep world.

Asked by Hugo Keith KC, the inquiry counsel, why he had left Matt Hancock, the then-health secretary, to chair the first five meetings of the governments Cobra emergency committee on Covid, Johnson said the virus was then not something that had really broken upon the political world, adding that it had not by then been raised by anyone at prime ministers questions.

He said: I think it would certainly be fair to say of me, the entire Whitehall establishment, scientific community included, our advisers included, that we underestimated the scale and the pace of the challenge.

Johnson added: We should collectively have twigged much sooner. I should have twigged.

However, by 23 March, when the lockdown was imposed, there was no other option, Johnson said. Wed run out of wiggle room, he said. I no longer had the luxury of waiting. It was over.

Asked if he had considered then the idea of avoiding a lockdown at all, he replied: I did Im afraid to say at that stage I gave it pretty short shrift as I thought my obligation was to protect human life, and that was the number one duty of government.

The inquiry also heard confirmation that it had been impossible to retrieve about 5,000 WhatsApp messages from Johnsons old phone, covering the key period from January to June 2020, possibly caused by the device undergoing a factory reset.

Johnson began the first of two days of testimony by saying he was sorry for the pain and the loss and the suffering of the Covid victims an apology that was interrupted as Heather Hallett, the inquiry chair, ordered four protesters to leave the room for holding up a sign reading The dead cant hear your apologies.

However, under close questioning from Keith, while Johnson said he took ultimate responsibility for all the biggest decisions of the pandemic, he declined to say that his apology meant avoidable errors had occurred.

Keith went on to ask Johnson if by accepting errors he meant avoidable mistakes had happened, or just that with hindsight, some things could have been done differently. The former prime minister replied: I cant give you the answer to that question. Im not sure.

During lengthy questioning about WhatsApp messages shown earlier to the inquiry showing a sometimes abusive and misogynistic tone, as well as occasional despair and horror at Johnsons leadership and the wider culture of No 10, Johnson strongly pushed back at the idea it meant his government was dysfunctional.

Instead, he argued, such conflict could be a good and a healthy thing and would have happened in other governments, for example those of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.

I think that actually what youre looking at, in all this stuff, is a lot of highly talented, highly motivated people who are stricken with anxiety about what is happening about the pandemic, who are doing their best and who, like all human beings, under great stress and great anxiety about themselves and their own performance, will be inclined to be critical of others, he said.

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Boris Johnson: I wasnt properly warned about seriousness of Covid - The Guardian

Boris Johnson’s COVID inquiry grilling: all the bombshell moments – POLITICO Europe

December 7, 2023

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Voiced by artificial intelligence.

LONDON Boris Johnsons in the dock.

The former prime minister, who led Britain through the coronavirus pandemic before his administration spectacularly collapsed in 2022, faces a two-day grilling at the countrys official inquiry into the pandemic.

Hes on oath to tell the truth, and is being pressed to give his account of what worked and, crucially, what didnt, as the British state struggled to respond to the deadly virus.

Johnsons already been accused by ex-aides and officials of constantly shifting position and struggling to understand key concepts as the virus raged but now he has his chance to push back. POLITICO is in the room and keeping track of all the key moments.

Johnson kicked off the two-day hearing by saying sorry but there was plenty of drama as he did so.

Moments after the former prime minister was sworn in at the Paddington inquiry center, he started to apologize for the pain, loss and suffering that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic.

But he was quickly interrupted by the inquirys chair Heather Hallett, who ordered protesters in the public gallery to sit down. After they refused to do so, four protesters who were quiet, but holding signs aimed at Johnson were removed.

Responding after the interruption, Johnson said he could understand the feelings of these victims and their families. He said his administration had done our level best, but accepted it could have done things differently.

The COVID inquiry has so far cast an unfavorable light on the culture in the No.10 Downing Street Johnson ran and Wednesday offered his first real chance to respond to a host of lurid headlines.

WhatsApp messages already provided to the inquiry have shown that senior figures particularly Johnsons then-top adviser Dominic Cummings used a host of curse words to describe colleagues they thought were useless.

But, pressed on the fruity exchanges, the former prime minister said a lot of the language of the style that you refer to is completely unknown to me.

He said he had apologized in detail to one particular person who suffered abuse in WhatsApp exchanges, but stressed that government has a lot of challenging, competing characters whose views about each other might not be fit to print, but do get an awful lot done.

Wednesdays grilling teased out some of the frustrations of top officials in Johnsons government including extraordinary exchanges between the countrys most senior civil servants about what it was like working in his No. 10.

In jaw-dropping July 2020 messages flashed up on the inquiry screen, just-departed Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill and his newly-minted successor Simon Case lamented their lot in life.

In one exchange, Case fumed about a fucking extraordinary turn of events and said he had exploded at Johnsons top aide Cummings for chatting to the press. I will not work in an environment where Dom is constantly briefing out his plans and screwing up the rest of us in the process, Case said.

Sedwill sarcastically quipped back: But Dom never talks to the press. He told me!

This place is just insane, Case vented. Zero discipline. And he said: At this rate, I will struggle to last six months.

The frank exchanges are a far cry from the buttoned-up British civil service of legend.

The slow dawning realization of COVIDs severity was a key feature of Wednesdays grilling.

Johnson stood by his decision not to chair meetings of the governments COBRA crisis committee at the start of the pandemic, having taken lots of flak for passing the baton to then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

The former PM said he had been unaware of the looming seriousness of the virus, and that, from January to February 2020, COVID was like a cloud on the horizon no bigger than a mans hand, and you didnt know if it was going to turn into a typhoon or not.

Johnson argued that at this stage of the crisis, even the concept of a pandemic did not necessarily imply to the Whitehall [civil service] mind the kind of utter disaster that COVID was to become.

I look at how oblivious we were with horror now, Johnson later admitted as he was pressed on his early response. We should collectively have twigged much sooner, I should have twigged.

Central to Johnsons defense is his claim he was warned by top medical advisers against starting a lockdown too early in order to ensure maximum effectiveness, and to avoid behavioral fatigue among the British public.

When pushed by Keith, Johnson said he did not, however, press for an earlier lockdown. Candidly, I dont remember saying to myself: This is so bad. They must be wrong and perhaps with hindsight, I should have done, Johnson said.

He admitted that at the start of the pandemic, there had been a certain amount of incoherence in our thinking, with some parts of government presenting stark data while others took a more cautious approach.

Johnson faced a particularly tough time Wednesday afternoon when pressed on contemporaneous notes from his former private secretary Imran Shafi, who has already been quizzed by the inquiry.

Shafi recorded a meeting with Johnson, and noted down Johnsons view as: Were killing the patient to tackle the tumour why are we destroying economy for people who will die anyway soon. Johnson was also recorded as describing vulnerable people as bed blockers.

The former top Tory did not deny either claim, but said such words were an indication of the cruelty of the choice that we faced, and the appalling balancing act that I had to do throughout the pandemic.

This developing story is being updated

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Boris Johnson's COVID inquiry grilling: all the bombshell moments - POLITICO Europe

Boris Johnson Apologizes at U.K. Covid Inquiry for ‘Pain and Suffering’ – The New York Times

December 7, 2023

Regretful but unruffled, Boris Johnson acknowledged on Wednesday that as Britains prime minister during the pandemic, he had underestimated the emerging threat of the coronavirus in early 2020. But he rejected suggestions that his governments initially sluggish response had driven up Britains death toll.

Speaking before an official inquiry into the governments handling of the crisis, Mr. Johnson apologized for the pain and suffering and the loss of those who died from Covid, and of their families. He said the families deserved answers, as he submitted to two days of grilling about his leadership and judgment during those frantic days.

There are clearly things that we could have done, and should have done, if wed known and understood how this was spreading, Mr. Johnson said. We collectively should have twigged much sooner to the rapidly looming danger posed by the virus, he added. I should have twigged.

Still, Mr. Johnson said he was doubtful that acting earlier would have made a big difference. He sparred with the committees chief counsel, Hugo Keith, over whether Britains death toll, currently at 230,193, placed it among the worst-hit European countries, or merely in the middle. (Britains per capita death rate is higher than that of France or Germany, and only marginally lower than that of Italy, the European country most ravaged in the first wave of infections.)

Mr. Johnson, whose time in office was defined and ultimately derailed by the pandemic, was the most eagerly anticipated witness so far in the inquiry, an independent, public examination of Britains response to Covid-19, led by a former judge, Heather Hallett, that is expected to continue until 2026.

His daylong testimony mixed references to epidemiological data with detours into the locker-room language used by Mr. Johnson and his aides. Though there were no startling revelations, it added up to a revealing glimpse into how Britains leaders groped for a remedy to a once-in-a-century health crisis.

Mr. Johnson arrived at the hearing room shortly after 7 a.m., hours before the session began, allowing him to avoid Covid victims family members who later gathered to protest his appearance. Ms. Hallett had to call on protesters several times to stop disrupting the hearing as the former prime minister began to speak.

Mr. Johnson generally kept his cool during the first day, showing only a flash of irritation as Mr. Keith pressed him about whether he had taken his eye off the ball in February 2020 when he retreated to Chevening, an official residence outside London, and failed to chair several government meetings about the crisis.

Nobody is suggesting you had your feet up at Chevening, Mr. Keith said.

Apart from you, that is, a visibly peeved Mr. Johnson replied.

It was Mr. Johnsons former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, who had testified that Mr. Johnson was away during that period, working on a book on Shakespeare that he owed his publisher. Mr. Johnson, who did not mention the book, insisted he had been briefed on the crisis throughout that February.

When asked about the decisions for which he was apologizing, Mr. Johnson singled out difficulties in coordinating Englands public health messages with the authorities in Scotland and Wales, then said that he did not want to prejudge the conclusions that would unfold from his evidence.

Inevitably, we got some things wrong, Mr. Johnson said, while insisting that he and his aides had been doing their best at the time.

But asked whether he had read any more than a small fraction of the available minutes from the deliberations of the governments key committee of outside advisers, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, or SAGE, Mr. Johnson admitted that he had not, saying he had consulted them once or twice.

Mr. Johnson also struggled to explain his inability to produce some 5,000 WhatsApp messages from his old cellphone, sent during the pandemic and sought by the inquiry. He insisted that he had not removed them himself by performing a factory reset of the device and said he had provided all the evidence he could.

In one exchange, Mr. Johnson was asked about the work culture in 10 Downing Street described by other witnesses as chaotic and toxic during his tenure as well as about failings of his leadership and WhatsApp messages from Mr. Cummings, who had criticized the performance of the health secretary at the time, Matt Hancock, in scathing terms.

The text exchanges, Mr. Johnson said, showed that WhatsApp is intended to be, though clearly it isnt, ephemeral. He played down the pejorative and hyperbolic language, arguing that it had actually revealed creative tensions in the government. It would have been much worse, he said, to have led a government so deferential that senior figures never challenged one another.

If you are prime minister, he said, you are constantly being lobbied by somebody to sack somebody else.

Mr. Johnson rejected claims that he tolerated a toxic work environment, accepting only that the gender balance among his senior team had been poor, with too many meetings dominated by men. But he said he called a senior female civil servant to apologize for not objecting to a message sent to him by Mr. Cummings, in which he described her with a crude, misogynist epithet.

Asked whether he had fired Mr. Cummings and the cabinet secretary, Mark Sedwill, Mr. Johnson said, They both stepped aside from government, but it was a very difficult, very challenging, period. He added: They were getting very frazzled, because they were frustrated. Covid kept coming at us in waves.

Mr. Johnson was not asked about Downing Street social gatherings that violated lockdown rules a scandal that forced him out of Parliament after a committee concluded in June this year that he had deliberately misled lawmakers about his attendance at some of those parties.

Experts said the testimony on Wednesday gave Mr. Johnson a chance to explain how he navigated between ministers like Rishi Sunak, the current prime minister then serving as chancellor of the Exchequer, who warned about the damage of shutting down Britains economy, and Mr. Cummings, who urged Mr. Johnson to impose lockdowns.

Some of that flip-flopping was him listening to Rishi Sunak one day and Dominic Cummings the next, said Devi Sridhar, a professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh.

With so much attention focused on government infighting, however, some experts questioned whether the inquiry was doing enough to set out lessons that would allow Britain to avoid missteps in the next pandemic.

Where does this leave us, beyond trying to elect a different prime minister the next time? Professor Sridhar said.

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Boris Johnson Apologizes at U.K. Covid Inquiry for 'Pain and Suffering' - The New York Times

New study highlights COVID-19’s adaptive strategy for infection – Medical Xpress

December 7, 2023

This article has been reviewed according to ScienceX's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

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Researchers have discovered a novel mechanism whereby the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, can vary its mode of infection in human cells. In work published in the journal eLife, a team from the University of Minnesota and the Midwest Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Center found the virus can alternate between being highly infectious and avoiding detection by the immune system. This understanding is vital for grasping the virus' impact during the pandemic and for predicting its potential evolutionary developments.

The spike protein of the virus, which is crucial for attaching to and infecting human cells, includes a flexible section known as the receptor-binding domain (RBD). Fang Li, Ph.D., and his team at the University of Minnesota made an early breakthrough in the pandemic, finding the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 doesn't always remain in an accessible, "ready to connect" state. They proposed that the capacity of the RBD to alter its configuration permits the virus to either unveil itself for binding with human cells or shield itself from the immune system's antibodies.

In their recent research, scientists examined the variances between SARS-CoV-2 and its relative, the SARS-CoV-1 virus responsible for the SARS outbreak from 2002 to 2003. They pinpointed a particular area of the spike protein that determines the configuration of the RBD. Variations in this segment can shift the virus toward a more infectious state by opening up, or a more elusive state by closing off.

"When a novel coronavirus first emerges in humans, it often encounters minimal immune resistance and tends to be highly infectious," explained Dr. Li, a professor and endowed chair of pharmacology at the U of M Medical School and co-director of the Midwest AViDD Center. "As immunity develops among people, whether through infection or vaccination, the virus may increasingly resort to more elusive strategies to remain undetected. We have come to understand how a coronavirus can accomplish this evolution."

Li added that SARS-CoV-2 was particularly notable for its ability to strike a balance between high transmissibility and the capacity to evade the immune system from the outset of the pandemic.

At the Midwest AViDD Center, Dr. Li's team is also working on innovative treatments using nanobodiestiny antibodies derived from animals like alpacasthat can target SARS-CoV-2 even when it's in "stealth mode." The study indicates these nanobodies have a significant advantage over conventional human antibodies in detecting and neutralizing SARS-CoV-2.

The research was co-led by Dr. Li and Bin Liu, Ph.D., associate professor at The Hormel Institute and investigator of the Midwest AViDD Center, with important contributions from postdoctoral pharmacology researchers Qibin Geng and Yushun Wan.

More information: Qibin Geng et al, Lys417 acts as a molecular switch that regulates the conformation of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, eLife (2023). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.74060

Journal information: eLife

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New study highlights COVID-19's adaptive strategy for infection - Medical Xpress

True prevalence of long-COVID in a nationwide, population cohort study – Nature.com

December 7, 2023

Overall, 345,673 questionnaires were completed by 288,173 individuals, of whom 257,341 (89%) consented to record linkage to their test result. Following linkage, 53,530 were excluded because they reported a previous positive test that was not recorded on the database, and 5,715 because they had asymptomatic infections. Of the remaining 198,096 individuals, 98,666 (49.8%) had previous symptomatic, laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and 99,430 (50.2%) had never had a positive test. PCR tests took place between the 20th of April 2020 and the 31st of May 2022. Questionnaires were completed between the 10th of May 2021 and the 14th of November 2022. Compared with those who did not provide consent, participants in the final sample were more likely to be female (58.8% vs 51.8%; p-value<0.001), were older (>40 years 64.0% vs 51.1%; p-value<0.001) and slightly more deprived (most deprived SIMD quintile 20.8% vs 20.4%; p-value<0.001).

Infected individuals were less likely to have pre-existing health conditions and more likely to have been vaccinated (Table1). Because new first infections occurred over time, later periods of the pandemic were less common in the never infected group. Whilst 64.5% reported at least one symptom six months following SARS-CoV-2 infection, this was also true of 50.8% of those never infected (Table2). Results were similar at 12 (67.8% versus 55.0%) and 18 (72.6% versus 56.2%) months follow-up. The crude prevalence of at least one symptom attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infection was 13.8% (13.2%,14.3%), 12.8% (11.9%,13.6%), and 16.3% (14.4%,18.2%) at six, 12 and 18 months respectively. Following adjustment for potential confounders, these figures were 6.6% (6.3%, 6.9%), 6.5% (6.0%, 6.9%) and 10.4% (9.1%, 11.6%), respectively (Supplementary Table1). The attributable prevalence was higher in women and those who had had more vaccination doses prior to infection and lower in those with more pre-existing health conditions (Fig.1). The adjusted attributable percentage was higher for people infected later in the pandemic: 6.7% (6.2%, 7.1%) and 7.9% (6.9%, 9.0%) at six months follow-up for the delta and omicron variants respectively compared with 3.9% (3.2%, 4.6%) for the alpha variant (Supplementary Table1).

Data are presented as adjusted attributable prevalence values 95% confidence intervals. SIMD Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation; LTC Long term condition; VOC variant of concern. N=132,879. Adjusted for age, sex, SIMD quintile, number of LTCs, ethnic group, vaccination status, and variant period. Numerical values of the estimates are provided in Supplementary Table1.

Of the 98,666 participants with previous symptomatic infection 2256 (2.29%) had severe infection. At six months follow-up the crude prevalence of at least one symptom was 64.3% following mild infection compared with 79.3% following severe infection. These values were 67.8% and 82.5%, and 71.7% and 84.0%, respectively at 12 and 18 months follow-up.

Our finding that the true prevalence of long-COVID was 6.610.3% is not inconsistent with 12.7% reported in the Netherlands4 and the WHO estimate of 1020%1. Based on these three sources, the UK Office for National Statistics estimate of 2.7% may be an underestimate. In our previous analysis of the same cohort, 48% of people self-reported that they were not fully recovered six months following symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection5. Similarly, meta-analysis of published studies reported that 45% had unresolved symptoms at 4 months follow-up3. However, our findings from the current study suggest that whilst 64.572.6% of people report at least one symptom six to 18 months following SARS-CoV-2 infection, only 6.6%10.3% are likely to have long-COVID. The symptoms of the remainder are likely to have occurred without SARS-CoV-2 infection but some people may mistakenly attribute them to long-COVID. Further work is required to refine the definition and diagnosis of long-COVID and support appropriate management.

A national cohort study in England used similar methodology to estimate long-COVID prevalence in adolescents aged 1117 years6. Potential participants were invited from the individuals in Public Health Englands SARS-CoV-2 testing database. Invitations to complete an online questionnaire were sent by letter, with a response rate of 13%. Those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (n=3065) were matched by month of test, age, sex, and geographical region to adolescents who tested negative (n=3739). At 3 months follow-up the crude prevalence of at least one symptom attributable to infection was 13.2%, very close to our estimate in adults of 13.7% at 6 months follow-up.

Symptoms, reduced quality of life, impairment of activities of daily living, and self-reported non or partial recovery following SARS-CoV-2 infection are more common among people with pre-existing health problems, especially multimorbidity5. However, the findings of this study did not support the conclusion that their worse health following SARS-CoV-2 infection is due to a higher prevalence of long-COVID. This is based on us applying a modification of the WHO definition of long-COVID as one or more persistent or new symptom. We could not examine whether, for example, their existing symptoms deteriorated more as a result of SARS-CoV-2 infection than would otherwise have occurred. Our modification of the WHO definition does not incorporate the minimum symptom duration of at least 2 months. We could not determine if the participants reported symptoms lasted for at least this duration.

Whilst the percentage of people reporting one or more symptom at six months was slightly lower following omicron (63.3%) than the alpha (66.8%) and delta variants (66.7%), the true prevalence of long-COVID at six months was higher following omicron and delta than the alpha variant. Our adjusted result contradicts the findings of studies without comparison groups, that concluded that long-COVID is less prevalent following the omicron variant7, 8. In a Norwegian prospective cohort study, Magnusson et al. found that, compared with individuals who tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, the risk of ongoing symptoms posed by the omicron and delta variants were comparable at 14-126 days follow-up9.

Strengths of this study include its large, unselected study sample recruited from the general population, laboratory confirmation of infection status, and inclusion of a comparison group. To minimise bias, the comparison group was matched by age, sex and deprivation and we adjusted for a wide range of other confounders. Nonetheless, residual confounding is possible in any observational study and may explain the finding of a higher prevalence of long-COVID among people who had more vaccinations prior to infection. This finding conflicts with that of Antonelli et al.10, who reported reduced odds of long-duration (28 days) symptoms following two vaccine doses compared with no vaccination.

Similarly, the apparent higher prevalence of long-COVID 18 months following infection may reflect the onset of new symptoms, residual confounding due to over-representation of infections early in the pandemic in spite of adjustment for dominant variants, or be due to retention bias whereby retention is higher in those with symptoms. Both groups gain 6 months of age between questionnaires and most symptoms increase with age. Moreover, both SARS-CoV-2 infection and many of the symptoms reported at follow-up vary by season. However, this is more likely to explain differences between 6 and 12 months follow-up and between 12 and 18 months. People dying from long-COVID over time could contribute to a fall in the prevalence of long-COVID over follow-up. However, our findings do not reflect such a fall.

Selection bias may be present in those who were tested for SARS-CoV-2, those who completed the questionnaire, and those who consented to linkage. During the time period when index PCR tests were conducted testing was available to everyone free of charge. However, people might be less likely to have been tested if their symptoms were mild resulting in some bias in testing. Furthermore, selection bias in questionnaire completion could potentially lead to overestimation of associations if having ongoing symptoms made participation more likely, or alternatively underestimation of associations if having more severe ongoing symptoms affected the ability to participate. In terms of linkage consent it is difficult to determine what direction of effect this might have. Despite this limitation our methodology represents a pragmatic recruitment method that allows representative response at a population level.

The crude prevalence of long-COVID was higher following severe infection than mild infection. However, we were unable to calculate adjusted attributable prevalence stratified by infection severity. Population attributable risk is not calculable by severity because it is a detailed version of the exposure variable (test status), meaning that severity and test status are strongly correlated. Future work should explore other indicators of severity and Covid-19 history.

There is the potential for misclassification bias. Antigen tests were not available. Moreover, some individuals in the comparison group may have had SARS-CoV-2 infection that was not detected by a PCR test. This risk was reduced by excluding participants who had only negative PCR tests recorded but who self-reported that they had had SARS-CoV-2 infection. Nevertheless, the risk of classification error due to undiagnosed, asymptomatic infection remains.

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True prevalence of long-COVID in a nationwide, population cohort study - Nature.com

Boris Johnson hit by protests as he says sorry for UK’s COVID-19 ‘pain’ – POLITICO Europe

December 7, 2023

LONDON Boris Johnson was heckled by protestors at Britains COVID-19 inquiry as he said he was deeply sorry for mistakes made by his government during the pandemic.

Moments after the former prime minister was sworn in at the Paddington inquiry center, he started to apologize for the pain, loss and suffering that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic. But he was quickly interrupted by the inquirys chair Heather Hallett, who had ordered protesters in the public gallery to sit down.

After they refused to do so, four protesters who were quiet, but holding signs aimed at Johnson were removed.

Responding after the interruption, Johnson said he could understand the feelings of these victims and their families and said he was deeply sorry for the pain and the loss and suffering of those victims and their families.

He paid tribute to the hundreds of thousands of health care workers and many other public servants and people in all walks of life who helped protect our country throughout a dreadful pandemic.

I do hope that this inquiry will help to get beyond this to the very difficult questions that those victims and those families are rightly asking, so that we can protect ourselves better, [and] protect ourselves better in the future.

Britains COVID-19 death toll has topped 230,000 people, and the inquiry so far has painted Johnsons administration in an unfavorable light.

Former officials have described him as bamboozled by the scientific modeling and obsessed with older people accepting their fate, while Johnson is expected to be pressed on an incendiary claim that he said let the bodies pile high in a discussing about easing lockdown restrictions.

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Boris Johnson hit by protests as he says sorry for UK's COVID-19 'pain' - POLITICO Europe

Covid inquiry: 10 questions facing Boris Johnson – The Guardian

December 7, 2023

Covid inquiry

The former prime minister will come under scrutiny and these are the pressing issues

It is expected that Johnson will make an apology at the inquiry, conceding that the government was too slow in realising the severity of the virus, and blaming a lack of preparation.

Will he concede that he was too complacent in those early weeks? And will he apologise for his attitude towards the impact on older people?

The inquiry has heard repeated evidence that Johnson thought too much emphasis was being spent on protecting them. At one point, the governments chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, noted that Johnson was obsessed with old people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life.

There have been repeated suggestions Johnson did not appreciate the dangers when fears about Covid began to rise at the start of 2020. One official has already told the inquiry he believed that, early in the pandemic, Johnson asked: Why are we destroying the economy for people who will die anyway soon?

The former prime minister did not chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency group until March. Even in late March, his diary suggests he spent time meeting media mogul Evgeny Lebedev, who he later made a peer. Matt Hancock has said that locking down sooner would have saved many, many lives.

Cabinet minutes have revealed that Johnson said confidence is contagious as he prepared to take a holiday in February 2020, just as scientists were worried the NHS could be overwhelmed. Was he overconfident in deciding to take a holiday in the same month that crucial discussions had to be taken?

The inquiry has been told that Johnson had no communication with officials over a 10-day period during half-term.

His former adviser, Dominic Cummings, has also accused him of disappearing to write a book about Shakespeare that he had already been paid for. Johnson denies this.

The partygate scandal has been covered by previous examinations accounts of wine time Fridays have been reported, and Johnson himself was fined for breaching rules.

However, the Covid inquiry has heard more damning evidence about the culture of rule-breaking that existed in Downing St during the pandemic. Helen MacNamara, a senior civil servant at the time, told the inquiry it was likely that Covid guidance was breached every day.

Ultimately, Johnson was the boss, and details of rule-breaking and drunken partying emerged after repeated denials that any rules had been broken.

Among some of the extraordinary claims made by Cummings in his testimony was a disturbing nugget about Johnsons grasp of the science behind tackling Covid.

Cummings said the former PM asked his chief medical and scientific advisers whether Covid could be eliminated by blowing a hairdryer up your nose based on something he had seen online. Cummings describes it as a low point.

Vallance said Johnson had last studied science at age 15 and would be the first to admit it wasnt his forte. He said he sometimes pretended to misunderstand to test an alternative.

Reports that the PM said the government should let the bodies pile high in the autumn of 2020 surfaced some time ago. Johnson has previously dismissed them as total rubbish. However, the outburst has been given more credibility after one of Johnsons long-term allies, his one-time chief of staff Lord Udny-Lister, told the inquiry that Johnson did make the statement in the context of wanting to oppose a third national lockdown. Lister said he heard the angry outburst in a September 2020 meeting. He describes it as an unfortunate turn of phrase used under intense pressure.

It is already clear that during the pandemic, there were huge clashes between officials and politicians. MacNamara said that there was a toxic culture in operation. While Cummings (above) appears to have been pushing for a tougher approach to Covid, he has also been accused of creating a toxic atmosphere, once referring to MacNamara as a c*nt, saying he wanted to handcuff her and escort her from Downing St. Lister said: Some of the personalities made it very, very toxic Dominic Cummingss relationship with other people had become very strained. Why did Johnson allow that culture to persist?

The closure of schools and the impact on children especially from the most deprived families and areas remains one of the main issues to emerge in the handling of the pandemic. Anne Longfield, the childrens commissioner for England during Covid, has already said that the government made a terrible mistake over schools with pubs and hairdressers emerging from the first lockdown before schools. Meanwhile, Hancock has argued that the closure of schools again in January 2021 could have been avoided had the prime minister ordered an earlier lockdown that winter. Schools have complained of a lack of resources to teach.

The inquiry also offers Johnson an opportunity to cause trouble for Rishi Sunak, whom he blames more than anyone else for precipitating the end of his premiership. While it may not have had a significant impact on the overall course of the pandemic, government scientific advisers have made clear they saw eat out to help out as a bad idea that would aid the spread of the virus. The scheme was drawn up by the Treasury. Ultimately, Johnson led the government that approved it, but any attempts to raise difficult questions for Sunak will be noted with interest in Westminster.

In the autumn of 2020, when Covid cases were rising, Johnson invited figures opposed to lockdowns to a major meeting about a possible circuit breaker lockdown. Present were Carl Heneghan, an Oxford professor and lockdown critic, and Dr Anders Tegnell, who led Swedens response with no lockdowns. WhatsApp messages now show government advisers in despair. There were concerns about Johnsons approach. Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, wrote in September 2020: He cannot lead and we cannot support him in leading with this approach.

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Covid inquiry: 10 questions facing Boris Johnson - The Guardian

Long COVID-19 Syndrome: Insights From a Major Tertiary Center in the UK on Who Is at Greater Risk – Cureus

December 7, 2023

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Long COVID-19 Syndrome: Insights From a Major Tertiary Center in the UK on Who Is at Greater Risk - Cureus

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