Coronarivus: ex-UK PM Boris Johnson ‘bamboozled’ by science, Covid-19 inquiry told

Patrick Vallance, the PM’s chief scientific adviser said that Johnson struggled to come to grips with much of the science during the coronavirus pandemic

Johnson was forced to step down as PM in September 2022 following revelations of lockdown rule-breaking parties at his Downing Street residence during the pandemic

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Boris Johnson’s chief scientific adviser said that the former UK prime minister struggled to come to grips with much of the science during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: AP

Published: 12:00am, 21 Nov 2023Updated: 12:17am, 21 Nov 2023

Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, struggled to come to grips with much of the science during the coronavirus pandemic, his chief scientific adviser said on Monday.

In keenly awaited testimony to the country’s public inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic, Patrick Vallance said he and others faced repeated problems getting Johnson to understand the science.

“I think I’m right in saying that the prime minister gave up science at 15,” he said. “I think he’d be the first to admit it wasn’t his forte and that he struggled with the concepts and we did need to repeat them – often.”

Patrick Vallance, who served as Boris Johnson’s chief scientific adviser, said watching Johnson “get his head round stats is awful.” Photo: AP

In extracts from his diary that were relayed to the inquiry, Vallance said Johnson was “bamboozled” by the graphs and data and that watching him “get his head round stats is awful.”

During the pandemic, Vallance was a highly visible presence in the UK He and the chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, would flank Johnson in numerous daily Covid-19 press briefings from the prime minister’s offices on Downing Street.

Vallance, who stepped down from his role as the British government’s chief scientific adviser earlier this year, said Johnson’s struggles were not unique and that many leaders had problems in understanding the scientific evidence and advice, especially in the first stages of the pandemic in early 2020.

It was hard work sometimes to try and make sure that he had understood what a particular graph or piece of data was saying

Patrick Vallance, UK’s former chief scientific adviser

“I would also say that the meeting that sticks in my mind was with fellow advisers from across Europe, when one of them – and I won’t say which country – declared that the leader of that country had enormous problems with exponential curves, and the telephone call burst into laughter, because it was true in every country,” he said.