{"id":144803,"date":"2023-11-03T23:21:16","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T23:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebritywshow.com\/?p=144803"},"modified":"2023-11-03T23:21:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T23:21:16","slug":"johnson-tells-covid-inquiry-he-had-to-balance-competing-needs-of-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebritywshow.com\/world-news\/johnson-tells-covid-inquiry-he-had-to-balance-competing-needs-of-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson tells Covid Inquiry he had to balance competing needs of UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>&#8216;I had a duty to consider harm of lockdown&#8217;, Boris Johnson tells Covid Inquiry as former Prime Minister said he had to balance the competing needs of the country<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Former Prime Minister told the Covid Inquiry he had to balance options in 2020<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>He said it was &#8216;highly unlikely&#8217; that earlier action could have prevented lockdown<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Johnson brushed aside suggestions he was &#8216;pushed into&#8217; ordering a lockdown\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Boris Johnson has told the Covid Inquiry he had a &#8216;duty&#8217; to weigh up whether lockdowns would do more harm than good.<\/p>\n<p>The former PM has come under fire for delaying decisions to impose draconian restrictions during the pandemic, and for constantly questioning the impact on the economy.<\/p>\n<p>But, in written evidence to the inquiry, Mr Johnson said he had to balance the competing needs of the country at a time when there were &#8216;no good choices&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>And he said it was &#8216;highly unlikely&#8217; that earlier action by the Government could have prevented the need for a lockdown.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Johnson brushed aside suggestions he had been &#8216;pushed into&#8217; ordering the first lockdown in March 2020, but acknowledged it had weighed heavily on him.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/03\/22\/77385279-0-image-a-19_1699051174131.jpg\" height=\"634\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>In written evidence to the Covid Inquiry, Mr Johnson said he had to balance the competing needs of the country at a time when there were &#8216;no good choices&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/03\/22\/77385289-0-image-a-20_1699051178490.jpg\" height=\"343\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>He\u00a0brushed aside suggestions he had been &#8216;pushed into&#8217; ordering the first lockdown in March 2020, but acknowledged it had weighed heavily on him<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/03\/22\/77385293-0-image-a-21_1699051181056.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mr Johnson&#8217;s former chief aide Dominic Cummings savaged him this week, caricaturing him as an indecisive &#8216;trolley&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It is true that I have reflected (no doubt out loud and no doubt many times) about whether the lockdowns would do (and did do) more harm than good,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I believe it was the duty of any pragmatic and responsible leader to have such a debate, both with himself and with colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We were between a rock and a hard place. We simply had no good choices, and it was necessary at all times to weigh up the harms that any choice would cause&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Johnson said he was &#8216;very worried about the economic harm&#8217; caused by the stay at home order, and questioned whether it would &#8216;do more damage to the country than the virus itself&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>But he added: &#8216;I always attached the highest priority to human life.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Johnson&#8217;s former chief aide Dominic Cummings savaged him this week, caricaturing him as an indecisive &#8216;trolley&#8217; who careered from one side of the argument to the other in Downing Street.<\/p>\n<p>But Mr Cummings faced criticism himself for poisoning the Government&#8217;s response after the inquiry published messages revealing his foul-mouthed and misogynistic attacks on senior figures battling against the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Johnson&#8217;s statement suggests he will offer a robust defence when he appears before the inquiry next month, pointing out that experts were giving wildly different scientific advice as the pandemic unfolded.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It also indicates that he will hit back at claims that he was too slow to grip the issue.<\/p>\n<p>The inquiry has heard criticism that he left the then-health secretary Matt Hancock to chair early meetings of the Cobra emergency committee in January and February of 2020. But the former prime minister said: &#8216;I am asked whether earlier interventions could have avoided the need for a national lockdown. I suppose it is possible, but I cannot think what they might have been (short of a vaccine or drugs, which we did not have) and I think it highly unlikely.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Johnson said he had acted quickly when experts warned in mid-March that modelling showed Covid would &#8216;overwhelm the NHS unless more was done&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>He said he announced that all non-essential contact should cease two days after receiving the warning, with a full lockdown imposed a week later.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12708957\/Lockdown-Johnson-tells-Covid-Inquiry-competing-needs-country.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;I had a duty to consider harm of lockdown&#8217;, Boris Johnson tells Covid Inquiry as former Prime Minister said he had to balance the competing&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - 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