UK denies claims by Cummings it pursued Covid herd immunity

Dominic Cummings, who is due to give evidence on the government’s handling of the pandemic to lawmakers on Wednesday, unleashed a series of tweets on Saturday criticising the UK’s response.

He said that letting enough citizens become infected in order to reach natural herd immunity was the “official plan in all docs/graphs/meetings” until early March 2020, when it became clear that such a policy would lead to catastrophe.

While Johnson’s government has won plaudits for its rapid vaccine rollout, his actions in handling the virus remain under intense scrutiny, increasing the focus on Cummings’ appearance this week.

Critics say Johnson was consistently too late in imposing coronavirus lockdowns, delays which they say contributed to the UK registering Europe’s highest death toll from the pandemic at more than 127,000. “How ‘herd immunity by Sep’ cd have been the plan until that week is a fundamental issue in the whole disaster,” Cummings wrote on Saturday.

When asked about the allegations in an interview on the BBC on Sunday, Home Secretary Priti Patel said that was “not at all” the plan. Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency also said it wasn’t the nation’s strategy.