During the peak of the pandemic, WhatsApp messages have brought to light a rather striking nickname for Rishi Sunak, as one of the government’s top science officers referred to him as “Dr Death.” This revelation came from a text exchange between Professor Dame Angela McLean and Professor John Edmunds in September 2020, shortly after the then chancellor initiated his “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme. These messages were presented as evidence to the UK COVID-19 Inquiry, suggesting that the conversation took place during a briefing.
In the midst of their discussion, Dame Angela, who was advising the Ministry of Defence at the time and now serves as the government’s chief scientific adviser, used a derogatory term to describe someone else in the meeting, presumably the prominent lockdown skeptic, Professor Carl Heneghan. In response, Professor Edmunds, a COVID modeler, commented, “Every statistic is wrong.”
A few messages later, Dame Angela sent a WhatsApp message to her colleague, referring to Rishi Sunak as “Dr Death the Chancellor” and added, “In ONS you’d see it.”
Professor Edmunds, when questioned by lead counsel Hugo Keith during his appearance at the COVID inquiry hearing, couldn’t definitively confirm whether these comments were in reference to Mr. Sunak’s scheme. The “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme, which provided discounts to diners throughout August 2020, aimed to encourage people to return to restaurants and pubs as the first lockdown was easing. However, a study in 2021 indicated that the scheme contributed to a rise in COVID-19 infections.
While Prof. Edmunds couldn’t pinpoint the context of the comments, he did express his lingering dissatisfaction with the scheme during the hearing. He criticised the decision to “put your foot on the accelerator” by promoting dining out with public funds when a significant number of people had already died due to the pandemic. He emphasised that while he didn’t attribute the second wave solely to the scheme, the optics of it were problematic, as it encouraged people to take epidemiological risks by dining inside restaurants and excluded takeout options.
A spokesperson for COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, Naomi Fulop, highlighted that the public inquiry had revealed a lack of consultation with government scientific advisers on the “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme. She argued that the scheme contributed to a significant loss of lives, strained the NHS, and led to a severe second lockdown. The reference to the Prime Minister as ‘Dr. Death’ by the current chief scientific adviser further raised concerns about the government’s response to potential future pandemics.
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