“It's not just the lies to the public; it's also the consequences of those [dangerous] lies."
Former health secretary Matt Hancock has been ridiculed for claiming that the Covid-19 pandemic is over in the UK, despite 600 people dying of Covid yesterday.
Hancock made the claim during an interview with Sky News’ Beth Rigby, where he was asked if he thought the pandemic was finally over.
Hancock replied: “Yes, in this country. Covid is obviously endemic, meaning that it’s everywhere and lots of people catch it.
“But every week they publish the statistics about how many people have got antibodies that protect you from Covid and it’s now over 99%.”
Although Hancock did stress that it was not over everywhere in the world, saying that it was shocking how some of the countries that went for a zero covid strategy at the start were now in real trouble, he nonetheless drew immediate criticism for his claim that it was over in the UK.
One social media user wrote: “600 people died with Covid reported yesterday, are you really that thick Matt Hancock?”
Dr Zubaida Haque, a member of Independent Sage tweeted: “It’s not just the lies to the public; it’s also the consequences of those [dangerous] lies.
“When asked “is the pandemic finally over”, former Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, says “yes – in this country”.
“Over 1600 #covid deaths + ~14,000 hospital admissions in UK in last 7 days”.
Best for Britain tweeted: “The UK had 600 deaths yesterday – the highest in Europe.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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