Matt Hancock book
(Picture: Matt Hancock book)Whatever you think of Matt Hancock, as Health Secretary he was dealt a very difficult hand. He had to deal with the worst pandemic in a century. And he had Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings as bosses. It is a fate I would not wish on anyone. But I have to admit, after struggling through this book, in moments of weakness I wished it on Matt Hancock.
The former health secretary – now famous for eating unmentionable body parts of innocent animals in an Australian jungle for money – has good qualities. But it is important to remember that – most people I speak to hate him. Those who know him speak of his affableness, his energy, his sharp mind. Hancock correctly recognised that a vaccine was not only possible but probable and based his strategies on – and directed his energies towards – that end. In The Pandemic Diaries he quotes from a briefing to a newspaper: “Matt Hancock is the only person here who thinks there is actually going to be a vaccine… It’s a running joke with other departments”. If the vaccine doubters had won the arguments, I shudder to think of what would have happened.
