Yes, Devi Sridhar, scientists advise and ministers decide (Don’t blame scientists for what went wrong with Covid – ministers were the ones calling the shots, 13 June). But there is still much for the Covid inquiry to inquire about. Did we have the best mechanism for obtaining the best advice? Did the scientists give the right advice?
What were we to conclude from the appearance of the chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, the chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, and the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, at the 12 March 2020 press conference? When they told us we might need to lock down but not yet, was that the scientific advice or government policy? When the epidemiologist John Edmunds gave the same message to Channel 4 on 13 March, was he telling us scientific facts or straying into policy?
