Governments must be ready to “hit a pandemic hard” if the need arises using lockdown policies, according to former British Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Hancock, who was speaking before the UK’s Covid Inquiry on Tuesday, insisted that the lockdown was “necessary,” and may be necessary again for future pandemics. He also said that governments may have to engage in lockdown policies that are “more stringent than feels comfortable” to combat diseases.
“What everybody missed in the western world was the lockdowns were going to be necessary,” he said.
“It is central to what we must learn as a country that we’ve got to be ready to hit a pandemic hard. That we’ve got to be able to take action – lockdown action if necessary – that is wider, earlier, more stringent than feels comfortable at the time.
“…The doctrinal flaw was the biggest by a long way because if we’d had a flu pandemic, we still would have had the problem of no plan in place for lockdown, no prep for how to do one, no work on what, how best to lock down with the least damage.”
He added: “I understand deeply the consequences of lockdown and the negative consequences for many, many people – many of which persist to this day.”
Hancock went on to claim that it was “wrong” of health bodies like the World Health Organisation to condemn lockdowns prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“All of the independent external advice, the World Health Organisation advice, indeed the International Health Regulations, stated that we should not have lockdowns,” he said.
“…The London Resilience Partnership published document in May 2018, and I quote, ‘It will not be possible to halt the spread of a new pandemic’. That was the attitude. It was the doctrine, and it was wrong.”
He went on to insist that lockdowns were needed to “stop a pandemic running through the population.”
Hancock has been a figure of controversy since he ultimately resigned from his role in 2021 after being caught having an affair in breach of his government’s own Covid advice.
Cheating Hancock: Matt Hancock’s secret affair with aide Gina Coladangelo is exposed after office snogs while Covid raged on https://t.co/2jFQuqVV6B pic.twitter.com/HxQ2RAiPPL
— Politico Digital UK (@PoliDigitalUK) June 25, 2021
He was also the subject of a WhatsApp message leak by the Telegraph, entitled The Lockdown Files, in which it was revealed that he had discussed having UK police “get heavy” on those who broke the lockdown rules, along with other controversial statements.
Ex-UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged UK police to “get heavy” on Covid rule breakers, while top British civil servants mocked people in hotel quarantine, leaked WhatsApp messages reveal. #gripthttps://t.co/kkGxv06Plk
— gript (@griptmedia) March 3, 2023