Dominic Cummings’ influence only exists because of Boris Johnson’s inadequacies

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It has been revealed that Dominic Cummings has attended meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage). Not as an observer, but it is alleged, as a contributor. Clearly the talents of this self-styled polymath know no bounds. What on earth is such a manipulator of facts doing in the company of eminent scientists who constantly search for the truth but are willing to amend their understanding on emerging evidence.

One has to ask, how did we come to this? I wonder how many of those who voted for Boris Johnson knew that he came along with a Svengali-like sidekick. I suppose Cummings’ influence only exists because of Johnson’s inadequacies.

Graham Barlow
The Wirral

The news that Dominic Cummings and a data scientist he worked with on the Vote Leave campaign have attended Sage meetings has clarified what Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, and Dominic Raab mean when they chant the government mantra “We have, at all times, been led by the science” in the Covid-19 emergency.

What the Tories actually mean is they are being led by the unelected history graduate Dominic Cummings, the man who reportedly argued for the discredited “herd immunity” strategy and who allegedly argued “if that means some pensioners die, too bad”. Although No 10 denies the claims.

Sasha Simic​
London

Science turf wars

What has become clear in recent weeks is that epidemiologists are like economists: there are lots of them with sharply differing views involved in turf wars. Like “climate scientists” they are extremely attached to their models and greatly overstate their accuracy. Neither Westminster nor Holyrood can outsource decisions to them – pretending to do so is just political sleight of hand.

We have no written constitution and both the Johnson and Sturgeon governments like to keep their options open. They don’t believe in stating precise objectives and certainly not how they are to be measured against them. In the pandemic they’ve imposed immensely costly initiatives and made huge numbers of businesses bankrupt without saying what they are trying to achieve.

With so much uncertainty it may have been worth the cost of lockdown to buy time – though Sweden showed there were alternatives. But winging it, the default mode of politics north and south of the border, has its limits. There’s going to be a trade-off between lives and livelihoods and we don’t need “adult” conversations with Sturgeon – we need “adult” political decisions.

Dr John Cameron
St Andrews

Too little, too late

The government has announced it will scale up its Covid-19 contact tracing capability to 18,000 and of course it will be up and running in a few weeks’ time (although understand nothing can be guaranteed).

Prior to the pandemic we were told don’t worry we are one of the best prepared countries in the world. It turns out our 290 contact tracers equals well prepared.

I suspect that when our new contact tracing capability is up and running in a few weeks’ time the government will announce that we will start with around 300 contact tracers and scale up from there. Sounding familiar?

Paul Morrison
Address provided

Unfit for office

Tom Peck is right to call out the complicity of those around Trump who remain silent over his thought-porridge. But the focus on Trump’s evident stupidity has always obscured something far more serious – his pathology. Only a clinically narcissistic ego, untethered from reality, would proffer quack cures to world-renowned scientists.

His subsequent retreat (“I was being sarcastic”) further underscores his unfitness for office under the 25th amendment. The narcissist – who really has paper-thin skin – must invent new worlds to preserve the threatened self. So it is “we” who are wrong. It just never happened.

Steven Garside
Manchester

President Trump has suggested that injections of disinfectant could be used as a treatment for Covid-19. Well, it’s true that such treatment could prevent death from the virus. But only because death would have resulted from the “treatment”. Is that what he meant?

Susan Alexander
Frampton Cotterell, Gloucestershire