It is “disappointing” that government officials did not adhere to the Covid rules put in place to control the spread of the virus, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance has said.
Sir Patrick , 62, was one of the key scientists who updated the public through televised briefings during the pandemic, sometimes accompanied by prime minister Boris Johnson.
He was speaking after collecting an honour from the Duke of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace for helping to lead the UK’s battle against coronavirus.
He received his honour as Mr Johnson insisted he will survive Conservative critics’ attempts to overthrow him over lockdown breaches.
When asked about the partygate scandal, Sir Patrick said: “It was really important at all stages that everyone stuck to the rules. It works when people stuck to them. It is disappointing that that wasn’t the case.”
Conservative MPs voted 211 to 148 on Monday in support of Mr Johnson following a bruising few months involving the partygate scandal, standards in political life and cost-of-living concerns.
Sir Patrick said the darkest days of the pandemic came amid the “huge uncertainty” about the fast-spreading virus, including when Mr Johnson was struck down with Covid-19.
He recalled those as “difficult” times and said there will be further waves of infection, but the nation should now be in a better place to deal with it.
He said: “The darkest days were in many ways the early days of the pandemic when obviously lots of people became very ill quite quickly – obviously people in the government fell ill and the prime minister was very ill, and those were very difficult days.
“It was mostly about the uncertainty. We did not know much about the virus. We did not know much about exactly how it spread.
“We did not know there were going to be vaccines and treatments.
“We hoped there would be and we were trying to work on them, but we just did not know. There was huge uncertainty at that time and that was most difficult.”
William joked with him that this was “second time lucky” as he presented Sir Patrick, who was originally knighted in the 2019 New Year Honours list, with an upgraded award which makes him a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.
This recognises the work of senior military officials and civil servants.
Sir Patrick said the most positive time during the pandemic was when the UK became the first place in the world with an approved vaccine.
He said: “It was a real moment where we thought ‘this is going to be a way out of this’ even though it was over a year before it was finally a way to getting out of it.
“It was the thing that changed the course of the pandemic.”
Sir Patrick believes that winter could be a testing time but the NHS leadership is aware of the potential task it may face in dealing with infections and is preparing itself for it.
He said: “We are in a very different position (now) because of the high degree of vaccination and immunity in the population. We will see, I’m afraid, further waves of infection, maybe next winter.”
