[hedgew]

This seems like a hostile interpretation of what he said.

Cummings said he had warned about the dangers of pandemics.

The original archived version of his blog post obviously warns about pandemics.

Archived version from 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20190331190550/https://dominiccu...

[dghf]

The quote attributed to him (I've not seen his press briefing myself, so I can't say whether it's accurate) is this:

> Last year I wrote about the possible threat of coronaviruses and the urgent need for planning.

There are three key bits there:

> I wrote

The blog post is some 1800 words, two-thirds of which is a verbatim quote from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Once you taken away the leading epigraph from David Deutsch and the rather long title, there are barely 400 words of actual content from Cummings.

> about the possible threat of coronaviruses

In its original form, the post does not mention coronaviruses. The only pathogens mentioned are Ebola and various types of flu, and those only appear in the extensive quote from BAS.

> and the urgent need for planning

The only planning it refers to is greater security for laboratories studying dangerous pathogens, specifically the use of red teams to test the security of British research facilities. There is nothing about preparing for pandemics, whether stockpiling equipment, contingency plans for dealing with a pandemic, emergency powers legislation, determining criteria for imposing or lifting lockdowns, etc.

Given that Cummings appears to be using this post as a refutation of the accusation that he initially favoured "herd immunity" as the strategy for dealing with COVID-19 in the UK, his representation of it seems a little disingenuous.

[chimprich]

Cummings yesterday said that he'd specifically warned of the threat of /coronaviruses/ a year previously.

"Last year I wrote about the possible threat of coronaviruses and the urgent need for planning."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dominic-cummi...

[PuffinBlue]

And a curious coincidence he made such a modification when he returned from Durham. Almost as if he knew he'd have to start creating justification for the trip. A coincidence indeed!

[DanBC]

He said that he'd written about pandemics, and that his writing shows he wasn't against lockdown, and was not in favour of herd immunity.

His blog does show the danger of pandemic, but says nothing about herd immunity or lockdown.