Ex-aide launches new salvo against UK's Johnson over virus

A former top aide to Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the British leader was dismissive of the threat posed by surging coronavirus cases last year

LONDON -- A disgruntled former top aide to Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the British leader was dismissive of the threat caused by surging coronavirus cases last year, saying he did not want to impose a lockdown because the disease was only killing the elderly. Dominic Cummings left his job as an adviser in November and has since launched a series of excoriating attacks on his former boss. In an interview with the BBC, Cummings said Johnson resisted imposing a second lockdown in the fall of 2020 because “the people who are dying are essentially all over 80.” Britain was in lockdown for more than three months from March 2020 before easing up over the summer. The government’s top science adviser advised new restrictions in September, as cases rose again. A new lockdown was imposed in early November, and a third in January.