The government is 'deliberately rewriting history' over COVID-19 pandemic, says editor of leading medical journal

Matilda Long
Updated
In this handout photo issued by 10 Downing Street, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks from 10 Downing Street praising NHS staff in a video message, after he was discharged from hospital a week after being admitted with persistent coronavirus symptoms, in London, Sunday, April 12, 2020. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is praising the National Health Service staff for saving his life in a video on Twitter after his discharge from St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. He said he did not have the words to properly thank the staff at NHS for “saving my life.” He lauded two nurses Johnson said stood by his bedside for 48 hours “when things could have gone either way.” (Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street via AP)
Boris Johnson's government has been accused of "deliberately rewriting history" over its handling of the coronavirus crisis. (Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street via AP)

The editor of a top medical journal has accused the government of “deliberately rewriting history” over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a scathing tweet, Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, accused ministers of waging an “ongoing COVID-19 disinformation campaign”.

His tweet followed a government statement in defence of its coronavirus response, released at the weekend in response to a damning analysis in the Sunday Times that accused Boris Johnson of failing to take the outbreak seriously and reacting too slowly.

The statement from the Department for Health comprised a highly unusual rebuttal of the article, titled Response to Sunday Times Insight article, and said the piece “contains a series of falsehoods and errors”.

It referenced a previous tweet by Horton in which he called for “caution” in media reports of the virus, but Horton argued the statement failed to mention the rest of his tweets, where he pointed out the “dangers of this new disease”.

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