Dominic Cummings Offers a Sorry-Not-Sorry for U.K. Lockdown Breach - The New York Times

The top adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson caused a furor after it was learned he had driven 260 miles to his parents’ home.

LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson took a breathtaking gamble with his own popularity on Monday, allowing his closest aide to go public with a detailed, yet stubbornly unapologetic, explanation for making a 260-mile journey that broke lockdown rules and ignited a political firestorm in Britain.

In an extraordinary hourlong session with reporters, the aide, Dominic Cummings, admitted to traveling from London to his parents’ home in Durham in late March, shortly before falling ill with the coronavirus, and making a second outing in the region while there, confirming reports that have consumed the British news media for three days.

Cummings explained he had left London to secure care for his son in the event that both he and his wife were incapacitated by the coronavirus.

Cummings said.

Cummings, illustrating what analysts say is the prime minister’s deep reliance on his mercurial, combative adviser.

Still, the prime minister said he regretted the anger the Cummings episode had stirred up and noted that he did not know in advance about his plans.

Johnson said, adding that “people will have to make their minds up.”.

Cummings explained that he had made the trip — to Castle Barnard, a half-hour drive from Durham — to test whether his eyesight, which he said had been impaired by the illness, was good enough for him to make the five-hour drive back to London.

Johnson was pressed on his aide’s explanation, he said he had suffered his own eyesight problems since recovering from the virus.

“The British people were looking for at least an apology from Dominic Cummings for breaking the lockdown,” the opposition Labour Party said in a statement.

Cummings despite protests from at least 18 lawmakers from his own Conservative Party, a number of Church of England bishops, opposition lawmakers and members of the public.

Now, some scientists and opposition politicians are warning that the episode risks undermining the credibility of government public health messaging on the pandemic.

Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

Federal health officials do not include toe lesions in the list of coronavirus symptoms, but some dermatologists are pushing for a change, saying so-called Covid toe should be sufficient grounds for testing.

Yes, but make sure you keep six feet of distance between you and people who don’t live in your home.

This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms.

Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing.

If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor.

Cummings had previously worked for a cabinet minister, Michael Gove, then at the education department, and had ruffled feathers there, too.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron once described him as a “career psychopath.”.

Devi Sridhar, director of the global health governance program at Edinburgh University, said the public had been “remarkably forgiving” about senior officials getting privileged access to testing and medical care

“It’s about right and wrong — and government choosing to defend actions of one of its advisers over the public health message it has been pushing for eight weeks, and which is designed to save lives.”