‘Professor Lockdown’ ignored own advice to meet lover, resigns

LONDON: The British scientist who oversaw a paper which recommended population-wide social distancing to contain Covid-19, which led to the UK lockdown, has resigned from his role advising the government after flouting his own rules to meet his married lover.
Professor Neil Ferguson, head of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London, has quit his involvement in SAGE (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), which guides the government response to Covid-19, saying he "made an error of judgment" after he broke his own social distancing rules and allowed a married woman, Antonia Staats, to visit him at home during the lockdown — at least twice — while continually promoting the need for social distancing.
The Telegraph reported how Staats, who lives with her husband and their children in another house, visited Ferguson in his home on March 30, the day he warned lockdown measures would remain until June, and again on April 8 travelled across London to see him despite her husband having symptoms of the novel coronavirus. She said she was in an open marriage and she did not think she had breached the rules as she considered "their households to be one".
"I acted in the belief that I was immune, having tested positive for coronavirus, and completely isolated myself for almost two weeks after developing symptoms. I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing," Ferguson said.
Ferguson led the Imperial College Covid-19 Response Team which produced a paper on March 16 claiming that 500,000 people would die in the UK if the pandemic hit Britain uncontrolled, that there would be 250,000 deaths with a mitigated strategy, and 20,000 deaths with full social distancing of the entire population. The paper recommended the latter was "the only viable strategy". This led UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose a nationwide lockdown on March 23 and earned the epidemiologist the nickname "Professor Lockdown" for triggering the measures.
The UK lockdown, now in its seventh week, specifies only four reasons people may go outside. Visiting someone in another household, including a partner who lives separately, is not allowed.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday he was "speechless" and it was right for Ferguson to resign. "He is an eminent and impressive scientist and the science he has done has been an important part of what we have listened to," he added.
There has been an outcry in the US too, where many oppose a lockdown, as Ferguson predicted 2.2 million deaths there as a worst-case scenario in another paper which triggered the US lockdown.