Vallance wasn't told of Eat Out To Help Out before launch
Sir Patrick Vallance says he, as the government’s chief scientific adviser, was not asked for guidance on the Eat Out To Help Out scheme introduced by the then-chancellor Rishi Sunak.
He continues the policy contradicted the public health message at the time, and “quite likely” contributed to an increase in Covid transmissions. Report by Alibhaiz. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
He continues the policy contradicted the public health message at the time, and “quite likely” contributed to an increase in Covid transmissions. Report by Alibhaiz. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 'Eat Out to Help Out' we didn't know about until it was announced and I think our advice
00:06 would have been very clear on that.
00:08 It's evident from your witness statement that at the time you and indeed SAGE didn't agree
00:17 with that approach or at least were alive to the risks that it brought with it.
00:23 That would be a better way of putting it.
00:25 Well I think up until that point the message had been very clear which is interaction between
00:33 different households and people that you weren't living with in an enclosed environment with
00:39 many others was a high risk activity.
00:43 That policy completely reversed it to saying we will pay you to go into an environment
00:50 with people from other households and mix in an indoor environment for periods extended
00:57 over a couple of hours or more.
01:01 And that is a completely opposite public health message as a result of that.
01:06 Now it's quite likely that had an effect on transmission.
01:10 In fact it's very difficult to see how it wouldn't have had an effect on transmission
01:14 and that would have been the advice that was given had we been asked beforehand.