Neil Ferguson's flawed and alarmist wuhanvirus spread model prompted the government to impose strict lockdown measures. The 51 year-old epidemiologist from Imperial College London, predicted wildly unrealistic number of deaths - 500,000 - absent such measures.
According to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, even couples not residing collectively should keep aside throughout lockdown. Apparently, Ferguson thinks the rules he enthusiastically supports don't apply to him.
Police in England and Wales have handed out greater than 9,000 fines in the course of the lockdown. Dr Catherine Calderwood, was compelled to resign final month after making two journeys to her second house in the course of the wuhanvirus lockdown.
On Monday March 30, the day he was publicly warning that the then one-week-old lockdown measures would have to stay till June, he reportedly let his lover Antonia Staats travel across London to visit him for some 'good time' apparently.
Staats 38, a left-wing activist, made another visit on April 8, around the time she was telling associates her own husband, an educator in his 30s, had signs of coronavirus.
Staats and her husband reside along with their two kids, in a £1.9 million house.
This means that on at least two occasions, the government scientist and her left-wing lover, who lecture Britons on the importance of following the lockdown rules, were themselves breaking those rules for some 'quality time' together. Staats while cheating on her husband also potentially exposed a government scientist to the virus.
Critics took to Twitter to express their outrage.
Allison Pearson(@allisonpearson): "So my family are the idiots isolating for 5 weeks in case we’re still infectious while Neil “500,000 deaths” Ferguson has Corona and gets the mistress over for a quick bit of transmission Lordy, the epic disconnect between Them and Us. #FergusonScandal"
Daniel Hannan(@DanielJHannan): "Prof Ferguson's private life is none of my damn business. But the fact that he has condemned 65 million of us to house arrest on the basis of something he plainly can't believe in very strongly - that bothers me."
Andy Wigmore(@AndyWigmore): "It’s not a witch hunt it’s simple hypocrisy the public won’t stomach, this is the guy who scared a government into closing down the whole of the country yet blatantly ignores his own advice."
Member of Parliament David Davis(@DavidDavisMP): "A bigger issue than Professor Ferguson's private life is the accuracy of his model. When applied to the Swedish policy it forecast 40,000 deaths by now, over 15 times the reality. We need the whole model, its assumptions and working in the public domain. We can no longer run our strategy on secret advice and potentially flawed calculations."
Responding to The Telegraph which broke the story, the disgraced scientist - who himself, contacted and recovered from the virus - said, "I accept I made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action. I have therefore stepped back from my involvement in Sage [the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies].
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 to control this devastating epidemic. The Government guidance is unequivocal, and is there to protect all of us.”