In a matter of weeks, Farrar managed to help alert the world to impending disaster, play a part in orchestrating the public release of the SARS-CoV-2 genome, and helped to rally a crack team of scientific experts to investigate suspicions that the virus might have been unleashed by a Chinese laboratory leak. For the past 19 months, this sprawling collection of scientists and experts has been responsible for equipping the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and his administration with the most authoritative data and analyses on which to base the government's pandemic decision making. From Farrar's ringside seat, England's Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, was initially too cautious, wanting “to wait and weigh everything before taking action”;the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Patrick Vallance, accidentally caused a furore over “herd immunity” because he “said the wrong thing” while being “thrust into a political maelstrom”;Downing Street descended into an “atmosphere of chaos” that made the government “vulnerable to what looked like racketeering”;Johnson's government was out of its depth and demonstrated “lack of honesty” with the public;and Public Health England and the National Health Service (NHS) were “desperately behind the curve”. [...]Farrar decided that resigning would make no difference.
Speaking truth to power?