Did Boris Johnson deliberately allow the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter the United Kingdom unhindered?

One of the key questions that any inquiry, whether by the Police or otherwise, into the UK Government's management of the Covid-19 epidemic in the UK must examine is the question of whether entry of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into the United Kingdom was avoidable.

In other words, could some or all of the deaths from Covid-19 in the United Kingdom have been avoided.

If, as I assert, all Covid-19 deaths in the UK were avoidable (for example by closing the United Kingdom Border on 31st January 2020, The United Kingdom's border should have been closed on 31st January 2020 ), did those avoidable deaths happen by chance, by incompetence or by deliberate decision?

There is circumstantial evidence that Boris Johnson deliberately allowed the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter the UK.

So what is the evidence?

A key date is 3rd February 2020.

In the minutes of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies of 3rd February 2020 (see Third SAGE meeting on Wuhan Coronavirus (WN-CoV), 3 February 2020 ) we read the following:

2. Only a month of additional preparation time for the NHS would be meaningful. It would also be meaningful if the outbreak were pushed out of usual winter respiratory season.

and

18. An extra month for the NHS and wider HMG to prepare for a WN-CoV epidemic – and to reduce the pressures arising from seasonal influenza – would offer a significant advantage.

and among the Action Points:

ACTION: SPI-M to consider whether the estimates on the impact of travel restrictions agreed by SAGE can be refined.

What do these bland comments mean?

SAGE is stating that a greater than 95% closure of the United Kingdom Border would allow around a month of preparation time for the National Health Service to make preparations for the expected further arrival of Covid-19 in the UK (the first confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the UK were confirmed on 31st January 2020).

The discussion of the effect of Border closures in a pandemic situation goes back to at least October 2005.

In UK INFLUENZA PANDEMIC CONTINGENCY PLAN  on page 21 (which is the 23rd page of the PDF document) we read:

In the event of a novel influenza virus causing significant outbreaks of
human illness elsewhere in the world, it is unlikely that the UK could
prevent importation (except by closing all borders); even a 99.9%
restriction of travel into the country would only be expected to delay
importation of the virus by up to two months.

On 3rd February 2020 SAGE is stating that a partial Border Closure would buy a month's preparation time for the National Health Service.

Imagine the importance of that. The NHS could have had another month to accumulate additional Personal Protective Equipment. The NHS could have worked out a better way to protect those in Care Homes who were most likely to die from Covid-19 if they contracted it.

If a partial UK Border Closure had been put in place immediately after the SAGE advice was given on 3rd February 2020, in all likelihood thousands of lives could have been saved.

What happened to the SAGE advice of 3rd February?

It seems likely that the SAGE advice that the UK Border be partially closed was communicated promptly to Boris Johnson.

In a speech made at Greenwich on the evening of 3rd February 2020, Boris Johnson stated the following ( Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech in Greenwich ):

And in that context, we are starting to hear some bizarre autarkic rhetoric, when barriers are going up, and when there is a risk that new diseases such as coronavirus will trigger a panic and a desire for market segregation that go beyond what is medically rational to the point of doing real and unnecessary economic damage, then at that moment humanity needs some government somewhere that is willing at least to make the case powerfully for freedom of exchange, some country ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles and leap into the phone booth and emerge with its cloak flowing as the supercharged champion, of the right of the populations of the earth to buy and sell freely among each other.

And here in Greenwich in the first week of February 2020, I can tell you in all humility that the UK is ready for that role.”

Where did the supposed "bizarre autarkic rhetoric" come from?

Was this Boris Johnson's response to the SAGE advice given earlier that day that there should be partial UK Border Closure to allow the NHS an additional month to prepare for Covid-19?

Do these words demonstrate that Boris Johnson had refused to countenance any closure of the UK Border?

If they do, then Boris Johnson made a decision to allow UK residents to be exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus earlier than necessary, since a 95% Border Closure would have bought of the order of 1 extra month for the UK to prepare for a Covid-19 epidemic.

If, as I think highly likely, Boris Johnson decided to refuse ANY UK Border Closure (such as the 95% UK Border Closure implicit in the SAGE advice of 3rd February 2020), it follows that he also refused to countenance a complete Border Closure of the kind which would have avoided all Covid-19 deaths in the United Kingdom.

The optimal time to close the UK Border was 31st January 2020.

However, a prompt UK Border Closure on 3rd February 2020 would, in my assessment, have prevented all Covid-19 deaths in the United Kingdom.

It seems to me that there is a case urgently to investigate whether Boris Johnson refused on 3rd February 2020 to allow a UK Border Closure of any kind and whether that refusal caused all the deaths in the UK from Covid-19.

In other words it seems to me that there is an urgent need to establish whether a refusal by Boris Johnson to allow any level of UK Border Closure has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in the United Kingdom.