There will be no winners in the UK's coronavirus blame game | Gaby Hinsliff
As the spats continue, the Commons science and technology committee paints a more nuanced picture of what went wrong
Advisers advise, as the old saying goes, but politicians decide. What it doesn't add but should is that when those decisions go wrong, both sides are monumentally tempted to blame the other.
And so it has proved with coronavirus. Ministers are increasingly openly attacking the scientific advice they were given, while experts both in and out of Sage are increasingly critical of the decisions subsequently made. Stand by for the fallout from the work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey declaring, when pressed to admit that ministers have handled the outbreak in care homes badly, that if the scientific advice was wrong then it's unsurprising people think the resulting decisions were wrong. It's human nature to lash out when lined up, fairly or unfairly, as the fall guy, yet the sight of mutual recriminations breaking out is downright alarming for a general public still wondering whether it's safe to leave the house.
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