Maybe it begins, or maybe I have missed other instances:


Scientists are to blame if the government blundered in its response to the coronavirus pandemic, a cabinet minister says.

Thérèse Coffey responded to growing criticism of strategy over testing and the lockdown by acknowledging “wrong” decisions might have been made – but arguing ministers had only followed the experts.

“If the science was wrong, advice at the time was wrong, I'm not surprised if people will then think we then made a wrong decision,” the work and pensions secretary said.


So, no. No one assumes the science to be perfect, but your role as ministers involved challenging it -   how certain is this? What are the alternative possibilities - as well as blending it with other priorities, like financial aspects and politics and humanity. The optimal purely scientific path may well involve approaches that are incompatible with, say, human rights legislation. That will happen because they deal with different aspects of life. It is your job as minister to sort all that out.

Apparently a spokesman for Boris distanced the government from that view:

Boris Johnson's spokesman distanced him from Ms Coffey's comments, saying: “Scientists provide advice to the government, ministers ultimately decide. That’s how government works”

That is correct. Whether they will stick to it when the time comes for an investigation is another matter.