According to reports from “The Lockdown Files,” two former leaders of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce have accused Matt Hancock of misunderstanding the process of biological manufacturing. The reports reveal disagreement between Hancock and the vaccines chiefs over COVID-19 vaccine deployment. Kate Bingham, who headed the taskforce from April to December 2020, and her deputy and successor Clive Dix, said Hancock’s poor understanding of biological manufacturing led him to view vaccine procurement as a simple task, resulting in conflict between them. The report is based on over 100,000 WhatsApp messages obtained exclusively by The Telegraph, which were released by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, whom Hancock had enlisted to help write a book called “Pandemic Diaries.” The Epoch Times has not verified the context of the discussions in the messages.
In one of the threads revealed by the report, Hancock criticized Bingham and Dix for their resistance to government attempts to buy COVID-19 vaccines from India during a supply delay, calling Bingham “unreliable.” Bingham has since stated that she was only repeating government policy at the time and always followed the official advice determined by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and the government’s vaccine policy.
The report also revealed that in February 2021, Dix was reluctant to buy vaccines from the Serum Institute of India, saying that the UK would get enough vaccine supplies in the next few months to vaccinate all adults twice, and that the SII’s supplies were meant for countries “in desperate need.” Hancock accused Bingham and Dix of blocking the initial plan to purchase vaccines from SII in October 2020, and indicated that he panicked when warned of a delay in AstraZeneca’s vaccine manufacturing. Dix wrote in The Telegraph, criticizing Hancock’s ignorance of the manufacturing process’s complexities and stating that Hancock’s panic led to the government taking vaccines meant for developing countries in India.