Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, during the early days of the COVID pandemic, said he wanted to be injected with the virus on live television to prove it "did not pose a threat," the U.K.'s official coronavirus inquiry heard from his then-chief of staff Edward Lister Tuesday.
Lister, who served under Johnson from 2019-2021 and was an aide when the politician was mayor of London, told the panel that Johnson "suggested to senior civil servants and advisors that he wanted to be injected with COVID-19 on television to demonstrate to the public that it did not pose a threat," reports Politico.
The request came at a time "when COVID was not seen as being the serious disease it subsequently became," Lister, now serving as a Conservative in the House of Lords, added, calling Johnson's request an "unfortunate comment."
He said he wasn't sure about the timing of the comment but stressed it was "made in the heat of the moment."
This isn't the first time Johnson has offered to have himself injected with the virus, according to Dominic Cummings, his former top advisor who quit after fighting with the Conservative leader.
Cummings told a parliamentary committee in 2021 that officials had been concerned after Johnson informed cabinet colleagues that COVID "is swine flu."
"Don't worry about it," Johnson reportedly said. "I'm going to get (Chief Medical Officer) Christ Whitty to inject me live on TV with coronavirus."
Johnson has not yet testified before the inquiry about his administration's response to the pandemic.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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