Boris Johnson asked if blowing hairdryer up nose could kill Covid, says ex-aide Cummings

Boris Johnson wonder if COVID-19 He could die by blowing a hairdryer into his nose, according to his former top assistant Dominic Cummings.

The theory was quickly dismissed at the time by scientists as a weird, unsubstantiated idea.

But Mr Cummings has told the covid consultation that the then prime minister circulated a YouTube video (since removed) of a man blowing a special hair dryer into his nose, and asked the government's chief scientific adviser and chief medical officer what they thought of the idea.

The theory, which also circulated on social media, was considered almost as ridiculous as when then-President of the United States, Donald Trump, suggested injecting bleach into the body to combat the coronavirus.

These ideas appeared periodically in lists of Covid myths published by the media.

Mr. Cummings is one of several former close advisors to Mr Johnson, who have lined up to criticize his leadership during the pandemic.

In a 114-page evidence statement, Cummings, who was sacked in November 2020 after losing a bitter power struggle in No 10, lays out a torrent of criticism of the government he served, highlighting what he says, They were failures in areas like communications, decision making, and people in the wrong jobs.

He says Johnson's release of the hairdryer video was "a low point" amid fears he may have been giving false information to the media.

The former senior adviser wrote: "We also could not be sure that he himself was not the source of false stories."

He cites one case in which it was reported that the government “knew masks didn't work.” "This was the opposite of the truth," Cummings wrote. "Some thought the prime minister was the source of the story."

Elsewhere, he writes that “the prime minister was in a terrible state of mind (e.g. ranting 'I'm the fucking Führer over here') over the illegal donations.”

Cummings, who is highly critical of everyone from the media and civil servants to ministers, the Cabinet Office and Cabinet committees, says in a debate on national security that the Cabinet was “largely irrelevant to policy or execution in 2020.”

On Covid planning, he writes: “The plan for the pandemic was bad. “It focused narrowly on the flu… Any proper process would have immediately raised issues such as the absence of a protection plan.”

The former prime minister has insisted his actions during the pandemic, including lockdowns, saved thousands of lives.