UK scientist who warned over virus quits for lockdown breach

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s health secretary said Wednesday that national lockdown rules were “for everyone,” after one of the government’s key scientific advisers quit for receiving secret visits from his girlfriend amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Imperial College epidemiologist Neil Ferguson developed models that predicted hundreds of thousands would die unless the U.K. imposed drastic restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus. His advice was key in triggering Britain's lockdown in March. Under the rules, people are barred from visiting friends and family that they don’t live with.

Ferguson quit the government’s scientific advisory panel late Tuesday after the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that a woman he is in a relationship with had crossed London to visit him at his home.

Ferguson said in a statement that he had “made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action.”

“I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing to control this devastating epidemic,” he said.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Ferguson was “a very eminent and impressive scientist,” but “took the right decision to resign.”

He told Sky News that the social distancing rules “are there for everyone, they are incredibly important and they are deadly serious. They are the means by which we have managed to get control of this virus.”

Ferguson has become a well-known figure in Britain, making frequent media appearances during the outbreak. On March 18, he tweeted that he had a fever and cough, symptoms of COVID-19, and that there was a small risk he had infected others.

Ferguson is the second scientific adviser in the U.K. to quit after failing to follow their own advice. Catherine Calderwood...