May 27, 2021:-The U.K. government pursued a strategy of so-called “herd immunity” in response to the coronavirus crisis, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former advisor, saying he is “completely baffled” by attempts from Downing Street to say otherwise.

The government has repeatedly denied this was the case. Herd immunity occurs when enough of a population is immune to a disease, making it unlikely to spread and protecting the rest of the community.

Dominic Cummings on Wednesday said the prime minister initially treated Covid-19 as a “scare story,” and officials had suggested herd immunity could be achieved by encouraging people to hold “chickenpox parties.”

He claimed to have warned Johnson on March 11 and March 12 — roughly ten days before the first national lockdown — that the government’s response to the outbreak was “completely flawed” and the country was on track to register its worst catastrophe since World War II with up to 500,000 dead.

Cummings conceded his warning to change course urgently came “far, far too late.” He added: “I failed, and I apologize for that.”

The controversial former Vote Leave campaign director for the 2016 Brexit referendum appeared before a parliamentary committee to deliver an on-camera testimony of the government’s initial response to the coronavirus outbreak.

It comes as senior lawmakers investigate how Johnson’s government responded to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and whether delays in decision-making resulted in avoidable deaths.

“The point was herd immunity was regarded as an unavoidable fact,” Cummings said.

“That was the plan. I’m completely baffled as to why number 10 is trying to deny that because that was the official plan. You can see it in the COBR documents that I have brought along,” he added, referring to the acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms.

Cummings claimed government officials had briefed senior journalists at the time that this was their official strategy.