BBC's Laura Kuenssberg accused of lying about 'change in Coronavirus science' to protect the Tories

The Editor of one of the world's most prestigious medical journals has heaped criticism on the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg for distorting the truth regarding the government's change of strategy towards the Coronavirus outbreak currently sweeping the UK - with many also claiming that the BBC's Chief Political Editor's false claim was an attempt to cover for the UK government's mistakes. In recent days, Boris Johnson's government has encountered fierce criticism from across the scientific community for not taking tough enough measures to try and control the spread of the virus. The UK has widely been seen as an outlier after taking a completely different, far less stringent, "mitigation" approach to tackling Coronavirus - in complete contrast to all of its European neighbours. However, following a report conducted by Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team which showed that Boris Johnson's strategy could lead to as many as 250,000 deaths and the NHS being effectively destroyed, the UK government has, finally, come to the conclusion that it wasn't the entire rest of the world who were wrong about their strategies, it was them. Following this realisation, the government yesterday advised the public to refrain from non-essential travel and to avoid social gatherings - and it is expected that even more stringent measures will be announced today that will bring the country largely in line with the rest of Europe. However, rather than simply admit that the government had got their approach wrong, the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg claimed on Radio 4 that Johnson's hasty change of direction was because "the science has changed". In addition to Kuenssberg's claim, the BBC have also published an in-depth article making a similar argument that:

"The government has always said it is following the science and the science has changed profoundly. "

Unsurprisingly, given the fact that every other country in the world is following the same science and it is only the UK that has changed their strategy, the BBC's assertion that the science had supposedly changed came in for widespread criticism - not least from the editor of The Lancet, Richard Horton, who said:

"Laura Kuenssberg says (BBC) that, “The science has changed.” This is not true. The science has been the same since January. What has changed is that govt advisors have at last understood what really took place in China and what is now taking place in Italy. It was there to see."

https://twitter.com/richardhorton1/status/1239822069451370496 And Horton's criticism was repeated by numerous others - many of whom slammed the BBC for appearing to try and cover for Boris Johnson's failings: https://twitter.com/peterjukes/status/1239878254359691265?s=20 https://twitter.com/juniordrblog/status/1239738357032370177?s=20 https://twitter.com/RespectIsVital/status/1239903991443709954?s=20 https://twitter.com/opento/status/1239821567233855488?s=20 https://twitter.com/GreenRupertRead/status/1239821628445470722?s=20 https://twitter.com/ThomasJ58805552/status/1239821795903049730?s=20 https://twitter.com/simonmaginn/status/1239884937542750213?s=20 https://twitter.com/AaronBastani/status/1239885747659902979?s=20 https://twitter.com/Ben_Wray1989/status/1239842893042528257?s=20 https://twitter.com/JMPSimor/status/1239887052331790337?s=20 The BBC also encountered widespread criticism during December's General Election campaign after making numerous "mistakes" - all of which just happened to benefit Boris Johnson's Conservative Party. There is little doubt that the BBC's latest fiasco will only further erode public trust in the corporation.