Did Boris Johnson really ask if Covid could be killed by hairdryer up the nose?

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson, who resigned in the aftermath of a probe into the Partygate scandal as it was found that he misled parliament, apparently asked the top scientists Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance if coronavirus (COVID-19) could be destroyed by blowing a "special hairdryer" up the nose, reports said on Wednesday (Nov 1).

His former top aide Dominic Cummings said that Johnson had also asked him to find a "dead cat" to get rid of pandemic front pages of newspapers. Apparently, he was "sick" of it.

Notably, the phrase "dead cat" is often used to divert attention away from an unwanted story.

Local reports have said that Johnson wanted the country's scientists Sir Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance to give their opinions about it.

In a statement submitted to a public inquiry into Covid, Cummings used his 115-page witness statement and in-person testimony to assail the ex-PM's Covid handling.

In late 2020, Cummings quit Johnson's government after falling out with him.

"A low point was when he circulated a video of a guy blowing a special hairdryer up his nose 'to kill Covid' and asked the CSA [chief scientific advisor] and CMO [chief medical officer] what they thought," the former aide said, referring to Vallance and Whitty.

When the pandemic was raging with hundreds and thousands of positive cases every day, several false claims started circulating on social media. Many fact-checkers have debunked the claim about hair dryers and saunas killing Covid.

Cummings further said that various personal and political matters were reasons why Johnson was "extremely distracted" when the virus first hit Britain.

"He had a divorce to finalise and was grappling with financial problems from that," he wrote.

"An ex-girlfriend was making accusations about him in the media. His current girlfriend wanted to finalise the announcement of their engagement. He said he wanted to work on his Shakespeare book," he added.

Now, the inquiry, which is chaired by a retired senior judge, is to interview Johnson and current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was finance minister during the pandemic, later this year.

(With inputs from agencies)