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Former Health Secretary says UK has made mistakes on COVID, and warns of a second wave in Winter

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Episode notes

Jeremy Hunt served as the UK's Health Secretary for six years before being made Foreign Secretary in 2018. He then ran against Boris Johnson in the Conservative Party's leadership contest, exactly a year to the day before this interview with Andy Bell. Mr. Hunt now serves as the Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, where recently he has been analysing the response of the Government to the coronavirus pandemic. The former Health Secretary admits that the scientific advice given to the British government at the start of the outbreak was wrong - and was partly based on work that he was responsible for. He believes Ministers should've been presented with a choice to follow a South Korea style system of track and trace, and says if the advice had been published the UK's wider science community would have offered the alternatives and challenged the approach. Jeremy Hunt prides himself on his work trying to reduce avoidable deaths in the NHS, but during his long stint in the role he also clashed with Junior Doctors over contracts, something which for many would define his time in the Department of Health. He speaks with Andy Bell about the outbreak and likelihood of a second wave, his regret over the strike action of Junior Doctors, and also of his regards for the man who took the top job of Prime Minister away from him. How did we get here? Explaining the news is a podcast from 5 News. Join Andy Bell as he explains the world's biggest news stories through interviews with politicians, experts, and analysts.