Last Updated on May 6, 2020
A member of the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, broke lockdown rules he helped create when he met up with his married mistress.
Professor Neil Ferguson is a member of SAGE, the British government’s group of scientists that have been advising how to handle the current coronavirus pandemic. Ferguson also heads the epidemiology research group at Imperial College London, who produced the report that predicted over half a million Britons would die if lockdown measures were not implemented.
While lecturing the rest of the country and the world on the importance of the lockdown, Ferguson, 51, decided it was prudent to get his rocks off with his married lover, Antonia Staats, 38, who lives in a separate household with her husband and two kids.
Ferguson, whose nickname is “Professor Lockdown,” allowed his mistress to visit on at least two separate occasions, involving a travel across London to get to his house. The first visit on the 30th March was on the same day that he announced the then one-week old lockdown measures would continue until June, with the second visit on April 8th occurring after Staats told friends her husband was showing coronavirus symptoms.
Staats also told friends that she did not believe her relationship with Ferguson was hypocritical, as she considers them to be “one household,” given her open marriage with her husband. However, government advice clearly states that couples who do not live together should not visit each other.
Ferguson told The Telegraph that he “made an error of judgement” and would be resigning from the advisory board:
I accept I made an error of judgment and took the wrong course of action. I have therefore stepped back from my involvement in SAGE [the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies]. I acted in the belief that I was immune, having tested positive for coronavirus, and completely isolated myself for almost two weeks after developing symptoms. I deeply regret any undermining of the clear messages around the continued need for social distancing to control this devastating epidemic. The Government guidance is unequivocal, and is there to protect all of us.
Ferguson has been slammed online for his hypocrisy from people across the world on social media, angry that he flouts the lockdown rules that, while potentially necessary, have caused much economic and societal disruption:
What a tool
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2020
Thanks! Something more should be done. This guy has caused massive strife to the world with his absurdly fake “science”.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2020
Literally millions of grandparents not hugging their grandchildren (who can’t pass on the virus anyway) while Prof Neil Ferguson, who told us to go into lockdown, is screwing his mistress (whose husband has Corona!)
That’s IT.— Allison Pearson (@AllisonPearson) May 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/danwootton/status/1257746448856297474
Do as I say, not as I do. The man is the father of the lockdown panic, as the author of the Imperial College model projection that was wildly off base, but made a huge impact. https://t.co/edTnaSGhh4
— Brit Hume (@brithume) May 5, 2020
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a previous leader of the Conservative Party, said that his behaviour “risks undermining the Government’s lockdown message”:
Scientists like him have told us we should not be doing it, so surely in his case it is a case of we have been doing as he says and he has been doing as he wants to. He has peculiarly breached his own guidelines, and for an intelligent man I find that very hard to believe.
National File reported this week on the creation of a shadow, “independent” SAGE to counter-act against the group that Ferguson was a part of, due to transparency concerns. However, the group was filled with communist, partisan hacks, and conspiracy theorists.
