Whitty: UK thinking not radical enough to stop Covid at the start

England's chief medical officer, Sir Chris Whitty, said the UK "did not give sufficient thought" to stopping Covid in its tracks as he listed multiple problems with preparedness in his first cross-examination at the pandemic public inquiry.

- Robert Booth

Whitty said the "big weakness" was a lack of "radicalism" in thinking before the crisis took hold, and he said the government's scientific advisers would not have thought to have considered national lockdowns without it being requested by a senior politician.

He also warned of a weakness in future defences, noting that the scientific advisory committee Nervtag, which looks at new respiratory viruses, does not cover other possible pandemic threats.

He spoke on the same day as Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific officer during the pandemic. Vallance, who stood down in April, called for more attention on the impact of pandemics on the most vulnerable. He said it was a "terrible truth" and "tragedy" that "pandemics feed off inequality and drive inequality" and said while "we did pick up on it, [the knowledge] needs to be embedded right from day one".