Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer during the pandemic, is set to become the latest government adviser with a front-row view of the crisis to take the stand at the Covid inquiry this week.
His testimony on Wednesday follows that of former chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and ex-chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty, who told the inquiry on Wenesday morning that the idea of herd immunity “was clearly a ridiculous goal of policy and a very dangerous one”.
Warning that, at the outset of the pandemic, “a very uninformed discussion was forming that was not helping policy-making”, Sir Chris said: “A lot of what was being said could have led to considerable confusion – and indeed did.”
During Monday’s session, it also emerged that Sir Patrick privately referred to Sir Chris as a lockdown “delayer” – as “palpable tension” emerged between the two over policy.
However, Sir Chris brushed off claims of a row, claiming differences between the pair “were extremely small”.
