Chris Whitty: UK should have focused more on stopping Covid-type pandemic

England's chief medical officer tells Covid inquiry focus was more on dealing with consequences of pandemic

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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.

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