Future pandemic as big as Covid is inevitable, says Whitty

England's chief medical officer also tells inquiry that UK's low level of intensive care provision is a political decision

Another pandemic as big as the Covid crisis that killed 7 million people worldwide is a certainty", Prof Sir Chris Whitty has warned, as he said that the UK's lack of intensive care capacity for the sickest patients was a political choice".

The NHS faced an absolutely catastrophic situation" when the virus first hit in 2020 but it could have been substantially worse" if the UK had not gone into lockdown, England's chief medical officer said.