Professor Sir Chris Whitty is set to appear at the Government’s Covid inquiry on Thursday to answer questions about Britain’s response to the pandemic.
England’s chief medical officer became a household name when he regularly provided televised bulletins about the virus. The Government’s former chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, who also gave regular briefings (often alongside Prof Sir Chris), will appear at the inquiry later on Thursday.
Prof Sir Chris is one of the biggest names set to appear at the inquiry, which is being held in Dorland House in London. Former prime minister David Cameron and ex-chancellor George Osborne have previously appeared.
What does Professor Sir Chris Whitty do?
Becoming England’s chief medical officer in 2019, Prof Sir Chris could never have expected such a challenge as a pandemic occurring when he was only a few months into the job.
Prof Sir Chris is also the Government’s chief medical adviser and head of the public health profession. The devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have their own chief medical officers.
Prof Sir Chris would often give gloomy readings at the Covid briefings when discussing the latest cases and deaths from the virus.
Ultimately, more than 200,000 people in the UK died after testing positive for Covid-19.
What did he do before?
Although most Brits probably became aware of him in only 2000, Prof Sir Chris, 57, has had a high-flying career in medicine and scientific research.
Before becoming chief medical officer, he was chief scientific adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care and head of the National Institute for Health Research, the UK’s healthcare research body, from 2016-2019.
He was also a deputy chief scientific adviser and interim chief scientific adviser — the role that Sir Patrick fulfilled between 2018 to 2023 — from 2017-2018.
His time in the job coincided with the Salisbury Novichok poisoning of two Russian citizens, which led to an international crisis.
Before this, he was chief scientific adviser to the Department for International Development from 2009-2015.
During this time, which coincided with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, he co-wrote a paper on the UK’s response to the disease.
The paper, entitled “Infectious disease: Tough choices to reduce Ebola transmission”, focused on the Government’s decision to fund isolation centres in hard-hit Sierra Leone to help stop the spread of Ebola.
He has also been Professor of Public and International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a consultant in acute medicine and infectious diseases at University College London Hospitals and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
What has Professor Sir Chris Whitty been doing since the Covid pandemic?
Prof Sir Chris has remained in post since the pandemic has calmed down but has broadened his focus to health beyond Covid-19. He plays a key role in advising the Government on health trends and developments.
He also lends his expertise to health journals and newspaper columns, writing recently in the Times that “marketing vapes to children is utterly unacceptable”. He also uses his portfolio to promote good health practices such as getting vaccinated.
He told the University of Plymouth: “You have to accept that you will continue to learn throughout your career and the point at which you obtain your degree is still a very early part of your learning journey.
“You’ll be learning, hopefully, to the very last day you stop practising. And then if you transition over to be a doctor or a nurse or another discipline, you learn a great deal doing it. It’s a continual and interesting journey.”