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Covid Inquiry latest: Jonathan Van-Tam to give evidence - watch live

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Jonathan Van-Tam is set to become the latest former government adviser with a front-row view of the pandemic to give evidence to the Covid Inquiry.

Mr Van-Tam was the deputy chief medical officer for England throughout the pandemic and played a significant role in the Government’s response. 

But first, questioning of Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, has resumed.

On Tuesday he told the Inquiry that Britain’s pandemic preparedness plans ahead of Covid were “not particularly helpful” and would have been “woefully deficient” even for a flu pandemic. 

He said that it was clear that the plans had been drawn up by “people who had just been through a pandemic in which the mortality was very low”.

Sir Chris added: “If there had been a plan that laid out ‘this is how the playbook should run’, it would almost certainly have been the wrong plan and could even have slowed us down because we would have then spent ages arguing about whether this was the right plan and adapting the plan.”

Follow the latest developments below and join the coversation below. 

Whitty says Downing Street not 'seized of urgency' in early stages of pandemic

Sir Chris Whitty told the Covid Inquiry he is not convinced that “all parts of the Downing Street machinery” was “seized of the urgency” of action against Coivd in early March 2020.

He added: “What I think people were really not able to conceptualise was how exponential growth would turn from those apparently smaller numbers, still each one a tragedy, but smaller numbers to really very large numbers in an extremely short period of time because of the doubling time.”

Elaborating on which part of the “system” may not have fully understood, Sir Chris said: “I think actually it was a relatively widespread lack of understanding of where we were going ahead.

“I think the people who had been heavily involved in looking at this, and you know certainly Mr (Dominic) Cummings, and many others, I think had realised by now that this was heading in a very difficult direction. But I don’t think everybody in the building did.

He added: “This was a lot of people really not getting what exponential growth was actually going to mean.”

Herd immunity a 'ridiculous goal', says Whitty

Sir Chris Whitty said that pursuing a policy of herd immunity in March 2020 was a “ridiculous goal” and “very dangerous”.

Asked if he cautioned against public debate over herd immunity by Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel to the Inquiry, and whether it needed wider context, Sir Chris said it caused confusion and would have led to huge loss of life.

He said: “Well, my view was it was a clearly ridiculous goal of policy and a very dangerous one, and I thought a lot of what was being said could have led to considerable confusion, and indeed did, and I think, you  know, I’ve laid out several times in public and I did say in my statement my view that it would have been inconceivable, led to extraordinary high loss of life”

The Covid Inquiry gets worse by the day, says The Telegraph's Allison Pearson

The scientists are throwing bamboozled Boris under the bus, but their focus on flattening the curve ended up flattening a whole society, according to The Telegraph’s Allison Pearson.

Read the full article here.


 

Van-Tam arrives at Inquiry

Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, the former deputy chief medical officer for England, has arrived at the Covid Inquiry.

He is expected to give evidence later today.

Former deputy chief medical officer for England Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam arrives at Inquiry Credit: Shutterstock/TOLGA AKMEN

Questioning of Sir Whitty has begun

Questioning of Sir Chris Whitty has resumed for a second day to give evidence at the UK’s Covid inquiry.
 

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