Chris Whitty

[wokbun]

Absolute legend

Was he supposed to teach Johnson up to GCSE Biology and Mathematics standard (OK, I may be a bit unfair here - as he was seemingly incapable of reading graphs, perhaps that should have been Key Stage 2 level) as well?

They were trying to work with imbeciles and sociopaths. Sometimes imbecilic sociopaths.

Chris Whitty is one of the scientists, whose advice Boris and Rishi didn’t follow. Remember ‘follow the science’? Well, they didn’t.

Except he didn’t manage it did he…..cos he’s a not a politician is he 🙄

And he eluded a lot during decisions that it's was political decisions - hinting that they weren't ones he'd make.

I take it you're not following the Covid Inquiry closely then?

I found his testimony today slightly slippery to be honest. It's just a feeling I had and I wouldn't argue with anyone who thinks otherwise.

@Iwasafool JVT is a legend- considered, measured and a virologist! He knew what he was doing.

I also like Whitty very much he gave sound advice and as a healthcare professional who was on calls with him regularly he was calm and supportive. He also worked clinically in the pandemic at UCL so he knew what it was like on the ground floor!

First I’ve seen or heard of Whitty since he was given a knighthood. Same with JVT. On our screens every day for the best part of 2 years then all of a sudden became Sirs and disappeared.

Everyone is wise after the event as an old colleague of mine used to say when someone had fucked up at work.

@Longma Well covid didn’t suddenly disappear in the spring of 2022, as I’m reminded on MN on one thread or another every day since.

I felt the same seeing him today. He's so calm and measured and doesn't try to bullshit. He's happy to admit that they might have got things wrong. He's just such a lovely man. Just imagine if all of govt was filled with Chris Witty's. Just quiet intelligent men diligently going about their jobs with none of the piss taking, postering, lying or egos. The world would be a better place!

Although in fairness, if The Chuckle Brothers, Rod Hull's Emu and Timmy Mallet were in charge, things would also be much improved.

I don't understand the dislike of Chris Witty or maybe disdain is a better word.
He was there to advise and i imagine losing his shit would have seen his services dispensed with. I don't blame his not commenting on the politicians. Why get dragged into their mess. He understands th assignment.
We have an issue with people like Dominic Cummings superfluously running the gaff unelected.

@Stomacharmeleon there was one of the health professionals who did say something not to the liking of Mr Johnson at a press conference, and was not seen at one again (cannot recall who though). Channel 4 were excluded from press conferences for a long time too, for asking allegedly the wrong questions.

Sir Chris Whitty separates the medical opinion from the political decisions, which is the right thing to have said, even if Boris Johnson had done everything perfectly.

Isn't just so refreshing comparing him to Domonic Cummings? DC thinks he is so clever but CW makes DC look like a subspecies that CW has had millions of year evolving away from. Like CW is a whale and DC is an amoeba.

I do love a really really intelligent man ( who loves science). But he has the intelligence on another level. Makes everyone in the gov at the time looks like, well imbeciles

Like Boris I stopped studying science at 15. I was still shouting at the TV that we needed to lock down sooner.

It was a head of nursing, I think, who refused to defend the Barnard Castle eye test drive.

During it all JVT was the one I felt I could totally trust.

Yep he’s really something

Speaks so well, conceptually and scientifically brilliant but generous so you can understand it

I was really sad to hear he and others got abuse.

I agree Chris Whitty is a legend. He brings a calm and rational medical approach with an awareness of social impacts
I cannot understand how it is accepted that the media portrayed Cummings as a mad psychopathic Svengali when he was in No 10 yet suddenly present his words as absolute truth when they can use him against Boris Johnson

I'm surprised that one thing hasn't come up yet at the Covid Inquiry.

Late summer 2020, when Covid cases were low, there were interviews which stated that although the AZ vaccine was in the last stages of its trials there wasn't enough Covid 'in the wild' to properly test its efficacy (right word??).

From my memory it was only a few weeks later that 'Eat Out To Help Out' was announced, without any scientific approval. This undoubtedly spread the virus and helped test the efficacy of the vaccine.

Odd coincidence that nobody seems to have noticed?

Well spotted. That is interesting.

@Iwasafool I agree with you - he was clear, honest and believable- he never backed away from a challenging question either!

These guys were working round the clock in the early days trying to map/ understand what was happening (even though our fuckwit government didn’t ‘follow the science’ as they knew best!!!!) the pressure they were under was incredible.

Why would they deliberately infect unvaccinated people to test a vaccine which is supposed to protect them later. It doesn’t make sense.

It certainly makes sense if you want to have the biggest, best, earliest, world-beating, superman, vaccine ever.

Even if we stopped using that vaccine after 12 months for some undisclosed reason...