Bring back Chris Whitty.

[TrickyD]

As meningitis seems to be spreading, why has the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Chris Whitty not been put in charge of planning and controlling it?

It’s what they are literally there for and trained for. They were massively frustrated by seeing failures from the governments private companies that didn’t have a clue what they were doing or where to start, which they already had the building blocks for.

Even Whitty said very early on you can’t contain what you can’t see.

The only way to get to zero Covid was to be as strict as Melbourne or NZ. It took very strict quarantine and no entry by food / goods lorries etc, which we obviously have. And even then Melbourne and Auckland suffered very long lockdowns.

Only one case needs to leave, you won’t know as no symptoms, it’s not possible for Covid.

It is for this, all the MenB cases seem to be connected to one nightclub.

I had my picture taken with him. I could post that!

Didn’t he retire 2 years ago? I seem to recall his last public interviews was about his concern of the NHS always treating and trying to cure even when moving to end of life care would be in the best interests of patient.

I didn’t say they could contain it.
just they were much better placed to deal with it than private companies brought in. It’s literally their job

It's not spreading. All cases are from the original transmission event - there's no evidence of secondary transmission. The reason we're seeing an increase in numbers is because of the variation in the incubation period (up to 14 days).

Meningitis is an extremely fragile organism. It dies within a minute of leaving the body (in comparison, Covid lives for around 24 hours).

OP have you read the public health advice about this or are you just stirring yourself into a frenzy based on nothing more than the absence of Chris Witty?

https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2026/03/18/meningitis-b-outbreak-what-you-need-to-know/

It works for this as it’s localised and so far no secondary cases. It’s fragile bacteria and spread differently as pp said.

No one could trace covid past the first few cases, it wasn’t possible.

I only want him back if someone's bought him a slide flicker through thingee because the phrase "next slide please" still triggers me after the Covid debacle.

OP - you are being ridiculous - this is a localised outbreak of an illness we know very well and have highly effective treatments for, you don't need to hoard the bog roll and start bashing your saucepans on the doorstep yet.

Although if you could clap a bit so we get a functioning office printer...

Ummm - no thanks.

Why not?

He’s not a PR man OP, nor should he be expected to be. He can do his job without being on TV.

Chris Whitty got on my titties.

Hopefully we won’t see him again.

What on earth makes you think I am stirring myself into a frenzy, just because I think Chris Whitty would be a welcome addition to the other spokespersons?

Please also tell Senmum2026 that Whitty is indeed the CMO whatever she would like to believe.

But you haven’t explained WHY you think he would be a welcome addition. You’ve just said bring him back on telly.

You could just talk to me yourself. I didn’t say he had retired. I asked if he had.

It’s a known virus that we know how to treat. And the media are just spreading panic.

Exactly. Can you imagine the mass panic and people stockpiling loo roll it would cause if they put Chris Whitty on national TV to talk about this. It's nowhere near the level of spread that would justify that.

For some people it was mass panic over bog roll and washing their shopping and curtain twitching. For others, it was a party in the sunshine on furlough with inflatable hot tubs and masses of alcohol. I would say my neighbours were 50/50.

Except it's caused by a bacteria, but otherwise agree!

I'm quite surprised/annoyed by how sensationalist the BBC is being. I know clear, measured communication doesn't bring in the traffic, but is there any need for it to be a constant live, breaking news story?

I said that many people found him a reassuring presence during Covid. Possibly parents of kids in the affected areas might feel the same now.

Why do you think we aren’t benefitting from his expertise? Because he’s not on TV talking about it?

Maybe its because today they are reporting on the covid enquiry, the media love to create drama

It is spreading amongst young people sharing vapes, glasses, bottles of booze, cutlery etc and kissing. Can’t imagine Whitty having much impact on that kind of behaviour, can you? Someone young on Insta/tiktok likely to have more impact.