Does anyone else think Chris Whitty is getting smaller?

[WowLucky]

He obviously lost weight while he was ill, his suits have been too big since then, but, to me, he still seems to be shrinking, almost withered. I hope he's OK, I'd imagine the stress and frustrations he's facing are huge.

According to DH's friend who writes for one of the broadsheets, Chris Whitty has a long-term partner whom he lives with in Westminster.

Really @LuluJakey1, did he indicate whether male/female partner? Sorry if that is too nosy, just ignore me if so. Interesting they live in Westminster, I would not have guessed that.

I used to have respect for Whitty, but I think him and Valance have turned into the government's nodding dogs. When asked about Cummings, it wasn't a political question, it was about the guidance. But bith shut up, as they were told to and didn't comment on Boris being able to refuse to allow them to answer questions.

I think this article is interesting. I think quite a few people will get discredited during a public enquiry.

amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/12/chief-nurse-dropped-from-no-10-briefing-for-not-backing-cummings

Reminds me of the film Beetlejuice where he nicks that guys ticket and he shrinks his head 😂

He (and the others) can't speak out against the government and keep his job. It just wouldn't be possible. So he has to decide whether to stay, where he can still have some influence or go, leaving the country in crisis with no proper guidance to ignore

But, no, I don't expect history will show that all his advice was good, how could anyone be expected to get everything right in a situation like this?

Lang - Fairly early on in this pandemic Jenny Harries was asked at a press conference why we were not following WHO advice (which was test, track, isolate). She said WHO advice was for low and middle income countries and we didn't need to follow it because we had a well developed public health system. I'll see if I can find the clip tomorrow.

Would be interested is seeing this.Johnson keeps saying that now is not the time to critically analyse decisions and their impact but we need to learn lessons fast so that the response to any subsequent outbreaks is swifter and more effective i.e. emulate Germany!

@Lisette1940 @PerkingFaintly thank you. It's still weird for all of us to think of us as mum and dad instead of aunty and uncle, but titles mean nothing and we're all ok.

Sorry for the derail.

Having worked in Westminster i am massively impressed that he has managed to keep that a secret.

yes to wanting to know if male of female

Opinion is divided on whether "he tells it like it is".

There are other experts out there, but Whitty and Ferguson are the ones who are listened to.

I agree with posters who say he's great at calmly getting his point across. He must get so annoyed with advising the government, his advice at briefings is clear and very evidenced based which he shares and he has to stand next to a PM who tells the nation stupid stuff on a whim (have a BBQ!). He then has to contradict the PM without showing him up and listen to the scientists being blamed for all the mistakes anyway.

But I also like Prof VT. he seems to have Whittys integrity but less personal feeling of an allegiance to the government!

The number of scientists allowed to appear is getting less and less.

• If he's reading from.paperwork or an autocue, he struggles as he has Dyslexia.

I didn’t know that, thank you. Has he always stumbled over his words? It’s just I hadn’t noticed it before.*

I've always said Matt Hancock is the best at answering questions off the cuff and sometimes comes out with fantastic answers that are out of the box. Quite typical symptoms of dyslexia and makes sense.

(I'm mildly dyslexic and ds is severely dyslexic)

It's probably my phone but I can't catch the audio on that video, what was Hancock's mistake? It was good to hear him "own up".

He must get so annoyed with advising the government, his advice at briefings is clear and very evidenced based which he shares and he has to stand next to a PM who tells the nation stupid stuff on a whim (have a BBQ!)

It could be worse, at least Boris wasn't suggesting we inject ourselves with dettol.

Wow - he mispronounced the journalists name.

I think he stumbles more because of what he is announcing e.g lack of testing capacity, then delay to test and trace, the abysmal app, lack of ppe, double counting of ppe, healthcare workers deaths - who wants to be the bearer and defender of that news?

@LuluJakey1

According to DH's friend who writes for one of the broadsheets, Chris Whitty has a long-term partner whom he lives with in Westminster.

Rishi Sunak is tiny - I'd say 5ft 4 max. although I bet he claims to be taller.

she (?) needs to feed the poor man up then

wonder if he has children too?

@carly2803 No children.

@Inkpaperstars

According to DH's friend who writes for one of the broadsheets, Chris Whitty has a long-term partner whom he lives with in Westminster.

Really @LuluJakey1, did he indicate whether male/female partner? Sorry if that is too nosy, just ignore me if so. Interesting they live in Westminster, I would not have guessed that.

Female

He's probably one of those annoying men who can eat for England and not gain an ounce, whilst their wife only has to look at chocolate to gain a stone.

Bitter? Moi?

PHE reported back on 18 February and said they could cope with tracing the contacts of five cases a week, based on an estimated 160 contacts per case (!) Again, there was no discussion of how to scale up the system or who else might be able to help besides PHE...

Apparently the Royal College of Vets offered their testing & tracing expertise & labs (BSE, bovine tb etc) but it was dismissed. Other countries did use theirs. Unbelievable that sending swabs for testing to USA was thought superior.

[quote LuluJakey1]@carly2803 No children.[/quote]
gawd id love to be a fly on the wall in his "after work" conversations about the day!!
must be so interesting to be able to pick his brain, very clever man.

[quote LuluJakey1]@carly2803 No children.[/quote]
gawd id love to be a fly on the wall in his "after work" conversations about the day!!
must be so interesting to be able to pick his brain, very clever man.

Now envisaging he's dating Jenny Harries!

She's seriously cool. However, I think she's been married for years and has some kids. But a seriously inspirational women.

must be so interesting to be able to pick his brain, very clever man.

Hmm the pillow talk would be fascinating

Is Jenny related to Richard Harries, Baron Harries of Pentregarth, former Bishop of Oxford, who sometimes does Thought for the Day?

I vaguely know his son who is an eminent doctor and his family. They have a very privileged life but are really genuine lovely people.

@SecretSpAD

must be so interesting to be able to pick his brain, very clever man.

Hmm the pillow talk would be fascinating

i would love to find out...haha

whoever she is,shes a lucky lady

and probably also a doctor, with several degrees