Professor Chris Whitty warns a third wave of Covid is inevitable later this year and tells MPs ‘a lot more people will die’ if lockdown is lifted too early amid calls for No10 to drop restrictions sooner
- Chief medical officer and Sir Patrick Vallance quiized by MPs this morning
Chris Whitty today warned ‘a lot more people will die’ if lockdown is eased too soon as he defended England’s ultra-cautious roadmap out of restrictions.
The chief medical officer said a third wave of the epidemic is inevitable later this year despite high vaccine uptake, pointing out that there are up to 20,000 flu deaths during a bad winter.
He claimed that while the Covid jabs will dramatically slash the hospital and death rates, the risk won’t go ‘right down to zero’.
Professor Whitty batted away calls for lockdown to be loosened sooner now the epidemic has been squashed to pre-second wave levels, warning: ‘If you open up too fast, a lot more people die – a lot more people die.’
The CMO and Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, are being quizzed by MPs on the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee this morning.
Number 10 has promised to follow the data, not dates, but has refused to budge on its strict five-week intervals between each phase of the plan.
Professor Whitty said: ‘At some point we will get a surge in virus. We hope it doesn’t happen soon.
‘It might happen later in the summer as we open or it might be a seasonal effect in the autumn winter.
Chris Whitty today warned ‘a lot more people will die’ if lockdown is eased too soon as he defended Britain’s ultra-cautious roadmap out of restrictions
‘But all the modelling suggests there will be a surge. Some of them will end up in hospital and some will die.
‘The ratio of cases to deaths will go right down as a result of vaccinations but not right down to zero.’
He added: ‘Just as in a typical flu 7-9,000, in a bad year 20,000. These are not ridiculous numbers they are perfectly realistic numbers for a serious respiratory virus even when people have been vaccinated [on the 30,000 extra deaths].
‘If you open up too fast a lot more people die. A lot more people die.’