CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER Sir Chris Whitty said today that the second lockdown could have been prevented had previous decisions been different.

Ministers did not have much choice than to impose a second lockdown in November 2020, he told the Covid Inquiry.

But he said if measures such as a circuit-breaker to limit contact had been introduced earlier in September or tiered restrictions imposed earlier and had time to work, “there remains the possibility that the second lockdown might not have been necessary or might not have been as long.”

Sir Chris revealed that he was aware in October 2020 that Boris Johnson did not believe in long Covid, but didn’t think it worth correcting the then prime minister.

Mr Johnson’s views on the condition were “irrelevant” to some degree as he was able to launch the research and analysis into the condition without them, Sir Chris said.

He refuted Mr Johnson’s claims that he and and the then government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance were consulted on Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which ran in August 2020. 

Sir Chris described the debate on herd immunity during the pandemic as “a clearly ridiculous goal of policy” and “very dangerous.”

The inquiry also heard from his then deputy Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, who told of the “extremely hateful” messages he received during the pandemic, including threats to his family having their throats cut.

He added that lockdown should have happened seven to 14 days earlier and that the NHS would have inevitably been “broken” if Covid infections continued at the same rate during the early months of the pandemic.

The inquiry continues.