‘Volunteer spirit’ drove Covid vaccination campaign success, says Whitty
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The “volunteer spirit” of the British public drove the success of the UK’s Covid-19 vaccination programme, the nation’s top medic has said. England’s chief medical officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, praised the million people who put themselves forward for clinical trials and other studies during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, he told the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry that during a vaccination campaign, governments should not assume they are seen as the “good guys” or that “everyone loves” the NHS. Sir Chris appeared in front of the inquiry in London on Monday.
Module four is exploring the development of vaccines and their roll-out, as well as the use of existing and new medications for the virus. Hugo Keith, lead counsel to the inquiry, asked Sir Chris about the “considerable success” in both the vaccine development and roll-out and the “therapeutics” programme of work.
Mr Keith said: “That was the product of the vast amount of work, dedication and attention on the part of a very substantial number of government bodies, entities, advisory committees, scientists, epidemiologists, researchers, academics and the like. Is that a fair summary?”.
Sir Chris replied: “It’s a very fair summary, and I think we should all pay huge tribute, in fact, to not only the scientists in the UK and internationally, and prior to the pandemic who worked on this, many people, as you say, who came in to advise government, from academia, from industry and elsewhere, but I think above all, to the people who volunteered.