Watch: Former medical chief Jonathan Van-Tam gives evidence at Britain’s Covid Inquiry

Watch as former medical chief Jonathan Van-Tam gives evidence at Britain’s Covid Inquiry on Wednesday (22 November).

In extracts from his witness statement read to the inquiry, Sir Jonathan said he became “seriously concerned” about Covid on 16 January 2020.

The former deputy chief medical officer said it was clear this was a novel coronavirus, it was “fairly clear that human-to-human transmission was occurring” and “my view was that this would be a significant pandemic”.During yesterday’s session, it emerged that Sir Patrick Vallance, the former government science adviser, privately referred to chief medical officer Chris Whitty as a lockdown “delayer” as “palpable tension” emerged between the two over policy.

Sir Patrick made an entry in his own diary in February 2021 in which Sir Chris had spoken to him about the inquiry they knew was coming, and whether the lockdown in March 2020 had been imposed too late.