Coronavirus: Scientists criticise Whitty’s claims it will be difficult for UK to eliminate Covid-19

Independent SAGE calling for ‘zero Covid’ approach

Kate Devlin
Whitehall Editor
Friday 24 July 2020 13:23 BST
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Chris Whitty says he expects UK coronavirus to remain at 'significant' levels until the spring of 2021 at least

Top scientists have hit out at claims by England’s chief medical officer that the UK will struggle to eliminate Covid-19.

The Independent SAGE group, led by former chief scientific adviser for England Sir David King, is calling for a ‘zero Covid’ approach.

Scotland is within “touching distance” of that goal, they believe.

But last week England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty warned that eliminating Covid-19 in a “highly connected” country like the UK was unlikely.

He told the Lords Science and Technology Committee: “Elimination means zero cases onward transmitted and for this disease this is going to be very difficult.”

He added: “We’ve tried to eliminate or eradicate a very large number of diseases over the years.

“We have so far in humans eradicated one, smallpox, and we’ve tried on a lot of other occasions. This is not an easy thing to do.”

Prof Gabriel Scally, a member of the Independent Sage group, said it was possible to eliminate Covid-19.

He agreed with Prof Whitty’s definition of ‘elimination’ as no onward transmission of cases within the UK.

But he added that Britain had a “long history of eliminating diseases”.

He pointed to measles as an example of a disease that was effectively eliminated for a long period of time in the UK, before making a resurgence in more recent years.

With Covid-19 “it is possible”, he said, adding that Scotland was within “touching distance” of eliminating the disease.

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