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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Andrew Gregory Health editor

Future pandemic as big as Covid is inevitable, says Whitty

Chris Whitty in a suit and dark tie emerging from a building
Chris Whitty said healthcare systems could not be scaled up in a national emergency without trained personnel. Photograph: James Manning/PA

Another pandemic as big as the Covid crisis that killed 7 million people worldwide is “a certainty”, Prof Sir Chris Whitty has warned, as he said that the UK’s lack of intensive care capacity for the sickest patients was a “political choice”.

The NHS faced an “absolutely catastrophic situation” when the virus first hit in 2020 but it could have been “substantially worse” if the UK had not gone into lockdown, England’s chief medical officer said.

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