Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, and Sir Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, have become household names after being thrust into the spotlight by the Covid pandemic. For the past two years, they have accompanied Boris Johnson to Downing Street briefings armed with PowerPoint slides and exponential curves. But with England’s plan for ‘living with Covid’ announced this week, advisers should take a step back. Here are some of their most memorable moments.

Vallance says UK has ‘herd immunity’ strategy

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance suggested that boosting herd immunity in the UK through widespread transmission could be the UK’s strategy for managing the pandemic.

On March 13, 2020, Sir Patrick Vallance, speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, said the main thing the UK needed to do in the fight against the pandemic was to “build up some degree of immunity herd,” claiming that because the vast majority of people with the coronavirus catch mild illness, herd immunity would mean more people are immune to the virus and transmission would be reduced.

The concept of boosting herd immunity through exposure has provoked backlash and has been criticized by figures such as former health secretary Jeremy Hunt.

20,000 dead would be a “good record”, according to Patrick Vallance

Speaking to the Health Select Committee on March 17, 2020, Sir Patrick Vallance said if the number of coronavirus deaths reached 20,000 or less it would be a ‘good result’, although it would still be ‘awful’ and “an enormous death toll”.

Of course, the total number of coronavirus deaths in the UK has greatly exceeded this prediction. As of February 25, 2022, a total of 161,104 deaths have been recorded within 28 days of testing positive.

Whitty and Patrick Vallance say they don’t want to be in politics

Amid controversy over Dominic Cummings’ trip to Durham during lockdown, Whitty and Vallance were asked if they were “entirely comfortable with the Prime Minister telling you you can’t answer questions about Dominic Cummings “.

In response, Chris Whitty said: ‘I can assure you that the desire not to get drawn into politics is much stronger on the part of Sir Patrick [Vallance] and me than on the Prime Minister”.

Vallance added: “I am a civil servant, I am politically neutral and I do not want to get involved in politics at all”.

Whitty acknowledges that mistakes were made at the start of the pandemic

On June 10, 2020, looking at specific ways the UK could have improved its response to the coronavirus pandemic when it first emerged, Whitty said that if he had to choose one issue, it would be “to see how we could accelerate testing early in the outbreak.”

“There are a lot of good reasons why it was tricky, but if I had to replay things, and that’s largely based on what some other countries may have done, especially Germany, I think it’s the only thing we would have put more emphasis on at an earlier stage”.

In April 2020, the UK’s daily coronavirus testing rate had just passed 10,000.

Whitty describes Covid-denier as a ‘young boy’ who will be a ‘model citizen in due time’

In June 2021, a video was widely shared on social media of a man putting Whitty in a headache when he refused to be photographed with him.

Whitty later said he had “thought nothing of it” and was “surprised the media picked it up”.

“I’m sure he will become a model citizen in due time,” he added.

Lewis Hughes and Jonathan Chew, both involved in the incident and who appeared in the video, have been prosecuted.

Jonathan Chew was sentenced to eight weeks in prison in January after admitting to stalking Whitty on June 29, 2021.

Lewis Hughes, who was sacked from his job as an estate agent after the incident, received a suspended sentence last July for his involvement.

Whitty says people like Nicki Minaj should be ashamed of ‘spreading untruths’

Asked about rapper Nicki Minaj’s claims that the coronavirus vaccine could make you impotent, Whitty said people who “know they’re peddling untruths…should be ashamed.”

He said: “There is a group of people who have strange beliefs, and that’s fine… but there are also people who try to discourage others from taking a vaccine that could save lives.

“And a lot of these people, I regret to say, know that they are spreading untruths, and still do. And in my opinion, they should be ashamed.

Whitty tells people to prioritize what matters to them this Christmas

In December last year, as the Omicron wave began to take off, Whitty said that “people should prioritize what matters, and that by definition means de-prioritizing other things.”

“I think I would recommend that, and most people would, and you don’t need a medical degree to realize that’s a sensible thing to do with an incredibly infectious virus.”

At the time of Whitty’s comments, Independent Sage released a statement calling for an emergency circuit breaker lockdown given the rise of the Omicron variant, with the number of infections doubling in England every two days.