Chris Whitty
 Chris Whitty     | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | Christopher John MacRae Whitty 21 April 1966 Gloucester, UK | ||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Windlesham House School, Malvern College, Pembroke College (Oxford), Wolfson College (Oxford), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Northumbria University, Heriot-Watt University, Imperial College London | ||||||||||||||||||
| Founder of | UK Vaccine Task Force | ||||||||||||||||||
| Member of | Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations/Board, Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies | ||||||||||||||||||
| Interests | • Medicine • public health • coronavirus | ||||||||||||||||||
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Professor Chris Whitty CB FRCP FFPH FMedSci is a British physician and epidemiologist, who is Chief Medical Officer for England, Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government, Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) at the Department of Health and Social Care and Head of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
Character
Whitty has been quoted by Whitehall sources as a "private person who never discusses his personal life."[citation needed]
Activities
In March 2020, Prof. Whitty took a leading role in response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United Kingdom, alongside Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance. Faced with growing calls for an end to the secrecy surrounding the SAGE group which advised on the UK COVID lockdown, Whitty said that his colleague Patrick Vallance, the UK Chief Scientific Adviser felt the same: “Neither of us have any problem in principle with the names being made public.” However, he "separately told MPs that disclosing the list of Sage members could leave them vulnerable to outside lobbying interests."[1]
Bill Gates Grant
In 2008, Whitty was awarded $40m (£31m) by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for malaria research in Africa. [2]
