Whitty was born in Gloucester on 21 April 1966, the first of four sons born to Kenneth and Susannah Whitty.[1][2][3][4] His father was a British Council officer, who was posted to various countries including Nigeria, where the family lived in Kaduna, and Malawi. While Deputy Director of the British Council in Athens, Kenneth Whitty was murdered by militants from the Abu Nidal Organisation,[5] in 1984, when Whitty was 17.[6] His mother was a teacher.[4][7][8] His maternal uncle Sir Christopher MacRae was also a diplomat,[9] and his grandmother Grace Summerhayes was a pioneering obstetrician in Africa,[2] who helped set up the first maternity hospital in Ghana in 1928.[6] His paternal grandfather John Whitty DSO MC was killed in World War II and his step grandfather was Sir George Coldstream.
The former Department for International Development (London office) (far right)
From 2009 to 2015, Whitty was Chief Scientific Adviser and director of research for the Department for International Development (DFID).[11][4][15] He led the Research and Evidence Division, which worked on health, agriculture, climate change, energy, infrastructure, economic and governance research. During this time, with co-authors Neil Ferguson and Jeremy Farrar, he wrote an article in Nature titled "Infectious disease: Tough choices to reduce Ebola transmission",[16] explaining the UK government's response to Ebola in support of the government of Sierra Leone, which he took a leading role in designing, including the proposal to build and support centres where people could self-isolate voluntarily if they suspected that they could have the disease.[17]
From 2017 to 2018, Whitty was also interim Government Chief Scientific Adviser and head of the science and engineering profession in government.[3] During this period Novichok, the military nerve agent, was responsible for the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, and Whitty chaired the government SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies) and advised COBR for the crisis.[3][4]
Whitty was appointed Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England in 2019.[3]
On 27 March, Whitty was reported to be self-isolating owing to symptoms consistent with COVID-19 after Boris Johnson and Health SecretaryMatt Hancock had tested positive for the virus.[22] On 6 April, he had reportedly returned to work having recovered from the symptoms of the virus.[23] In July, he told the Lords Science and Technology Committee that elimination of the disease in the UK would be very difficult, a view that was contested by other scientists including members of the Independent SAGE group.[24]
At a televised briefing on 12 October where the Prime Minister introduced three tiers of localised restrictions, Whitty said he was "not confident" that the measures in the highest tier would be "enough to get on top of it".[25][26] Whitty and Vallance presented updated data and forecasts at a televised briefing on 31 October, where the Prime Minister announced stricter measures for the whole of England.[27]
During the outbreak, BBC health editor Hugh Pym called him "the official who will probably have the greatest impact on our everyday lives of any individual policymaker in modern times".[20]The Guardian's sketch writer, John Crace, described him as "the Geek-in-Chief, whom everyone now regards as the country's de facto prime minister". At the same time, he was compared to James Niven, the Scottish physician known for reducing the death rate of influenza during the 1918 flu pandemic in Manchester.[28]
During the Christmas weekend of 2020, Whitty was spotted treating coronavirus patients in London. It was said he "worked the shifts in his capacity as a practising doctor [as] a consultant physician at University College London Hospitals Trust... on the north London hospital's respiratory ward over the weekend and bank holiday Monday".[29]
On 26 June 2021 a group of COVID-19 protesters demonstrated outside what appeared to be Whitty's flat in central London.[30] Earlier in the month Whitty was followed down a street by a prominent anti-vaccine activist who shouted at him for being a liar, and in February he was called a liar multiple times while waiting for a takeaway lunch at a street food stall.[31]
On 27 June, Whitty was the subject of manhandling, described by Johnson as "despicable harassment", by Lewis Hughes and Jonathan Chew in St James's Park, Westminster, who filmed the event for social media.[32] The Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, said such behaviour would not be tolerated and that those responsible "should be ashamed". The Vaccines Minister, Nadhim Zahawi, said they were "thugs" and should face charges. Hughes subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of beating and was given an eight-week suspended custodial sentence.[33] He had previously apologised for any "upset" caused and had lost his job as an estate agent over the incident.[34] In January 2022 Chew, who had initially pleaded not guilty, changed his plea and was given an eight-week custodial sentence.[35]
In September 2021, Whitty was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Plymouth in recognition of his support for the university's medical science research community.[38] He also holds an honorary degree from the University of York.[39]
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