A quote from the British chief medical officer on managing COVID-19 outbreaks in a similar way to seasonal flu has been taken out of context to suggest that the government has reversed its pandemic strategy.
Examples of remarks made by Professor Chris Whitty during a webinar for the Royal Society of Medicine COVID-19 series – but without context – were posted here on Facebook via screenshots, here, here and here).
The same claim was also shared in other posts, along with memes and screenshots of news articles (here, here, here, here, here).
The first screenshot, referring to a Daily Telegraph article about the webinar and Whitty’s quotes (here), reads: ‘Should have done it from day one instead of using a USEFUL TEST to deliberately’ Create ‘Cases’ to scare people into submission and remove their constitutional rights, close businesses and more. Now the court cases have started they are taking a turn in the hope that they will avoid jail. I hope each of these corrupt charlatans pay a heavy price for this. ‘
Another adds: ‘Chris Whitty-‘ We’re going to treat ‘Covid1984’ like flu …. Thank you for confirming everything I’ve been saying for over a year! I will patiently wait for many apologies for the sadness that the ‘lockdown Brigade’ received during the year, which apparently became extraordinarily quiet. ‘
However, it appears that these Facebook users have misunderstood the message from the chief medical adviser. His remark about treating COVID-19 like flu is not a twist in the whole pandemic management strategy; rather, it is a remark about the future management of the disease now that citizens are being vaccinated widely.
“It’s clear we’ll have to drive COVID-19 at some point, rather than dealing with the flu,” Whitty said during the webinar (here). ‘I think when you say that, people jump in and say,’ you think it’s flu. “It’s not a flu, it’s a very different disease. But the point I make is: here is a seasonal, very dangerous disease that kills thousands of people every year, and society has a specific way of choosing it. “
Whitty also discussed annual flu deaths, which he said averaged “between 7,000 and 9,000”, as well as some years with a “bad flu” that killed between 20,000 and 25,000 people. He said: ‘The last time we had it was about three years ago in the UK. No one noticed it. It was not reported in the newspapers, but the deaths from flu doubled in a year and this put a lot of pressure on the NHS. ”
By comparison, 127,100 people in the UK have died from COVID-19 in the last 13 months, many of whom have not benefited from a vaccine (here).
Later in the speech, Whitty also did not rule out the possibility of future exclusions should new variants of COVID-19 cause a worse situation. However, he said that “medical countermeasures” such as vaccines and therapeutic drugs would be the key to suppressing outbreaks.
VERDICT
Missing context. Chris Whitty did not take a turn over the entire government pandemic strategy. His remarks were made with reference to future management of COVID-19 outbreaks, including the use of vaccines and therapeutic medications.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.