Top scientists have hit out at claims by England’s chief medical officer that the UK will struggle to eliminate Covid-19.
The Independent SAGE group, led by former chief scientific adviser for England Sir David King, is calling for a ‘zero Covid’ approach.
Scotland is within “touching distance” of that goal, they believe.
But last week England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty warned that eliminating Covid-19 in a “highly connected” country like the UK was unlikely.
He told the Lords Science and Technology Committee: “Elimination means zero cases onward transmitted and for this disease this is going to be very difficult.”
He added: “We’ve tried to eliminate or eradicate a very large number of diseases over the years.
“We have so far in humans eradicated one, smallpox, and we’ve tried on a lot of other occasions. This is not an easy thing to do.”
Prof Gabriel Scally, a member of the Independent Sage group, said it was possible to eliminate Covid-19.
He agreed with Prof Whitty’s definition of ‘elimination’ as no onward transmission of cases within the UK.
But he added that Britain had a “long history of eliminating diseases”.
He pointed to measles as an example of a disease that was effectively eliminated for a long period of time in the UK, before making a resurgence in more recent years.
With Covid-19 “it is possible”, he said, adding that Scotland was within “touching distance” of eliminating the disease.
