The_Times__6_March_2020

8 2GM Friday March 6 2020 | the times

NewsNews Coronavirus

virus. If they develop symptoms they

should self-isolate and phone 111.

However, the NHS said that anyone

returning to the UK from locked down

areas of northern Italy should take

those steps even if they do not have

symptoms.

Chris Whitty, chief medical officer

for England, said yesterday that people

should not think they were “a goner” if

they caught the virus. About 2 per cent

of patients in China are thought to have

died, but Professor Whitty said that

large numbers of people probably had

the disease without symptoms and he

was confident that the “upper limit” of

the true death rate was likely to be 1 per

cent. While in China death rates rose to

Anyone who has been to Italy in the

past fortnight has been told to self-

isolate for two weeks if they feel ill, as

public health advice is updated in

response to the coronavirus outbreak.

With Italian cases approaching

4,000, British officials said that the risk

of catching the virus anywhere in Italy

meant guidance previously given to

travellers to northern regions had to be

extended. Anyone who went to Rome,

Florence or Naples at half-term should

now be vigilant for coughs, colds and fe-

vers that could be symptoms of the

Chris Smyth Whitehall Editor

Greg Hurst Social Affairs Editor

Ben Clatworthy Assistant Travel Editor

HIV and malaria drugs could be repur-
posed and used to treat coronavirus in
the groups most at risk, under plans
being considered by the NHS.
In the medium to long term scientists
are racing to develop both a vaccine and
a specific anti-viral treatment for the
Covid-19 strain of the coronavirus.
However, neither will be available with-
in the year.
Chris Whitty, the chief medical
officer for England, confirmed that he
and his colleagues were hoping instead
that existing drugs could blunt the
virus’s effects.
“An important question is, can we
find existing drugs we have got a licence
for, where we know their safety, they
are widely available, and show they
work against this virus?” he said to MPs
at a select committee.
“The answer, I think, is yes. They may
not be perfect drugs, but they could
work enough to improve the outcomes
of the most high risk groups.”
One of the drugs under considera-
tion is Kaletra, an HIV medication that
stops viral replication. Another is chlo-
roquine, a malaria treatment that
appears to prevent viruses locking onto
cells.
This week the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation announced funding for a
project to rapidly screen 15,000 other
known therapeutic molecules, to see if
any could also help to lessen the severi-
ty of infection.
Christine Tait-Burkard, from the
Roslin Institute in Scotland, said that
the effort to find such antiviral medica-
tion was key to dealing with this and
with future outbreaks. “We need antivi-
rals. We possibly need antivirals even
more than a vaccine,” she said.
“Expansion of cities and wildlife
sharing urban areas just means that
there is going to be a closer contact with
wildlife, with bats, and therefore these
events could become a lot more fre-
quent, sadly,” she added.
Although a vaccine is not going to
arrive in time to deal with the first wave
of infections, it is still far from clear
when and how this outbreak will end.
The global scientific effort to develop
a vaccine reached a milestone this week
when researchers in Seattle started
recruiting the first human volunteers
for a clinical trial. The small study will
investigate whether the experimental
vaccine produces an immune response.
The team running the trial, from Kai-
ser Permanente Washington Health
Research Institute, said that due to the
required rigour of the testing, even if it
passed the tests in this study it would
take at least a year to bring it to market.

Self-isolate if you

have been anywhere

in Italy and feel ill

NHS ponders

using malaria

medication to

tackle effects

Tom Whipple Science Editor
Helen Puttick
Scottish Health Correspondent

London branches of

Tesco and Asda have

been stripped of

lavatory paper and

hand sanitiser. Pupils

in Brighton

are using a Thai

greeting to avoid

physical contact

Quentin Letts

Modest medic sees off

the screaming ab-dabs

C

ometh the hour, cometh

the mild-mannered

Englishman, most

improbable of heroes, to

stand up to the wailing

Jeremiahs and steer us to safety.

Every disaster epic needs one

and in the case of the coronavirus

we have the chief medical officer,

Chris Whitty, modest, beanpolish

and just a bit of a star. He spent his

puzzled — a little wounded — that

anyone found that odd.

Nurse Hunt said the committee

was eager to learn about the

epidemiological aspects of

coronavirus. Everyone adopted

inscrutable expressions, hoping no

one would ask them what

“epidemiological” meant, or how to

spell it. Before long we were into a

vivid passage of play about people

coughing balls of snot on to their

bare palms and moments later

shaking hands with others.

“I would encourage you,”

murmured Prof Whitty, “not to take

that particular hand.” Just the

merest corrugation of a frown-line

signalled that he regarded the

prospect of such a paw as faintly

disgusting. There was also a warning

about “respiratory droplets” of the

disease being spread by people

coughing or sneezing within a few

feet of fellow citizens. At that very

moment a man at the far side of the

room succumbed to a hacking

cough and made little to no effort to

cover his mouth. Stretcher bearers!

You could not call this chief

who on Tuesday stood alongside

Boris Johnson at 10 Downing Street

for a briefing about the Covid-

bug. Now here he was in identical

dark suit and red tie, the only

difference in his appearance being

that the collars of his white shirt had

curled a bit and he had developed

small bags under his eyes. He must

have been working flat out and may

barely have had time to kick off his

shoes, let along change clothes. Not

that he complained. The prof did not

strike one as much of a man for

self-pity. He just spoke in a level,

relatable manner. The over-80s, as

he put it, should not believe that

they were all “goners”. Death from

coronavirus was very, very unlikely.

Jeremy Hunt (C, Surrey SW),

chairman of the newly-formed

committee, had stripped down to

shirtsleeves. Politicians do this when

they wish to look decisive. Prof

Whitty preferred to keep his jacket

on. He is the sort of gent who

cleaves to his Winceyette pyjamas

even on the equator. I once knew an

Old Radleian who wore a vest in the

Balearics in high summer and was

morning at the Commons health

select committee, calmly explaining

to MPs what he knew — and,

perfectly openly, what he did not

know — about this pesky plague

that has given so many otherwise

sane people an attack of the

screaming ab-dabs.

Should schools close en masse?

Pointless. What about stockpiling?

Not rational. Street by street

warnings of where the virus has

struck? Terrible idea. Oh, and

should parliament be abandoned for

the next few weeks? Sadly not. Bang

goes the sketchwriting guild’s dream

of a long, unscheduled recess.

Prof Whitty is one of the experts

Political Sketch