The first email warning British government officials of the threat of a new ‘undiagnosed pneumonia’ in China has been published by the Covid Inquiry.
It was sent by Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam to the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, Sir Chris Whitty, and staff at the Department of Health at 11.15am on 3 January 2020.
Sir Jonathan, who later became a household name known for his analogies, had forwarded the email from an international public health alert system called ProMed.
The subject line read: “Outbreak of undiagnosed viral pneumonia in China.”
The email itself detailed that the pneumonia had been spotted in Hubei province, where the city of Wuhan is located. It also hinted that cases had been discovered at the market linked to the ‘sale of wild animals’, which had now closed.
The first email to the government about a new ‘undiagnosed pneumonia’ in China, sent by Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, has been published by the Covid Inquiry
The email, sent on January 3, 2020 at 11:15 am, was a forwarding of a message from an international public health alert system about an “outbreak of undiagnosed viral pneumonia in China.” The initials ‘JVT’ of Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam can be seen at the bottom left
In his response, the government’s chief medical officer, Sir Chris Whitty, outlined the “triggers” that would cause officials to take “keen interest” in the new infection.
Addressing his email directly to Sir Chris, Sir Jonathan wrote that Emma Reed, head of emergency response and health protection at the Department of Health, had received a message from Public Health England (PHE) several days earlier about a mysterious new infection.
He wrote: ‘I’m not sure who else it was sent to so I’m copying it here to officials.
‘In summary: On December 31, 2019, PHE identified ProMed reports of an outbreak of undiagnosed viral pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, People’s Republic of China (population 11.2 million).’
In his response, Sir Chris wrote that there were three triggers that would prompt the British government to take a “keen interest” in the then-unnamed virus.
The first and ‘most worrying’ factor would be if healthcare workers died, while the second would be evidence of person-to-person spread, and the third would be signs of wider geographical spread through animals.
Sir Chris added: ‘If not, I don’t think we need to go any further at this stage and leave it to PHE to alert us if the situation changes.’
In a sign of how quickly the situation escalated, it was only a matter of weeks from the email that the first cases of the virus were discovered in Britain on January 29.
A day later, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a global public health emergency.
The email exchanges were published as part of the UK Covid investigation.
Both Sir Chris and Sir Jonathan gave evidence at a hearing today.
The latter revealed how police pushed him to flee his home after his family received death threats during the pandemic, the Covid inquest heard.
Sir Jonathan – who left his role in March 2022 – rose to fame during the government’s Covid response for both his calm demeanor during television appearances and his regular use of analogies.
But JVT, as he is affectionately known, suffered some negative consequences from being thrust into the public eye.
He told the inquiry how he received violent messages as he tried to explain the science behind the government’s decision-making.
He told the inquiry: ‘I did not expect my family to be threatened with having their throats slit.
‘I didn’t expect the police to have to say, ‘Are you moving in the middle of the night? Are you going to go away for a few days while we look into this and possibly make some arrests?”
Sir Jonathan, who was knighted last year, said with his characteristic humor that his family did not leave their home ‘because of the cat’, but added: ‘It was a very stressful time. And my family did not sign for that.’
The Boston United fan was known for his memorable metaphors in the regular Covid updates, such as comparing the virus to a ‘goalkeeper who can be beaten’ and the vaccine rollout to the ‘glide path to landing this plane’.
But he did spark panic and concern across the UK in the early days of the Covid crisis when he admitted the country might have to ‘live with’ the virus for years before a vaccine was found.
He also made headlines in December 2020 when he warned that Britons could be wearing face masks for years to come – even after a successful Covid vaccine became available.