From Whitty to Vallance, where are the ‘Covid crew’ who ran lockdown now?

When the pandemic first struck Britain, Boris Johnson’s lockdown announcement had 27 million views on television. And after that, his team of experts graced our screens every night, flinging a number of hitherto unknown scientists and advisors to household fame.

Three years on, the virus continues, yet the national prominence these once-obscure boffins had in our lives seems a distant memory, prompting the question: what did Britain’s Covid crew do next?

Sir Patrick was a regular fixture on our television screens as chief scientific advisor, explaining the rationale behind government decisions. He left the role in March and has now gone global by taking an advisory role in July with Singapore’s National Research Foundation, a research body within the country’s government.

The ex-GlaxoSmithKline research executive, 63, has also picked up a string of other directorships, including non-executive director at ARIA, the British government’s research agency, and honorary chair at the University of Manchester’s department of biological sciences.

But the most exciting role of the lot is his chairmanship of the Natural History Museum, which he took up in February. “I have always loved this place. Who wouldn’t? This feels to me like exactly the right place to be,” he said.

Dame Kate chaired the vaccine taskforce in an unpaid role from May to December 2020, leading government efforts to sign deals with companies who were attempting to produce a Covid vaccine.

When informed of the Pfizer vaccine’s 94 per cent efficacy, she said “I danced around my kitchen table and went for a celebratory run on the Welsh hills with our neighbour’s wonderful dog Gruff”.

In total, the taskforce secured agreements for 357 million doses from seven different developers that year. Dame Kate then returned to her role as managing partner of pharmaceutical investment firm SV Health Investors, where she has worked since September 1991.

Awarded a Damehood in the Queen’s 2021 birthday honours, the mother-of-three, 57, also published The Long Shot, an account of the taskforce’s work, in October 2022 and competes in bog snorkelling competitions.