Elected leaders should support more radical action to tackle major problems such as air pollution, smoking, and obesity, England’s chief medical officer has told MPs.
Giving evidence1 to the Health and Social Care Committee on 21 February to kick off its inquiry into prevention,2 Chris Whitty said policies around primary prevention to tackle the root causes of ill health were “political choices” and he would like to see more boldness from ministers and locally elected leaders. “If parliament chooses to enact some of the things it could do on primary prevention, we could improve things like air pollution, reduce things like smoking, and …