It is well entrenched in the culture of Westminster that failure is always rewarded.
Those of you wondering why Covid restrictions have been, at times, bizarre and slow to be lifted should cast their eyes to the advice and statistics given to ministers by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) headed up by the recently "Damed" Jenny Harries.
Dame Jenny has a history of giving wrong/misleading advice wrt Covid viz:
1 March 2020, Harries stated "the virus will not survive very long outside," and "many outdoor events, particularly, are relatively safe,"[19] and warned that it was "not a good idea" for members of the public to wear a mask in which the virus could get trapped, thus increasing the risk of infection.[20]
2 Harries suggested in March 2020 that the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s advice to "test, test, test" people for COVID-19 and trace their contacts was primarily intended for countries that were less well developed than the UK, arguing that "there comes a point in a pandemic where that is not an appropriate intervention": "The clue for WHO is in its title. It is a World Health Organisation and it is addressing all countries across the world with entirely different health infrastructures and particularly public health infrastructures. We have an extremely well-developed public health system in this country and in fact our public health teams actually train others abroad. So the point there is that they are addressing every country, including low- and middle-income countries, so encouraging all countries to test of some type," Harries said; other highly developed countries remained committed to extensive testing and experienced fewer deaths.[22][23][24]
3 In December 2021, The Telegraph reported that it was understood that Harries was the source of a contested figure that there was an average 17-day delay between infection and hospitalisation for COVID-19, used by Health Secretary Sajid Javid. Former Treasury statistician Simon Briscoe was quoted as saying that the figure seemed like either a "deliberate statistical sleight of hand designed to deceive, or incompetence" and that if deliberate, officials were "in effect trying to buy time, as officials realise that data of rising hospitalisations is needed to justify lockdown.
4 Harries and UKHSA was rebuked by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) over the statistics watchdog over claims that 200,000 people were catching Omicron per day which were not supported by evidence.
5 UKHSA admitted it had misunderstood the U.S. health authorities’ position on their five day isolation recommendation. The UKHSA had claimed the U.S. isolation period started after a positive test, so some time after infection. In fact, the U.S. advice was that its five-day isolation began when symptoms started. Ministers are furious that she has yet again misled them with erroneous data.
Given that the latest debacle comes just days after she was "Damed", it surely is now the time for her to be promoted away from anything to do with health and indeed from the UK. I suggest she be made ambassador to some small country, where she can do no further harm!
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