Coronavirus 21

Yesterday, Sunday the 19th of April 2020, in the Downing Street Briefing, Dr. Jenny Harries, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said:

"We had a containment phase and it was very successful."

I'm reminded of the apocryphal surgeon who reported that the operation was successful but the patient died.

But it got worse. Dr. Harries said: "German rates of disease are starting to rise now."

No, they are not. That was wrong. She was trying to play down the embarrassing comparison between the UK and Germany. She was suggesting that German performance was not so much better than the UK's. She was attempting to mislead the British public. It was a lie. 

Here are the key graphs for Germany from Worldometer updated: April 20, 2020, 05:27 GMT

Dr. Jenny Harries, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said: "German rates of disease are starting to rise now."

That was a lie.

Now I am the sort of person who likes to give people I encounter the benefit of the doubt, to assume they are good, honest and truthful. But if I find that they lie, just once, I will never ever trust a word they say. And neither should anyone else. Telling the truth is non-negotiable. My mother persuaded me of that when I was a very small child.

Not being able to trust the word of the Deputy Chief Medical Officer brings us to a pretty pass.


A recording of th briefing is available from the BBC here.