Opinion

Lies, damn lies and variants

The DfE is withholding data about the extent of the spread of the ‘Indian’ Covid variant in schools. Jon Richards wonders if we are dealing with evidence-based policy-making or policy-based evidence-making...


This year has thrown up interesting new verbal gymnastics – not least the term “following the science”. This is a wonderful bit of government-speak that sounds sensible and contemplative until you stand back and think about it.

I have dabbled a bit in “the science” over the years – I have a related degree, have worked on both HIV and occupational health and safety, and sat on a government advisory group on BSE – remember when mad cow disease was the big threat?

So I worry that I am in the “a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing” field when it comes to Covid-19.

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