Jenny Harries

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Dr Jenny Harries
OBE
Jenny Harries.jpg
Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency
Head of NHS Test and Trace
Assumed office
1 April 2021
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byDido Harding (Acting)
Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England
In office
7 June 2019 – 31 March 2021
Serving with Jonathan Van-Tam (from 2017) [1]
Aidan Fowler (from 2020)[2]
Preceded byGina Radford
Succeeded byDr Thomas Waite (Interim)[3]
Personal details
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Birmingham
ProfessionPublic health physician[4]
Websitewww.gov.uk/government/people/jenny-harries

Jennifer Margaret Harries OBE is a British public health physician who has been the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency and head of NHS Test and Trace since April 2021. She was previously a regional director at Public Health England, and then Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England from June 2019 to April 2021.

Early life and education[]

Born in Monmouth,[5] Harries studied medicine at the University of Birmingham gaining an intercalated BSc in pharmacology in 1981 and medical degrees, MB ChB, in 1984.[4][6][7]

Career[]

Harries was Regional Director for the South of England for Public Health England from February 2013 before being appointed Deputy Chief Medical officer for England in June 2019.[8][9] The appointment of a new Chief Medical Officer for England, Chris Whitty was announced simultaneously.[10]

She was appointed OBE in the 2016 New Year Honours.[11]

At a press conference with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak (20 March 2020)

Effective 1 April 2021, Harries was appointed as the first chief executive of the new UK Health Security Agency, which combines Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace.[12]

Roles in UK Government response to COVID-19 Pandemic[]

Harries appeared at some of the daily press conferences held by the UK government to provide updates about the COVID-19 pandemic. She contributed medical information and answered questions from the press,[13] however some of her statements, including suggesting that those receiving fake virus-tracing phone calls could identify them from the tone of the conversation, or that the UK had a "perfectly adequate supply of PPE", met with controversy and calls by scientists such as Professor Anthony Costello, director of University College London's Institute for Global Health, for her to resign.[14][15]

In early March 2020, Harries stated "the virus will not survive very long outside," and "many outdoor events, particularly, are relatively safe,"[16] and warned "wearing mask may increase risk of infection."[17] Cheltenham Festival, a four-day event started weeks later and attended by about 150,000 people, was referred to in the following month by Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser from 2000 to 2007, as "the best possible way to accelerate the spread of the virus".[18]

Harries suggested in March 2020 that the WHO's advice to "test, test, test" people for COVID-19 and trace their contacts was only 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, even as other highly developed countries remained committed to extensive testing and experienced fewer deaths.[19][20][21]

Harries also suggested that risk of flu or road accident was higher than COVID-19 for schoolchildren.[22]

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 Minister Sajid Javid. Former treasure statistician Simon Briscoe was quoted as saying the figure seemed like either a "deliberate statistical sleight of hand designed to deceive, or incompetence" and if deliberate officials were “in effect trying to buy time, as officials realise that data of rising hospitalisations is needed to justify lockdown.”[23]

References[]

  1. ^ "Professor Chris Whitty". GOV.UK. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  2. ^ "Dr Aidan Fowler". GOV.UK. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  3. ^ "New interim deputy chief medical officer for England announced". GOV.UK. UK Government. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  4. ^ a b "General Medical Register". General Medical Council. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  5. ^ Chris Pyke, "Dr Jenny Harries: 'The Welsh wizard of coronavirus communication'", Business Live, 1 April 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2021
  6. ^ "Old Joe - New Year Honours". Old Joe.
  7. ^ "CPAG member biographies". NHS. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  8. ^ "Regional Director, South of England: Dr Jenny Harries OBE". gov.uk. Department of Health and Social Care. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  9. ^ "New deputy chief medical officer appointed for England". gov.uk. Department of Health and Social Care. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  10. ^ "New chief medical officer appointed". Department of Health and Social Care. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  11. ^ "Page N12 | Supplement 61450, 30 December 2015 | London Gazette | The Gazette".
  12. ^ "New UK Health Security Agency to lead response to future health threats". GOV.UK. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  13. ^ "Meet Jenny Harries, the doctor talking sense in the coronavirus pandemic". The Telegraph. 23 March 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  14. ^ "Coronavirus: Government's senior advisers face calls to resign over testing 'incompetence'". The Independent. 20 April 2020.
  15. ^ "Coronavirus: Call for government's medical advisers to resign over COVID-19 testing". Yahoo! News. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  16. ^ "Coronavirus: UK tactics defended as cases expected to rise". BBC News. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  17. ^ "Wearing mask may increase risk of infection". The Times. 12 March 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  18. ^ "Coronavirus: Cheltenham Festival 'may have accelerated' spread". BBC News. 30 April 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
  19. ^ Staunton, Denis (27 March 2020). "Unflappable confidence of UK's health establishment about to be tested". The Irish Times. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  20. ^ Walker, Amy (14 April 2020). "England coronavirus testing has not risen fast enough - science chief". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  21. ^ "Coronavirus: Jenny Harries criticised for 'patronising' remark about 'exemplar preparedness'". Sky News. 20 April 2020. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  22. ^ "Coronavirus: Risk of flu or road accident higher than COVID-19 for schoolchildren, says deputy CMO". Sky News. 24 August 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  23. ^ Malnick, Edward (25 December 2021). "'Dodgy data' used in push for tighter Covid restrictions". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
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