NHS Chief Accused Of ‘Lying’ About Covid Statistics To Promote Vaccines
https://newspunch.com/nhs-chief-accused-of-lying-about-covid-statistics-to-promote-vaccines/
NHS England’s chief executive Amanda Pritchard has been accused of an “outrageous misuse” of statistics after after exaggerating the number of patients who are infected and in hospital with the virus.
Pritchard, who has been calling on the population to get vaccinated or go in for booster jabs, suggested there were ’14 times’ more coronavirus patients in hospital now compared to ‘this time last year’.
The NHS itself has admitted that Pritchard’s claim used misleading figures.
The source of the “14 times” figure is Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive of NHS England. Pritchard used the apparently alarming surge in hospitalisations to encourage the 4.5 million Britons who still haven’t gotten vaccinated to roll up their sleeves, and those eligible to take their third shot of the vaccine.
However, NHS data shows that Pritchard’s figures are false. According to the health service, a 7-day average of 9,331 Covid-19 patients were in hospital at the beginning of November, compared to 12,654 a year earlier. Just over 1,000 people per day were being admitted to hospital at the end of October, compared to 1,500 last year.
Pritchard was swiftly accused of peddling fake news, with commentators warning that such misleading figures were straying into “resignation territory.