Jenny Harries

Born in Monmouth,{{Cite news|url=https://www.business-live.co.uk/opinion-analysis/dr-jenny-harries-the-welsh-18023208|first=Chris|last=Pyke|title=Dr Jenny Harries: 'The Welsh wizard of coronavirus communication'|work=Business Live|date=1 April 2020|access-date=27 February 2021}} Harries studied medicine at the University of Birmingham gaining an intercalated BSc in pharmacology in 1981 and medical degrees, MB ChB, in 1984.{{Cite web|url=https://www.oldjoe.co.uk/article/new-year-honours|title=Old Joe - New Year Honours|website=Old Joe}}{{cite web|url=https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/cpag/cpag-member-biographies/|title=CPAG member biographies|publisher=NHS|access-date=7 April 2020|archive-date=1 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220101134843/https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/cpag/cpag-member-biographies/|url-status=dead}}

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.{{cite web |title=Regional Director, South of England: Dr Jenny Harries OBE |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/people/jenny-harries |website=Gov.uk |publisher=Department of Health and Social Care |access-date=10 June 2019}}{{cite web |title=New deputy chief medical officer appointed for England |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-deputy-chief-medical-officer-appointed-for-england |website=Gov.uk |publisher=Department of Health and Social Care |access-date=10 June 2019}} The appointment of a new Chief Medical Officer for England, Chris Whitty was announced simultaneously.{{cite web |title=New chief medical officer appointed |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-chief-medical-officer-appointed |publisher=Department of Health and Social Care |access-date=10 June 2019}}

File:10 Downing Street COVID-19 press conference, 20 March 2020.png Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak (20 March 2020)]]

Effective 7 May 2021, Harries was appointed as the first chief executive of the new UK Health Security Agency, which combines Public Health England and England's NHS Test and Trace.{{Cite web|title=New UK Health Security Agency to lead response to future health threats|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-uk-health-security-agency-to-lead-response-to-future-health-threats|access-date=24 March 2021|website=Gov.uk|language=en}} Although the organisation was established on 1 April 2021, Harries assumed this role following a hand-over period which lasted until Dido Harding, the interim chief executive, departed on 7 May 2021.[2022] EWHC 298 (Admin)

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours{{Cite web|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/61450/supplement/N12|title=Page N12 | Supplement 61450, 30 December 2015 | London Gazette|website=Thegazette.co.uk|access-date=24 September 2023}} and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to health.{{London Gazette|issue=63571|supp=y|page=N8|date=1 January 2022}}{{Cite news|date=2021-12-31|title=New Year Honours: Whitty, Van-Tam and Blair knighted, Lumley and Redgrave made dames|last=Amos|first=Owen|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59809682|access-date=2021-12-31}}{{Cite web|date=31 December 2021|title=2022 New Years Honour List|url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1044471/new-year-honour-list-2022.pdf|website=Gov.uk}}

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,{{cite news|title=Meet Jenny Harries, the doctor talking sense in the coronavirus pandemic |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/meet-jenny-harriesthe-doctor-talking-sense-coronavirus-pandemic/ |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=23 March 2020 | access-date=29 March 2020 |last=Hall |first=Alice }} 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.{{cite news |title=Coronavirus: Government's senior advisers face calls to resign over testing 'incompetence' |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-uk-testing-response-ppe-whitty-jenny-harries-sage-a9474201.html |work=The Independent |date=20 April 2020 |last=Forrest |first=Adam }}{{cite news |title=Coronavirus: Call for government's medical advisers to resign over COVID-19 testing |url=https://uk.news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-government-advisers-lancet-091902948.html |access-date=15 May 2020 |work=Yahoo! News |date=20 April 2020 |last=McGuinness |first=Ross }}

In early March 2020, Harries stated "the virus will not survive very long outside," and "many outdoor events, particularly, are relatively safe,"{{cite news |title=Coronavirus: UK tactics defended as cases expected to rise |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51812326 |work=BBC News |date=10 March 2020| access-date=23 October 2021}} 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.{{cite news |title=Wearing mask may increase risk of infection |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/wearing-mask-may-increase-risk-of-infection-jzz6t0m2t |work=The Times |date=12 March 2020 |access-date=23 October 2021 |last=Gibbons |first=Katie }} 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".{{cite news |title=Coronavirus: Cheltenham Festival 'may have accelerated' spread |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-52485584 |work=BBC News |date=30 April 2020| access-date=23 October 2021}}

Harries suggested in March 2020 that the World Health Organization (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 Organization 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.{{Cite news|last=Staunton|first=Denis|date=27 March 2020|title=Unflappable confidence of UK's health establishment about to be tested|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/unflappable-confidence-of-uk-s-health-establishment-about-to-be-tested-1.4214245|access-date=24 May 2021|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Walker|first=Amy|date=14 April 2020|title=England coronavirus testing has not risen fast enough - science chief|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/14/england-coronavirus-testing-has-not-risen-fast-enough-science-chief|access-date=24 May 2021|work=The Guardian|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=20 April 2020|title=Coronavirus: Jenny Harries criticised for 'patronising' remark about 'exemplar preparedness'|url=https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-jenny-harries-criticised-for-patronising-remark-about-exemplar-preparedness-11975652|access-date=24 May 2021|website=Sky News|language=en}}

Harries also suggested that the risk of flu or road accident was higher than that posed by COVID-19 for schoolchildren.{{cite news |title=Coronavirus: Risk of flu or road accident higher than COVID-19 for schoolchildren, says deputy CMO |url=https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-risk-of-flu-or-road-accident-higher-than-covid-19-for-schoolchildren-says-deputy-cmo-12055436 |work=Sky News |date=24 August 2020|access-date=22 October 2021 |last=Patel-Carstairs |first=Sunita }}

In December 2021, The Daily 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".{{Cite news|last=Malnick|first=Edward|date=2021-12-25|title='Dodgy data' used in push for tighter Covid restrictions|language=en-GB|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/25/dodgy-data-used-push-tighter-covid-restrictions/|access-date=2021-12-27|issn=0307-1235}}

In November 2023, the UK COVID-19 Inquiry heard that Harries had recommended in an email that, in the worst situation, elderly COVID-positive patients should be discharged into residential care homes to manage capacity problems in hospitals. The impact on care facilities was controversial, and was linked to the deaths of thousands of people in care homes.{{cite news |title=People with Covid discharged to care homes over fears for NHS, inquiry told |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/jenny-harries-nhs-people-sajid-javid-covid-b2455450.html |access-date=30 November 2023 |work=The Independent |date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130205715/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/jenny-harries-nhs-people-sajid-javid-covid-b2455450.html |archive-date=30 November 2023 |language=en |url-status=live}}

{{reflist}}{{COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Jenny}}

Category:Civil servants in the Ministry of Health (United Kingdom)

Category:Date of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people

Category:British women medical doctors

Category:People educated at Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls

Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham

Category:Date of birth unknown

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire