Covid: Keeping you updated 20

The scrapping of Public Health England (PHE), for which there has been some criticism over the handling of the pandemic in recent months, was widely reported in the national media this week. However, proposals to replace PHE with a new body, National Institute for Health Protection, were met with further criticism as the head of the new organisation appears to have no clinical background nor relevant experience. Dido Harding, previously a head of a mobile phone company, is best known for her role in heading up the defunct Covid track-and-trace programme. She has no clinical background and her appointment, before any inquiry into mistakes and while the current crisis is far from over, must be viewed as a political one and a signal that PHE is likely to be blamed for most of the errors made up to this point.