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James Urquhart

Vaccination: new start or emperor’s clothes?

January 10, 2021 by James Urquhart 1 Comment

‘The outcome is indeed so vital for us all that the progress of the vaccination programme is the one topic that cannot be kicked into the long grass of some future Inquiry – and this knowledge must be shared as fully and as often as possible.’

Statistical amnesia

December 6, 2020 by James Urquhart 5 Comments

‘Putting it bluntly, this kind of statistical amnesia will seem a little tawdry to anyone who invested belief and political capital in the First Minister’s approach.’ Our statistical expert ends the year of the pandemic as he began: savaging the misuse of data.

Straw man statistics

November 15, 2020 by James Urquhart 3 Comments

‘But the more fundamental objection is that the study (by Public Health Scotland into hospital discharges to care homes) tells us nothing about the real question of concern: Did the discharge of untested patients to care homes result in an increase in deaths? The truth is that we are really none the wiser.’

No more political games

August 16, 2020 by James Urquhart Leave a Comment

‘It’s right that we do not forget that the objective of protecting the NHS in Scotland resulted in people being denied essential care for non-COVID-19 conditions nor the mistakes made in respect of care homes…But the drawing of comparisons is not a political debating ploy.  It is essential to our safety.’

The Ministry of Truth

June 14, 2020 by James Urquhart Leave a Comment

In his latest piece, senior statistician James Urquhart, investigates how the UK Government uses UK data to buttress policy decisions for England and asks: manipulation or malfeasance…

Bipartisan politics is admirable but will cost lives

May 3, 2020 by James Urquhart 3 Comments

An open letter to Labour leader Keir Starmer and Scotland’s First Minister from a senior medical statistician urging at least a re-think of their refusal to break ranks with UK Government policy for containing/suppressing Covid-19.

A room without a view

April 10, 2020 by James Urquhart 2 Comments

‘Scotland has the devolved power to follow its own strategic objectives. The question is: does it have the courage and skills to start planning now for an exit strategy which wholeheartedly and comprehensively embraces contact tracing? The answer firmly rests with all our politicians and their advisors. We should be hearing from them now.’

Statistics in an age of deference: Covid19 strategy fails true grit test

April 4, 2020 by James Urquhart 6 Comments

Hand holding blood sample: CC BY 2.0 Marco Verch is a Professional Photographer and Speaker from Cologne.

“The Brotherston Principle demands that Government fully respects its expert advisors, it also demands of those advisers that they draw on the best expertise, work together to achieve a best consensus, and speak out strongly if the Government chooses a course of action which flies in the face of reason or squanders precious resource of time or people on justifying failure,” writes a senior medical statistician.

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