Thread by @ChrisMusson

Scotland's national clinical director @jasonleitch said at Covid briefing today that he disagreed with Edinburgh University epidemiologist Professor Mark Woolhouse, who cast doubt yesterday on Scot Gov claims that Scotland nearly eliminated the virus last summer

https://twitter.com/ChrisMusson/status/1364952157183762442

.@jasonleitch: “I disagree with Mark - you may not be surprised to hear that - but that’s healthy. That’s a good thing in the scientific advisory community. Some of the other members of our advisory group also disagree with Mark, again - healthy, that’s good."

Prof Leitch: “We rarely play those scientific debates out live at parliamentary committees and live on TV and that’s the nature of the pandemic.”

Referring to data, Prof Leitch said there were 2 cases on July 12 across Scotland despite the fact “we were testing a lot”; 9 hospital admissions in the week of July 18; no intensive care admissions from June 18 to July 7

Prof Leitch: "From July 17 to August 30, a six week period, we imported a whole load of new strains. We know that from the genomic testing study that we’ve published - 61% of those import events were from England, 28% were from Europe, and 9% were from Asia."

Prof Leitch: “Of course, we also shared the virus we had with others. It’s not a one way street.”

Prof Woolhouse said on Weds that v low cases were due to virus “circulating particularly in young adult groups that don’t show many symptoms” and levels increased when testing did

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman: “Every single member of our chief medical officer advisory group and all of those who are actively engaged in the science of this, whether it be epidemiology or public health...their views and opinions are really important to us"

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman: “However, like any other group of individuals, if you bring them all together they do not necessarily all share the same opinion and reach a consensus view."