Thread by @petermbenglish

"Pandemic preparedness: UK government kept coronavirus modelling secret" @bmj_latest doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1…
@DrMQureshi
Why was it @PHE_UK that said publication would "damage national security"? Is such a decision a PHE responsibility (I doubt it)?
1/8

Unless it reveals details of plans to counter bioterrorism or warfare that potential attackers would not guess and would help them, how could publishing reports on pandemic / epidemic preparedness exercises possibly damage national security?
2/8

This seems completely implausible.

Just like the identical claims that delayed (until protests forced publication ofthe reports on the impact of Covid-19 on BAME people last year.
3/8

"National security" is the government's get out of jail free card.

They claim that explaining how publication would be damaging would, itself, be damaging, and thereby prevent any rational discussion.
4/8

And they use the claim when, as here, it is so implausible that we have to deduce they are (as we have seen them do so often) simply lying, using the claim as a pretext to cover up incompetence or something embarrassing.
5/8

NB I was Chair of @TheBMA's Public Health Committee until Autumn 2020 and a @PHE_uk consultant emergency planning lead for Surrey and Sussex until I retired earlier this year.
6/8

I spoke directly with senior managers in PHE after a summary of the report showing the disproportionate effects of Covid-19 on BAME people, to say I believed publication was in the public interest. The response was not convincing!
7/8

When I say that it is implausible that the pandemic / epidemic exercise reports would damage national security, remember my role in @PHE_uk (tweet 6).
8/8

@threadreaderapp unroll

@PHE_uk re tweet 2 - an alternative is an outdated, paternalistic belief that the public can't be trusted with the truth. That eg telling them about inequities will lead to riots or other civil unrest, disproportionate to the benefits of truthfulness.

A convenient, false, pretext.