Therese Coffey was asked by Piers Morgan why UK s Covid death toll was so high
She said some of the reasons will be recognising age and obesity of population
Conversation went quickly downhill, with Ms Coffey cutting short the interview
Social-media users were equally – if not more – enraged than TV presenter Piers
But was criticism justified? Many scientists have quietly applauded Ms Coffey
One year ago, 84-year-old Peter Attwood, from Chatham in Kent, died with coronavirus in what is the earliest known death involving Covid-19 on UK soil.
Since then, the toll has spiralled past 100,000 as the nation sustained one of the worst death rates in the world and has been battered by the economic fallout.
Boris Johnson said he accepts “full responsibility” for the Government’s response but has declined to set out where he thinks the nation went wrong until a later time.
There are clear policy areas, however, that will face intense scrutiny going forward as the nation looks to learn from the mistakes and mis-steps to prevent further deaths from the current crisis and any future pandemic.
Women s healthy life expectancy drops by five months, but men see no change
Office for National Statistics says greater awareness and willingness to be open about mental health conditions may be a factor
25 January 2021 • 5:45pm
Women s healthy life expectancy (HLE) has fallen by five months while the rate for men has stayed the same, Government figures show.
On Monday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published data analysing life expectancy for men and women from 2017 to 2019. It showed that female HLE was almost five months shorter between 2017 to 2019 than in 2014 to 2016, and at its lowest since the time series began in 2009 to 2011.
Donna Kinnair
The chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing has been appointed as a non-executive director for the newly created NHS Race and Health Observatory.
Dame Donna Kinnair (pictured above) will sit on the board alongside 14 other members who together were described as being some of the world’s leading experts on the subject of health inequalities.
“This work is vitally important and I am honoured to contribute in any way I can
Donna Kinnair
Other members include Professor Sir Michael Marmot, who authored the landmark Marmot Review into health inequalities in 2010, which was updated in 2020, and Lord Victor Adebowale, former chief executive of the social care enterprise Turning Point and now chair of NHS Confederation.