Unless I’m very much mistaken, it was The Times newspaper which first reported the revelation that out of events attended by a total of 58,000 people, only 15 of them subsequently caught Covid-19. This is all part of the UK government’s Events Research Programme, designed to get mass events back on in England.

This is basically typical of how the Johnson administration works. They leak some details of a report to a dutiful journalist. The journo gets an exclusive in the paper, and other journalists soon relay the same message on other outlets.

The first journalist gets an exclusive in the newspaper, a pat in the back from their boss and an ego boost. The other journalists have an easy story because they have little to no fact finding work to do. The government likes it because they’ve got their spin out in the public domain.

The only ones who lose out are the public, who aren’t given any proper access to the information. Where is the full report for this? Without knowing exactly how many of those 58,000 took Covid tests after the events, the 15 number is ultimately meaningless.

For example, if 50,000 did the test and 15 came back positive, that’s a ratio of 0.0003%. But if 500 did the test with the same result, that’s 0.03%. This sounds small, but when you add in other factors, the picture can get very complicated.

So, forgive me if I refuse to believe that a leak to a journalist means that June 21st is the day England’s lockdown ends. Let’s see the full report and I’ll make my mind up. Not merely what some government apparatchik wants me to think…