Why trust the Health Minister when he contradicts the HSE?

In trying to reassure the Irish public on coronavirus, Simon Harris may have actually confused us more, writes Eilis O’Hanlon

THE Government’s response to the novel coronavirus, now known as Covid-19, is an object lesson in why people no longer trust authority. Simon Harris’s appearance on Sean O’Rourke on Friday, in the wake of confirmation of the first case of the virus on the island, was just another depressing exercise in evasion, centred on a basic pitch: ‘Trust me, I’m a minister.’

That’s a hard sell. The Government’s handling of serious public health issues, including the children’s hospital and cervical cancer scandals, has hardly inspired confidence, as Fine Gael’s disastrous election showing proved. Last Friday, the Health Minister himself cannily refused to say whether he was prepared to stake his own reputation and political future on the accuracy of the information he was providing.

All he would say is: “I trust our doctors 100pc in relation to this.” But if he trusts the medical advice 100pc, why the reluctance to make it an issue of trust in himself too? It’s a gamble he simply can’t lose, surely?

Unless he knows that he can’t really say for certain, as he did last Friday, that “the protocols worked” in this instance, because it might still transpire that they didn’t.

While confirming that everyone who was on the plane from Italy with the infected woman has now been contacted, Harris even refused to tell listeners how the patient now in quarantine in Northern Ireland got there after landing in Dublin.

“For heaven’s sake... you won’t say if she was or wasn’t on a train?” asked O’Rourke.

The minister confirmed that he wouldn’t, saying it had “not been deemed necessary” to pass on that information.

Harris made clear that he was getting all his information from public health representatives; but what if the official information isn’t as straightforward as he claims?

Harris insists that “anybody who came in contact with this patient — close contact — has now been contacted by our health authorities”.

And what about those who came in contact with the patient on the East Coast, announced last night?

On the radio, Harris clearly made a point there of specifying “close contact”, which is defined by the HSE as “faceto-face contact” or “spending more than 15 minutes within two metres of an infected person”, adding: “If you have not been contacted by the health authorities, you do not need to worry.”

He repeated that again, explaining that “you need contact for about 15 minutes and within a certain distance” to be infected.

That’s not strictly true, though, is it? In fact, the HSE’s advice is less clear than that. It states: “You could get the virus if you... touch surfaces that someone who had the virus has coughed or sneezed on.”

So, on the one hand they’re saying don’t worry if this woman used the bathroom in the airport, or that man sat next to you. On the other hand, they’re saying if she or he did sneeze on a surface in your vicinity, and you then touched it, you “could” be infected. If that’s so, how can the minister in good faith say everyone of interest has been contacted already?

It’s impossible to track down every person on a bus or train, where there’s no assigned seating. It’s only possible to rule out infection on public transport if the woman never used it after leaving the airport, but was picked up, and made the rest of the journey, by car — in which case why not just say so?

But even if she did go to Belfast by car, it would leave open the possibility of a cough or sneeze infecting a surface in the airport beforehand, because the official HSE advice goes on to say that the virus “may only survive a few hours if someone who has it coughs or sneezes on a surface”. That “may”, like the previous “could”, leaves an awful lot of wriggle room.

Two hours is quite a large window for potential infection, and must mean other travellers, who came along up to two hours after this woman, “could” have been infected by touching surfaces that she sneezed on. There’s no way of knowing, but Harris appears to rule it out, even as the official guidelines rule it in.

Faced with what appears to be contradictory advice from official sources, can people really be blamed for wondering who or what to believe?

They shouldn’t be dismissed as cranks, or hysterics, or for having, as Harris put it dismissively, “all become public health experts overnight”.

It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to remember that, when it came to cervical cancer, there was the same pattern of partial information being squeezed out of ministers.

Then they wonder why people might be anxious about Covid-19, even reportedly bulk-buying food and other items in case they need to self-isolate at some point in the next few weeks if the virus spreads. It’s easy to mock shoppers for over-reacting, but any gap in information provided will inevitably be filled by rumours and fears.

Iran cancelled Friday prayers for the first time since the Islamic Revolution. Russia has closed its borders to stop the spread of the virus. Hotels are sealed off from the world. Passengers on ships aren’t allowed to disembark. Six Nations matches are postponed. None of this looks or feels normal. It’s not crazy for people to be concerned when they see and hear such reports, and there’s no point blaming the media for reporting on it.

It need not be that the Government is lying. It’s that politicians have failed to understand that the job of providing information to the people they serve is just as important as the other duties they have to keep them safe. Indeed, the two are connected.

Politicians can’t just hide behind medical advice. It’s their job to take the advice and decide what should be done with it, bearing in mind the political, social and economic implications. But when asked for more, all Simon Harris will say is that he won’t provide a “running commentary”.

He damn well should — that’s what the Irish public wants from him right now.

Populists play on the idea that The Powers That Be hold the people in contempt, and neither listen to them, or talk to them, with due respect.

The reason it’s such an effective rallying cry is because it’s all too often an accurate portrayal of government.

Until fairly recently, Irish people have been remarkably generous towards their lords and masters — but the tide of declining trust in the establishment which has swept around the world in recent years, finally breaking on Irish shores, won’t be stopped by treating the public as fools who only deserve as many slivers of truth as those in power are willing to trust them with.

‘Harris even refused to say how the patient now in quarantine in Northern Ireland got there after landing in Dublin...’