Jenny harries

It’s just two days to go until the New Year’s Honours List is announced and already speculation is rife as to who the lucky names will be. Tennis teen Emma Raducanu is set to become the youngest MBE recipient ever while outgoing 007 Daniel Craig should get a gong for his many years of fictitious sacrifice on Her Majesty’s secret service. And in light of the ongoing pandemic, it’s no surprise that the list is set to be stuffed full of NHS heroes being recognised for their work, with Chris Whitty among those tipped for a knighthood. The Lancelot of the lancet, if you will. But one name unlikely to be on the list will be that of Dr Jenny

The R-number has been declared the most important metric in monitoring Covid in Britain. For young children to return to school in June, or for pubs to open in July, it is always linked to the rate of Covid transmissions – the R-number – staying below one. Above one is the danger zone: it means each infected person is infecting, on average, more than one other. So plans to liberalise are put on hold and we possibly enter a more severe lockdown once again. When explaining his strategy last weekend, the Prime Minister even showed a picture of an R-Number speedometer. But it gave no reading. We’re instead told a range: is that it