The Welsh wizard of coronavirus communication

Vogue called her our new “national treasure” and she has been winning plaudits as the standout communicator of the coronavirus emergency.

Dr Jenny Harries OBE is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer who stands in for her boss, Prof Chris Whitty, when he is unavailable to join the Prime Minister for the daily televised coronavirus briefing.

Recently Prof Whitty developed coronavirus symptoms himself and began self-isolating, so Jenny Harries is getting rather more airtime and becoming a very familiar face.

Born in Monmouth, Dr Harries has had a stellar career and has been in her present role since July 2019. She is widely believed to have a brain the size of a planet with qualifications in pharmacology, medicine, business administration, public health and health economics and, to cap it all, she’s a brilliant communicator.

So, what’s the secret of her success?

Commentators have called her “inspired” and “calm, collected and cool headed”. She has a relaxed, sincere approach but that’s only half the story. Dr Harries has a clear, measured, reassuring tone which does not sound as if it has been crafted by Dominic Cummings… and that’s because it hasn’t!

She adopts a total focus on the latest facts and the most up-to-date science. She has been criticised by some observers – and some doctors – for shifting her position on key issues, such as the speed at which the national lockdown should be applied. But she would argue (along with John Maynard Keynes) that when the facts change, she changes her mind, and nobody would disagree that our understanding of coronavirus is changing on an almost hourly basis.

In recent days, criticism of government communication on coronavirus has been growing. An inability to be clear about why we are not testing more frontline NHS staff is one example. Another is the failure to explain that the true death rate is not simply the number of reported cases divided by the number of deaths. In the fog of confusion and doubt, however, Jenny Harries shines through as a beacon of clarity and common sense.

Consciously, or subconsciously, she follows the three key rules of crisis communication.

• Stick to what you know. Separate fact from opinion and try to let the facts speak for themselves. If the facts are complicated, explain them in plain language. Don’t speculate and definitely don’t lie.
• Be the authoritative voice. It helps to have the magical letters ‘Dr’ in front of your name, but authority comes from more than your curriculum vitae, it is part of a mindset that is forged over years of experience.
• Bridge to your key message. Politicians are often very poor at bridging. They tend to ignore or block questions. A much more effective communication technique is to address the question and then move on seamlessly to your own agenda.

At one of the recent Downing Street briefings, Dr Harries even got into a little lighthearted “relationship counselling” advising couples who lived in separate households to remain in separate homes or to “test the strength of their relationship” and move in together.

Writing in Vogue, Phoebe Luckhurst made the point that “it takes diplomacy – and a mind like a steel trap – to speak plainly about epidemiology without condescending.”

At this time of chaos and confusion, Jenny Harries is the woman you want calling the shots. She’s clearly on the side of the patient and the public.

She is the composed embodiment of trust and, whether you love him or loathe him, you have to give Boris Johnson credit for recognising that, when a politician stands in front of a lectern for a televised briefing on coronavirus, it’s wise to be flanked by scientists like Jenny Harries.

Put simply, it boils down to this. With Jenny Harries, you have a real sense of what-you-see-is-what-you-get. You feel there is a steadying hand on the tiller. You’d buy a second-hand car from her and you would know the milometer hadn’t been clocked.

John Underwood
Executive Director, Freshwater
Director, Centre for Health Communication Research, Bucks New University

Photo Credit:

Image of Dr Jenny Harries – By British Government – https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-deputy-chief-medical-officer-appointed-for-england