A complaint against the BBC has been upheld after Adrian Chiles failed to debunk a hospital matron’s scaremongering claim that she had a ‘whole ward of children with Covid’.
The broadcaster was criticised for its interview, during which Laura Duffel suggested the second wave was causing a surge in youngsters hospitalised with the virus.
But the BBC has now conceded the claims made on Radio 5 Live’s show Chiles on Friday created an ‘inaccurate impression’ that wrongly worried parents.
The nurse told the radio host on January 1: ‘It was minimally affecting children in the first wave but we have a whole ward of children here and I know some of my colleagues are in the same situation with whole wards of children with Covid.’
The King’s College Hospital matron also said the surge in cases was ‘much scarier’ than in the first wave.
Laura Duffel (pictured left) suggested to BBC Radio 5 Live host Adrian Chiles (right) on January 1 that the second wave was causing a surge in youngsters hospitalised with Covid
Dr Ronny Cheung, a consultant at a London children’s hospital, said he was not accusing the nurse of lying, but that it was ‘very important it is not misconstrued for worried parents’
A listener complained that the show spread misinformation about the general incidence and severity of Covid infections among young people, fearing Ms Duffel’s remarks could make parents too scared to send their children back to school.
In a Twitter thread Dr Ronny Cheung, a consultant at a London children’s hospital, said Ms Duffel’s comments were ‘irresponsible in the extreme’.
He wrote: ‘I’ve been the on call consultant in a London children’s hospital this week – this is simply not true, and irresponsible in the extreme – frightens parents, fuels Covid-deniers. Covid is rife in hospitals, but not among children.
‘We have enough to deal with without this garbage.’
The leading pediatrician added he was not accusing the nurse of lying, but that it was ‘very important it is not misconstrued for worried parents’, adding children were getting Covid, they just weren’t ‘being admitted in great swathes’.
He said: ‘They are not all getting seriously ill and being admitted in great swathes, and that is corroborated by my colleagues across London.’
Dr Cheung is clinical director of the Healthy London Partnership Child Death Overview Panel Transformation Programme and the child health representative on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Indicators Advisory Committee.
The day after the broadcast, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health issued a statement saying: ‘As of now we are not seeing significant pressure from Covid-19 in paediatrics across the UK.
In a Twitter thread Dr Cheung, a consultant at a London children’s hospital, previously said he was not aware of ‘whole wards’ of children with coronavirus
He later claimed he was not accusing the nurse of lying, but that it was ‘very important it is not misconstrued for worried parents’, adding children were getting coronavirus, they just weren’t ‘being admitted in great swathes’
Ms Duffel is a vocal campaigner for nurses who has appeared on Good Morning Britain on a number of occasions, once to talk about paying £1,440 to park outside her place of work
Ms Duffel defended herself against backlash online following the interview, as others accused her of lying about having a ward filled with children with coronavirus
‘As cases in the community rise there will be a small increase in the number of children we see with COVID-19, but the overwhelming majority of children and young people have no symptoms or very mild illness only.’
Ms Duffel – a vocal campaigner for nurses who previously appeared on Good Morning Britain to talk about paying £1,440 to park outside her place of work – previously defended herself against backlash online, as others accused her of lying about having a ward filled with children with coronavirus.
She wrote: ‘I’m not trying to scare people. But people should know that this wave is not isolated to the older generation.
‘If I save a single life through making people think twice before mixing with others surely it is worth sharing what we are dealing with day in day out in hospitals.’
The BBC has now conceded the claims made on Radio 5 Live’s show Chiles on Friday created an ‘inaccurate impression’ that wrongly worried parents (file photo)
It later emerged that the ‘interviewee had been speaking on the basis of very small numbers in her own hospital’, the BBC said.
The corporation’s executive complaints unit (ECU) concluded: ‘The programme-makers had not sought to establish the number of children involved or the severity of their symptoms.’
It said that, ‘while appreciating the difficulty of obtaining a corroborating medical view on a public holiday’, it was ‘concerned that remarks on a topic of such concern to parents, and which appeared at odds with what was generally understood to be the case, had been included in the broadcast without more scrutiny (and further circulated on Twitter).’
The ECU added: ‘The programme published another tweet the following day which included the statement from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
‘The ECU thought this an appropriate step to have taken, but it did not address the inaccurate impression likely to have been given to listeners to the programme the day before.’