Nope, COVID-19 is not a catch-all excuse for backdoor deals
Column The news that openDemocracy is calling for a legal review of Matt Hancock’s allegedly illegal deal with Palantir is a sign of two things: that things have gone wrong and are going wronger in government health policy; and that there are still ways to start to put it right. What is harder is not finding a process to make things better, but how to stage an intervention for a government drunk on power, corruption and incompetence. The process of an inoculation against deals like the one inked with the controversial big data analytics firm has of late been illustrated on a global scale like never before. In medicine, confidentiality protects the patient but the absolute opposite informs the science. We’re all much better versed this year than last in how medical trials work: ethical probity is established, protocols are chosen from known good, proven options, results and their analysis go through strict independent checks, and a public regulator finally looks at the whole thing before approval. This process is both long-established and evolving. It’s normally slow, but our confidence in it means we got our vaccines from lab to jab in 10 months, not 10 years, without breaking any rules. The essence is openness, evidence and scrutiny, and it turns out that with resources and motivation you can do all that very fast indeed without shortcuts. The same principles inform all of science, and as a result we have a world of miracles. The bad things happen when we ignore the principles: you could ask Dr Li Wenliang, if he were still with us. Let’s compare the model of scientific rectitude to the Palantir contract. It has many sins, but the greatest is secrecy. It could be that the work Palantir has been hired to do is well-formed, with clear goals, excellent appropriate technology, strong internal governance and a very good investment in the nation’s health. It’s not likely, given the government’s track record on IT in general and health IT in particular: either way, we cannot tell. Would you accept a vaccine that had been commissioned illegally and developed in secret, by people with a history in biological warfare, with none of the regulatory checks — indeed, flying in their face? If not, why would you accept the very essence of the NHS, its data, being swallowed up by such a process? Health minister Matt Hancock last week was found by a High Court judge to have acted unlawfully [PDF] and to have made a «transparency breach» by failing to publish details of contracts within 30 days.
