Professor Philip Nolan has defended the National Public Health Emergency team from a claim that it wrongly estimated the R (reproductive) number of Covid-19 in mid-October.
The chair of NPHET's Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group was reacting today to a tweet by Independent TD Michael McNamara, who was the chair of the Dáil's special committee on coronavirus.
Mr McNamara said on Twitter: "On 22 October, NPHET stated 'the current estimate of R is 1.3-1.4.' That was clearly wrong." Prof Nolan responded: "The estimate was made on 20 October based on confirmed cases to midnight 18 October.
It might be helpful to set out the fundamental principles behind the different ways of estimating R." He explained: "R is an estimate of the rate of