In the Times today, co-written by John Boothman, former head of news at BBC Scotland before being moved on after bullying the daughter of Margo MacDonald:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/16/bbc-scotland-news-executive-john-boothman-moves-jobs
BBC ‘bully’ finally moved out of top news job after staff protests
Nicola Sturgeon kept Scotland in the dark over its first mass Covid outbreak against the advice of her health minister and the deputy chief medical officer — and a leading scientist says it potentially exposed more people to the virus.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nicola-sturgeon-overruled-covid-aides-cover-up-outbreak-nike-conference-edinburgh-sd7zszg3p?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1633848594
The remit of the health minster and the deputy chief medical officer is to put public health as a priority and to always put safety first even when the risk is low.
Others will have advised the FM on other aspects of a complex fast-moving situation such as patient confidentiality and the risk of panic reactions. She had to make the decision in the wider interest.
As it turned out she was correct:
No deaths were linked to the outbreak.
Experts concluded whole genome sequencing results “strongly suggest that the actions taken by the incident management team to manage the outbreak were successful in curtailing onward transmission.”
The [PHS] report also said the sequence identified at the conference was not subsequently identified in Scotland.
“This represents one of several hundreds of introductions of SARS-CoV-2 into Scotland from February 2020 and there is no evidence of community transmission of this sub-lineage, which was not detected in Scotland after April 2020,” it added.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58810370
As for ‘mass outbreak’, there were 23 from 5 different countries.
And, we knew in June 2020, there was nothing in this story. From the Chief Medical Officer, not the Depute, then:
Beyond the eight cases already known to be associated with this outbreak, there are three other cases with a genotype that might be linked to this lineage. Of these three cases, two of them are closely associated with samples that came from other cases identified in other countries and have been discounted as having been directly linked to the conference. The third show similarities to those associated with the conference but not direct link to the conference has been established.
After this explanation, the CMO concluded
This suggests that the actions taken by the IMT to manage this outbreak were successful in curtailing spread and have led to the eradication of this particular viral lineage with no evidence of any wider outbreak associated with it in Scotland since that time.
Finally, last week, in the PHS report:
These WGS results strongly suggest that the actions taken by the incident management team (IMT) to manage the outbreak were successful in curtailing onward transmission.
https://publichealthscotland.scot/news/2021/october/covid-19-conference-outbreak-march-2020-incident-management-team-report/
Talking-up Scotland 
This ‘story’ has had more comebacks than Lazarus. Usually the source is Union Jack Murray, but it is the husband of a former colleague, this time. I suspect that they are trying to imply that Covid was imported into the UK at the Nike Conference in Edinburgh, ergo the SG was to blame for thousands of subsequent deaths.
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I suspect these biased reports make little impact in Scotland, their prime purpose clearly to continue to feed their followers in Tory/Lab/Dems who already believe what these rags publish, just because it is anti-SG/SNP
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”Hi , Ian Murray ?
That Nike outbreak which you were sure was the fault of Nicola Sturgeon ? Well , just to put your mind at rest , the Nike outbreak in Edinburgh was NOT a cause of any … Hello , Ian ? ….. Ian ? ”
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You’re missing a crucial point here John, so look again at that Times opening statement –
“Nicola Sturgeon kept Scotland in the dark over its first mass Covid outbreak ” – IMT take total charge in a pandemic incident, it is THEY who dictate what is or not released to the public, it is THEY who are in charge of the FM in these incidents, period.
“against the advice of her health minister and the deputy chief medical officer” – the Health Minister is subordinate to the FM (see above), the Deputy CMO is bound by Civil Service rules as subservient to the IMT.
“— and a leading scientist says it potentially exposed more people to the virus.” – Potentially the “leading scientist” was up to his eyes in embalming fluid to obscure vision of the clear and unequivocal evidence, peer reviewed, that there was no onward effect from the incident.
All of it is a concoction of such ludicrous proportions even the Sun might syndicate it.
I agree with others that the target readership is the “Chez-Bucket” brigade, who will doubtless lap it all up and chat over the conspiracy angles at blue-rinse coffee mornings.
But may I suggest this narrative feeds on the already established subsidy-sponger pesky wode clad Scots being led astray by conspiracies, and best be rid of them ?
Large swathes of England are already convinced Scotland should be thrown out of the Empire idyll, perhaps “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake” applies ?
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Was the “leading scientist” named in the Times article or is the reader expected to take it without question the “leading scientist” was professionally qualified and had the appropriate practical experience to pass meaningful comment? Or was it just sometime-Prof Pennington pontificating again?
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To be fair, Prof Hugh as a scientist has been leading for years, garden paths mainly…
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