Sir David Spiegelhalter, Emeritus Professor of Statistics in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences and Fellow of Churchill College, was part of a team giving extensive evidence to the Infected Blood Inquiry.
The Infected Blood Inquiry is the independent public statutory inquiry into the use of infected blood and infected blood products. It was set up to investigate the circumstances in which infected blood was given to people, in particular during the 1970s and 1980s. It was commissioned in 2017 by Theresa May and began work in 2018, following public pressure from the families of those affected by infected blood.
Sir David Spiegelhalter was joint author of the 180-page report from the Inquiry’s Statistics Expert Group, which among other findings concluded that around 1,250 people with blood disorders such as haemophilia were infected with HIV, of whom around half later died of HIV-related causes. And of people who received blood transfusions for a variety of purposes, around 27,000 were infected with Hepatitis C, of whom around 1,800 had died of Hepatitis-C-related causes by 2019.
Sir David Spiegelhalter is Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, which aims to ensure that quantitative evidence and risk is presented to people in a fair and balanced way. He has previously contributed to Public Inquiries into both children’s heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, and the murders by Harold Shipman. His appearance at the Infected Blood Inquiry was broadcast live, and a recording is available.
The inquiry continues with further hearings scheduled for January 2023.