• We regret that our headline (‘I didn’t take virus seriously’, admits statistician, 6 February, p12) did not accurately reflect the remark made by Sir David Spiegelhalter. As the article itself made clear, the Cambridge University scientist had told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs that he was over-optimistic at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and did not take it “seriously enough”.
• The US TV presenter Bill Maher is not a “Fox News host”; his show Real Time is broadcast by HBO (Sure, let’s be wary of abuse of power, but do we really want to outlaw office romance?, 6 February, p47).
• Xu Weiping, head of the development company ABP, was incorrectly referred to on second and subsequent mentions in an article as Weiping. In Chinese, family names come first so we should have called him Xu (Boris Johnson’s flagship London dock scheme on brink of collapse, 6 February, p21).
• An article (Battle lines drawn over fight for the future of UK’s biggest pension funds, 6 February, p50) referred to “the fewer than 1 million people in the UK who are still able to pay into defined benefit schemes”. It meant to say “private” defined benefit schemes.
• A recipe for potatoes with olive oil, garlic and rosemary (Nigel Slater, 6 February, Magazine, p27) advised readers to “finely chop half the rosemary... and add to the onions”. That should have said, “add to the potatoes”. The onion instructions came later.
Other recently amended articles include:
The Observer view on the EHRC decision on Scotland’s gender recognition reforms
Sexual Revolution by Laurie Penny review – playing fast and loose with the f-word
How Radio 2 veteran Ken Bruce became a No 1 hit
Shock in France after giant trawler sheds 100,000 dead fish off coast
Write to the Readers’ Editor, the Observer, York Way, London N1 9GU, email observer.readers@observer.co.uk, tel 020 3353 4736
.jpg?w=600)
