I wasn't aware they were, a better question is why were the briefings dropped altogether ?
Of course they are, but do you think the politicians have been deliberately stupid, trying to make a shit show of it all, can you imagine how hard their work is trying to balance an economy (which we all need), the health of a country (and I don't mean covid, I mean all of it).
How difficult do you think all that is ? You seem to think you have all the answers, it's a pity then that you are not in charge of running it then ;-) (not a dig by the way, just an ironic comment), personally I think they've worked hard in an extremely difficult situation, and are trying to do their best, and failing because everything is too reactionary, and not proactive
I don't like the politics of any of them in this country, because it's always about division, so no matter who is running the show the other lot will always claim it's shit, and will get backing from certain members of the media, who are just as guilty for the shit show as the politicians in my view, because they hype up every negative possible, rather than reporting facts. In this current situation having a divided nation running 4 different governments hasn't helped either, all following their own selfish political agenda's, and yet here we are, it's climbing pretty much the same again in all 4 countries, despite each following a slightly different path.
We need more of the scientists explaining the science on that we completely agree, we need it explaining to the masses who don't understand it, there was very good presentation early on with red dots, showing spread with different R numbers, it was a graphic that even the thickest could understand.
Anyway I'm off to do some panic buying....