By Adam Vaughan
Eddie Mulholland – WPA Pool/Getty Images
A list of people who have been giving scientific advice to the UK government during the coronavirus pandemic is set to be published imminently, following concerns over a lack of transparency.
The membership of the UK’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the minutes of its meetings are normally only published after a crisis has passed, but this approach has been increasingly criticised.
Last week, The New York Times described SAGE as operating like a “virtual black box”, while The Guardian revealed that meetings had been attended by prime minister Boris Johnson’s divisive top political adviser, Dominic Cummings.
Advertisement
Now, the UK’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance has said details of the group’s workings will be published sooner.
“We were very strongly advised that needed to be the case here [holding back names until after] for a number of reasons, including the issue of independence and people being influenced, but also [for] security reasons. But I think we should publish names soon, and we will do so shortly,” he told journalists today. More than a hundred people are likely to be on the list of those happy to be named, he said.
A list obtained by The Guardian revealed that SAGE meetings had been attended by Cummings and Ben Warner, a Downing Street official who previously worked on the computer model used by the pro-Brexit Vote Leave campaign in 2016. The government hasn’t denied that the two were present at meetings in February and March, but has said they only attended the sessions and aren’t on SAGE.
Vallance sought to downplay the significance of the pair’s presence. He said officials could listen in and ask questions, but weren’t part of the “general discussion”. Political advisers have attended SAGE meetings during past emergencies, he said.
“All I’m worried about is the prime minister hears SAGE advice from me. I can’t tell who else he’s hearing scientific advice from,” he said.
Vallance also discussed the issue of speeding up the publication of minutes from SAGE meetings, which he has previously said won’t happen until after the crisis.
“I think minutes coming out immediately after the meeting is not sensible, they need to go through the political process and minutes will be published in the usual way. In previous episodes, all of that has been published at the end of the emergency.”
But the covid-19 crisis is unique, he says. “This is different because it’s not clear what the end of the emergency is, so there is a question as to what stage it’s appropriate to publish other information.”
The only work made public by SAGE so far is some of the research it has discussed, which was published on 20 March. That hasn’t been updated in more than a month, though New Scientist understands it will be refreshed in the coming days. Tomorrow will see SAGE’s 29th meeting since its first formal one in January as the crisis unfolded. Each is attended by about 20 scientists.
“I think any steps to make the SAGE process more transparent are very welcome, if overdue, given that many have been calling for this now for weeks,” says James Wilsdon at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Helen Ward at Imperial College London welcomes the fact that names will be published, but says revealing the nature of SAGE’s discussions is also key.
“It’s always good to be more transparent than SAGE have been. But without seeing the details of any minutes, it’s still difficult to know [how decisions are being reached],” she says. More transparency is also needed on the political decision-making process that SAGE informs, she says, such as why contact tracing was dropped two months ago.
Minutes from SAGE will provide a vital timeline and help outsiders determine why some of the UK’s controversial strategies for managing the crisis were chosen at particular times, says Anthony Costello at University College London. “It’s important that we can see the advice at different critical stages.”
Sign up to our free Health Check newsletter for a round-up of all the health and fitness news you need to know, every Saturday
More on these topics:
