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A list of people who have been giving scientific advice to the UK government during the coronavirus crisis 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), along with minutes of its meetings, are normally only published after an emergency has passed, but this approach has increasingly been criticised.
Last week, the New York Times described SAGE as operating like a “virtual black box”, while the Guardian revealed meetings had been attended by prime minister Boris Johnson’s divisive top political adviser, Dominic Cummings.
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Now, the UK’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance has said details of the group’s working 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 of security reasons. But I think we should publish names soon, and we will do so shortly,” Vallance told journalists today. More than a hundred people are likely to be on the list of those happy to be named, he added.
Vallance also appeared to hint there may be plans to speed up publishing minutes of SAGE meetings, which he has previously said will not be made public 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 has not been updated in more than a month, though New Scientist understands it will be refreshed within in the coming days.
Vallance confirmed that political advisers had attended meetings, though did not name Cummings. Tomorrow will see SAGE’s 29th meeting since the 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, says but 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 too, she says, such as why contact tracing was dropped two months ago.
Minutes from SAGE will provide a vital timeline, says Anthony Costello at University College London, and help outsiders determine why some of the UK’s controversial strategies for managing the crisis were chosen at particular times. “It’s important that we can see the advice at different critical stages,” says Costello.
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