Sir Jeremy Farrar said today the US President’s enthusiasm about hydroxychloroquine had held back global efforts to find Covid-19 treatments Donald Trump‘s endorsement of hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus wonder drug has slowed down global efforts to beat the disease, a UK Government scientist suggested today. Sir Jeremy Farrar implied the US President’s enthusiasm about the … Read more
The Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is to see its role in the coronavirus crisis downgraded with the nation’s new Joint Biosecurity Centre tasked with doing more of the heavy lifting, it was claimed today. The JBC will take over monitoring the spread of the deadly disease with SAGE now expected to meet … Read more
Top scientists have accused the British Government of ‘giving up’ on trying to stamp out the coronavirus and said the country must keep going with lockdown. The Independent SAGE group, led by former chief scientific adviser for England, Sir David King, published its seventh report today calling for a ‘Zero Covid UK’. It said the … Read more
The UK is ‘on a knife edge’ in its coronavirus crisis and faces a very real threat of a second surge in the winter, one of the Government’s top advisers has warned. Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the London-based research charity the Wellcome Trust, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), … Read more
As many as one in 20 Covid-19 hospital patients remain infectious after two weeks, according to secret advice papers published today. SAGE scientists warned the Government on May 28 that around 5 per cent of very unwell virus patients, mostly elderly people, can infect others for up to 20 days. They said this poses a … Read more
Sage adviser suggests elderly people could wear ribbons to indicate they are social distancing with lockdown measures set to ease further Elderly people may wear ribbons to indicate they are social distancing in future Professor Calum Semple suggested such measures as lockdown rules are eased Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears set to cut two-metre distance … Read more
The SAGE files: Shutting UK’s borders would have ‘little value’ in stopping Covid-19 crisis and immunity passports won’t work without widespread routine testing, latest batch of leaked papers reveal A further 40 Government documents were released today by chief scientist Show SAGE told restricting air travel in May was pointless as damage was done Another study … Read more
Professor Lucy Yardley, of Bristol and Southampton universities, suggested setting up South Korean-style quarantine hotels to clamp down on people flouting self-isolation rules Britons tracked down by contact tracers should be put up in quarantine hotels to clamp down on the tens of thousands of people flouting coronavirus self-isolation rules, one of Number 10‘s scientific advisers … Read more
A SAGE scientist has criticised the Government’s decision to leave out the word ‘isolate’ from its Test and Tract programme, claiming it will lead to less compliance. Susan Michie, professor of health psychology at University College London, said isolating cases was the most vital part of the system and not including it in the title … Read more
The first five months of SAGE meeting notes have revealed how scientists and health officials initially wrote-off coronavirus as another Swine flu before realising the error and desperately trying to catch up. The minutes, which cover 34 meetings held by the country’s top scientists and used in the government’s response to covid, were published for … Read more