Role Of SAGE To Be Reviewed

[cuccir]

If you're advising the Government, then bar them from the media.

And what then of scrutiny of advice and decision making? Those who distrust SAGE wouldn't have the evidence for that distrust if SAGE members were barred from doing interviews.

 

[kristiang85]

I wonder if this is the beginning of the phasing out of SAGE?

https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1374685489656107015

To lead this mission, we are establishing a new UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). UKHSA will focus all its attention, in bad times and good, on health hazards including infectious diseases, and will play a leading role in our global response to external health threats. It will build upon the experiences from the last decade of public health protection, here and around the world, in particular in tackling COVID-19 over the past year.

UKHSA is being created to ensure that we bring together and enhance the existing expertise and new capabilities we have developed during the pandemic, so that we have an integrated organisation dedicated to protecting the public’s health. It will be a key part of the country’s critical national infrastructure and security infrastructure. It will also represent a core part of UK PLC, driving economic growth and resilience, protecting the country from the societal and economic shocks we have witnessed during the pandemic, and acting as an engine for the UK’s life sciences sector and diagnostics industry.

UKHSA will act as a system leader for health security, providing intellectual, scientific and operational leadership at national and local level, as well as on the global stage. It will be close to policy making and able to exert influence over the system to ensure threats to health security are acted on and brought under control. It will continue and build on successful ongoing cooperation and collaboration with the devolved administrations including public health agencies for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

 

[takno]

I wonder if this is the beginning of the phasing out of SAGE?

https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1374685489656107015

Sounds more like a way of giving PHE even more of a kicking, and selling the whole lot off to the biotech industry so that they can use the whole of society as a guinea pig. There's no good news there.

 

[kristiang85]

Sounds more like a way of giving PHE even more of a kicking, and selling the whole lot off to the biotech industry so that they can use the whole of society as a guinea pig. There's no good news there.

Oh indeed, it does sound all rather sinister...

 

[yorksrob]

One one level, yes. The presence of SAGE has allowed the government to adopt the “follow the science” policy, which is flawed on a number of levels, not least because there’s no such thing as the science as a singular viewpoint. Where we’ve got caught out is Boris has had to make decisions, and has baulked at the responsibility.

I don’t think the attitude of SAGE has helped, but it was for the government to make the final decisions. The likes of Whitty will always have had one eye on how to save their own skin, as they know they will be dumped by Boris at the first opportunity when there’s a need for a scapegoat. So if it were me I’d probably play safe too.

The real problem is Hancock is keen but hopelessly out of his depth, Boris seems incapable of looking at things holistically, and the rest of the cabinet is a weak shambles. Oh, and there’s no opposition...

Apologies for the time taken to get back to you on this.

It just seems to me that SAGE has been built up in the public's mind as this great oracle which must be deferred to in all circumstances.

That just becomes an obstacle to it doing its job, which is to advise. I think that smaller more ad-hoc groupings are the way forward.