Sage documents show how scientists felt sidelined by economic considerations | Coronavirus outbreak | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/13/sage-documents-show-how-coronavirus-scientists-felt-sidelined-by-econom
What is unusual about these Sage documents?
The timing of their release, for a start. In the interests of transparency (in response to pressure) the government has been releasing Sage minutes around lunchtime on a Friday for many months. These documents were published at 8.20pm on a Monday, within an hour of the prime minister’s press conference in which he described the new three-tier system of restrictions on areas with high numbers of Covid infections. That makes them look very like a dissenting opinion.
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What do they say?
The minutes of the Sage meeting on 21 September show the experts wanted a dramatic increase in restrictions across the country to check the alarming rise in infections, warning at that point that the number of cases was doubling every seven days and hospitalisations had begun to increase. A package of measures was needed, they said, to include:
• a “circuit-breaker” lockdown of a couple of weeks.
• advice to work from home for all who could.
• a ban on household mixing in homes.
• closure of all bars, cafes, restaurants, indoor gyms and personal services such as hairdressers.
• all university and college teaching to be online.