The UK Government’s COVID-19 Policy: What Does “Guided by the Science” Mean in Practice?

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• no evidence to suggest that banning very large gatherings would reduce transmission

• These participants are employed as civil servants in government departments or agencies, subject to statutory rules (described in The Civil Service Code) and the “public service bargain,” highly conscious of the informal rules guiding civil service conduct and engagement with ministers, and possessing the resources (such as expertize) and skills to retain ministerial trust. They are akin to core insiders

• such as transparency, visibility, responsibility, integrity, independence, and accountability

• 1. Uncertainty: A lack of knowledge or a lack of confidence in one’s knowledge. Examples include: • The scale of a policy problem, using the surveillance of cases and trends to estimate the likely incidence and rate of reproduction (R) of coronavirus.

• Core Insiders and SAGE

• immediate and profound suppressive measures could come close to eliminating the virus.

• via social distancing and isolating people with COVID-19 to keep the reproduction number—R - below 1

• SAGE was unanimous that measures seeking to completely suppress spread of Covid-19 will cause a second peak. SAGE advises that it is a near certainty that countries such as China, where heavy suppression is underway, will experience a second peak once measures are relaxed”

• small number of key ministers operating within a “core executive

• UK government ministers describe being “guided by the science” they mean “our scientists

• cience advice does not contribute to a model of “evidence-based policymaking” or “policy learning” envisioned by many scientist

• the production and use of evidence is part of a political process in which the status, power, and strategies of participants can matter more than “the evidence

• “There are no strong scientific grounds to hasten or delay implementation of either household isolation or social distancing of the elderly or the vulnerable in order to manage the epidemiological curve.”

• that there is clear evidence to support additional social distancing measures be introduced as soon as possible