Damien

I don't think SAGE are spent. The Government will always need scientific advisors even if the Government itself has lost its moral authority.

As I said there is a lot science got right in this pandemic. The initial lockdown was clearly correct and given what happened with Delta that too was the right decision which, in hindsight, the Government took too long to implement. We got the fastest developed vaccine in human history and remember it was our own experts who broke with global consensus to prioritise the first vaccine dose and who were vindicated as the numbers dropped. It was also our experts who wanted to rollout boosters faster than a lot of the world as well, that was initially before Omicron, and what a smart decision that was.

They were wrong about Omicron. I think it's understandable to be so. Like the Government with PPE and the timing of these lockdowns, you're not going to get everything right in a fast-changing environment where decisions need to be made quickly.

All of us, albeit no one here is an expert, would have got some things wrong. I remember I didn't think a vaccine would be developed in time, that herd immunity back in April 2020 was a good idea, that it would have been over a year ago and so on. I know you're not someone burdened with humility but I am sure if you were to revisit some of your predictions on how various waves would turn out there would be mistakes there too. Maybe everyone trying to own each other online about whose right and wrong is throwing stones in glass houses.