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Angoose
08 May 20 12:46
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Date Joined: 18 Jul 02
| Topic/replies: 24,312 | Blogger: Angoose's blog
Exclusive: report criticising government lockdown proposals heavily redacted before release
Paul Lewis and David Conn  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/08/revealed-uk-scientists-fury-over-attempt-to-censor-covid-19-advice

Government scientific advisers are furious at what they see as an attempt to censor their advice on government proposals during the Covid-19 lockdown by heavily redacting an official report before it was released to the public, the Guardian can reveal.

The report was one of a series of documents published by the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) this week to mollify growing criticism about the lack of transparency over the advice given to ministers responding to the coronavirus.

However, large blocks of text in the report, produced by SPI-B, the Sage subcommittee providing advice from behavioural scientists on how the public might respond to lockdown measures, were entirely blanked out.

Several SPI–B members told the Guardian that the redacted portions of the document contained criticisms they had made of potential government policies they had been formally asked to consider in late March and early April.

One SPI-B adviser said: “It is bloody silly, and completely counterproductive.” A second committee member said: “The impression I’m getting is this government doesn’t want any criticism.”

Members of the committee have been discussing among themselves how best to respond to the redaction, which they believe was a heavy-handed move that jeopardises their independence.

At least one scientific adviser is understood to be considering resigning over the government’s secretive approach to science around the Covid-19 outbreak, which they believe is undermining public trust.

The report, from 1 April, summarised SPI-B’s discussions about how to handle possible changes to the social distancing measures that had just been introduced to slow the spread of Covid-19.

In the version published on Sage’s government website, almost a page and a half of text was heavily redacted. The Guardian understands the blocked text related to SPI–B’s criticism about possible government proposals around that time.

These included the idea of reducing the amount of time Britons could spend exercising or shopping, and stricter financial penalties for those found to be breaking the lockdown. A third proposal involved requiring people to self-validate their movements, as was occurring in France, where citizens were required to complete permits before leaving home.

Experts on SPI-B, which includes professors in psychology, epidemiology and anthropology, said they felt the proposals were too punitive and more likely to result in unfair treatment among people in deprived economic circumstances.

A spokesperson for the Government Office for Science said the redactions took place because the policies discussed in the document were still under consideration.

“The only redactions relate to comments made by a Sage subgroup where specific reference is made to policy still under consideration or to remove contact,” the spokesperson said.

“Redactions were carried out by officials working for the Sage secretariat in consultation with the department developing the policy. All the subgroups were notified and given the opportunity to comment in advance of publication on the redactions being made to specific elements of any papers.”

However, SPI–B advisers who spoke to the Guardian disputed that they had been consulted. “We weren’t given advance notice and we still haven’t been given a satisfactory explanation,” the second SPI–B member said, adding they felt the redaction had been intended to stifle criticism.

“This government has failed to show any self-criticism whatsoever, when it is glaringly obvious to everybody that big mistakes have been made. If you want the trust of the population you hold up your hand and you say ‘we’ve made these mistakes, this is why they happened, we regret it, we’re learning from it’. Rather than just keep saying ‘we’ve done the most fantastic job’ and not being open to criticism in any way.”

A third member of SPI–B said they felt the redactions undermined the expert group’s independence from politicians. “What is recorded in the redacted document is us criticising those proposals. They were just not particularly well thought out. Here we were being independent, and you can’t see it [because of the redactions].”

A fourth member of SPI-B questions whether the heavy redaction might even have been a mistake, as the documents were summaries of the committee’s discussions produced by civil servants.

“Whether it was a mistake or deliberate doesn’t matter; it should not have happened, it’s deeply problematic,” the adviser said. “The public needs to have trust and confidence in the scientific advice, which the government claims it is relying on, and to see sections redacted in published documents diminishes trust and confidence.”

The committee’s consideration of the government proposals is understood to have occurred during the first week of the lockdown, which began on 23 March.
The behavioural scientists said in their four-page report that there was a consensus that the high-levels of adherence to government guidelines “are likely to be maintained in the short-to-medium term, for as long as it is evident that Covid-19 poses a serious risk that cannot be managed in any other way”.

However they were concerned that introducing more coercive measures, such as more draconian restrictions on movements, risked undermining the high levels of adherence, which they said was “likely based on a sense of community cooperation”.
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Report Angoose May 8, 2020 12:48 PM BST
Of course, it would be very easy for the government to blow the claims made in this article apart.
Simply publish the full documents, no redactions.

But they will not.

They will, of course, become available in time.
Report sofiakenny May 8, 2020 12:52 PM BST
Yeah..just like the Russia report.
Report Ibrahima Sonko May 8, 2020 1:02 PM BST
We need the 13yo coding of professor bonking Ferguson to be released to find out how he came to his conclusions and to prove he wasnt financed by an outside source.
Report ----you-have-to-laugh--- May 8, 2020 1:08 PM BST
Coding is seemingly a mess that does not work.

Although it sounds much as if it gives a single simulation and therefore
needs to be run several thousand times and averaged out

But that could easily have been built in if the program was sound.
Report Lee Ho Fooks May 8, 2020 1:22 PM BST
It appears to me that in lots of areas when the Government is challenged on the detail of its revised or amended position (face masks, coronavirus test counting et al), the explanation is likely to be given by "a spokesperson".
Report casemoney May 8, 2020 1:44 PM BST
RUSSIA have no PPE ang any graphs ??
Report A_T May 8, 2020 1:48 PM BST
The Tory government has been given an extremely easy time by the media through all this
Report DenzilPenberthy May 8, 2020 1:50 PM BST

May 8, 2020 -- 1:48PM, A_T wrote:


The Tory government has been given an extremely easy time by the media through all this


Why should ANY government be given a hard time if it's the unprecedented event the world wants us to believe,what use is political point scoring if people genuinely are in danger.

Report casemoney May 8, 2020 2:00 PM BST
DENZ these people are only interested in Sticking the boot into the Tories mate , Nothing else , after the Destruction of the Pathetic shyte they were fully behind in December , they look for any opportunity, sadly the Tragedy of the Virus has given them all an opening to do so ....
Report Ibrahima Sonko May 8, 2020 2:44 PM BST
I certain type of person even celebrate deaths for their politics to prosper.
Report sofiakenny May 8, 2020 2:53 PM BST
Thats the whole point..Boris and his gang of fools do not give a fig how many die.
Report ----you-have-to-laugh--- May 8, 2020 2:57 PM BST
Send another wave over the top to certain slaughter...
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