In your book, you are quite critical about how the government's scientific advisory group for emergencies, or sage, was run. Why is that? Think sage was not transparent. Nobody knew who was on it. A the advice was not public. And for the government to be taking such a huge decision in early march tbe. Sa, we're not going t be doing testing or tracing. We're moving into mitigation and saingt, we're following the science. That's what scientists are telling us.
As the news came out of China that there was a new virus infecting humans, scientists around the world promptly got to work sequencing genomes, gathering data and communicating what they found with the public. One of the scientists catapulted into the public eye was Devi Sridhar, a professor in global public health. Soon, she was advising the Scottish government on their Covid strategy, regularly appearing on TV and had gained a big social media following. Ian Sample speaks to Sridhar about her experience of the pandemic so far, what it was like working alongside politicians, and what she’s learned from it all. Help support our independent journalism at
theguardian.com/sciencepod