The Government’s chief scientific adviser has defended the “the unenviable task” of epidemiological modellers during the Omicron outbreak as he said it was not their job to “spread gloom”. Sir Patrick Vallance said it was not the responsibility of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) “to take a particular policy stance or to either spread gloom or give Panglossian optimism”. “That is not science, even though it might sometimes make an entertaining read,” he continued in a piece written for The Times. Sir Patrick wrote science was “self-correcting” and “advances by overturning previous dogma and challenging accepted truths”. You’ve got to go harder than you want to, and you’ve got to go more geographically broad than you want to.”

Source: The Times December 24, 2021 04:48 UTC