Sage experts told to keep thoughts on 2m rule quiet
Government denies that message to scientists is official and insists there is no ban on them speaking
SCIENTISTS advising the Government about the coronavirus crisis have been warned not to give their personal opinion about the two-metre rule, amid growing controversy over whether it should be enforced in pubs, restaurants and schools.
Experts on the sub-committees that feed into the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had publicly questioned the validity of the research which led to the social-distancing diktat, with some suggesting remaining one metre apart would be sufficient to reduce the spread of infection.
In papers released by Sage’s environmental and modelling group last week, advisers also told ministers the rule could be abandoned by businesses if they introduced other measures to stop the spread of Covid-19, such as getting workers to take regular breaks and sit next to each other, rather than facing.
The Daily Telegraph has now learnt that a message from a government figure was passed down through Sage last week that, other than publishing papers, advisers should keep their thoughts on the matter private. A source said: “It has come through Sage channels as an official request from elsewhere in government. There is concern there should only be one public message about the science. But there isn’t such a thing as ‘the science’. There are lots of different sciences.”
The Government has denied it was an official edict. A spokesperson said: “There is no ban on scientists who provide advice to the Government speaking to anyone about their own areas of expertise and academic work.
“We are committed to thorough and transparent debate of all evidence presented to Sage and its sub-committees.”
The apparent attempt to curb what scientists say in public comes as the Government faces mounting pressure to revise the two-metre rule, which, it is feared, will prevent businesses and schools from fully reopening.
Boris Johnson said on May 27 that he had asked Sage to look again at the guidance, but Downing Street said later it believed the rule should stay in place and that it would remain under review. It is expected to be scrapped in time for the new school year.
There is growing dissent amongst experts on Sage sub-committees over whether the research which led to the guidance was good enough.
A mathematical modelling paper produced by Sage in April concluded the risk of exposure to the coronavirus “could be 10-30 times higher at one metre compared with two metres”. But there are concerns that the modelling was
‘It has come through Sage channels as an official request from elsewhere in government’
based on inadequate data.
Last week, analysis published in The Lancet found the risk of catching the coronavirus while standing one metre apart was only around twice that of standing two metres apart – a 2.6 per cent chance compared with 1.3 per cent.
New Sage research, prepared by its environmental and modelling group and published last week, says that this does not consider the positioning of a person or how the virus is likely to be transmitted. The group said that sitting within one metre of a person side by side or back to back is as safe as facing a person at two metres when indoors.
The apparent move to muzzle advisers is likely to reignite anger over the Government’s lack of transparency over Sage at the start of the coronavirus crisis, including its initial refusal to say who sits on the committee. It also follows claims England’s chief nurse, Ruth May, was dropped from a Downing Street daily briefing after she refused to publicly back the Prime Minister’s most senior aide, Dominic Cummings, in the row over his trip to Durham during lockdown. Number 10 has disputed the claim.