
Scientific advisers to the British government have expressed indignation over what they call the censorship of their report and criticism of the government’s hygiene-related proposals during the coronavirus lockdown across the country.
The British daily newspaper Guardian said the advisors were annoyed by the government’s heavily redacting of the official report before it was released to the public.
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 deadly flu-like pathogen.
However, large blocks of text in the report, produced by SPI-B — the Sage subcommittee providing advice from behavioral scientists on how the public might respond to lockdown measures — were entirely blanked out.