Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies

Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (National public health agency, Deep state milieu?)
Unidentified image from a 14 March 2020 DoHS page about SAGE
Abbreviation	SAGE
Headquarters	London?
Interests	“national security”
Interest of	Carole Cadwalladr
Membership	•  Rebecca Allen •  John Aston •  Charles Bangham •  Wendy Barclay •  Jonathan Benger •  Fliss Bennee •  Allan Bennett •  Phil Blythe •  Chris Bonnell •  Ian Boyd •  Peter Bruce •  Caroline Cake •  Paul Cosford •  Dominic Cummings •  Andrew Curran •  Gavin Dabrera •  Ian Diamond •  Yvonne Doyle •  Deborah Dunn-Walters •  John Edmunds •  Jeremy Farrar •  Kevin Fenton (SAGE) •  Michael Ferguson •  Neil Ferguson •  Aidan Fowler •  Julia Gog •  Robin Grimes •  Ian Hall •  David Halpern •  Jenny Harries •  Demis Hassabis •  Andrew Hayward •  Gideon Henderson •  Peter Horby •  Anne Johnson •  Indra Joshi •  Kamlesh Khunti •  Ben Killingley •  David Lalloo •  Janet Lord •  Theresa Marteau •  Angela McLean •  Jim McMenamin •  Graham Medley •  Laura Merson •  Susan Michie •  Christine Middlemiss •  Andrew Morris •  Paul Moss •  Carole Mundell •  Cath Noakes •  Rob Orford •  Michael Parker •  Sharon Peacock •  Alan Penn •  Pasi Penttinen •  Guy Poppy •  Steve Powis •  Mike Prentice •  Osama Rahman •  Venki Ramakrishnan •  Andrew Rambaut •  Tom Rodden •  Brooke Rogers •  Cathy Roth •  Sheila Rowan •  Dr James Rubin •  Harry Rutter •  Calum Semple •  David Seymour •  Mike Short •  Alaster Smith •  Gregor Smith •  Iyiola Solanke •  David Spiegelhalter •  Nicola Steedman •  Patrick Vallance •  Jonathan Van Tam •  Russell Viner •  Rhoswyn Walker •  Mark Walport •  Charlotte Watts •  Chris Whitty •  Mark Wilcox •  Mark Woolhouse •  Lucy Yardley •  Ian Young •  Maria Zambon
Secretive group with "about 60" members and an uncertain amount of influence over the UK government on certain topics, such as the UK Covid lockdown. Ian Boyd claimed that the group's membership must be kept secret to protect it from "dark forces".

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is a secretive body which "advises" the UK government. In 2020 concern about the UK Covid lockdown has led to calls for increasing its transparency, such as public disclosure of its membership and/or deliberations. Answering MPs about the secrecy, Chris Whitty said he had no personal objection to publishing the membership, but that the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure had forbidden it because the group's meetings may involve matters of "national security".

Activities

The group reportedly met nine times in February 2020 and 10 times in March 2020.

COVID-19

Full article: COVID-19

In September 2020, SAGE suggested that over 90% of the UK population were still susceptible to COVID-19.

Secrecy

The membership of the group was earlier not public, but on May 4, 2020 the UK government revealed an almost complete list of members, except "2 participants [that] have not given permission to be named.". The meetings are secret and minutes are not published, a regimen more typical of a deep state milieu than an ordinary government body, leading to concerns of a hidden agenda.

Peter Openshaw advised SAGE in 2009 and has supported calls for a disclosure of its membership.

April 2020 Calls for Transparency

"Sense About Science said academics shaping Downing Street's policies should be identified, with the minutes of behind closed doors minutes published and the data made public." In April 2020 The Telegraph and The Guardian reported on the group. Ian Boyd stated that he remained "really adamant" that "one cannot have a public debate about what the science is saying and what it’s not saying."

“The lack of complete transparency has echoes of the way the World Health Organisation operated during the 2009 swine flu crisis, when it refused to disclose the names of the scientists it relied on for advice.”
'Investigations Team' (24 April 2020) 

"Security concerns"

On April 15th, MPs were increasingly interested in discovering the names, and the UK government was "under growing pressure to publish the names of all of the scientific experts." The UK government declined to do so, citing "security concerns" as a reason to keep the names secret, suggesting that members were afraid of having their names published because "death threats had been sent to members of advisory groups feeding into Sage".

"Names of scientific advisers should not be a state secret"

Jawad Iqbal wrote on 16 April 2020 in The Times that Names of scientific advisers should not be a state secret, while revealing that it had "about 60" members.

The behavioural Insights Team

Full article: Behavioural Insights Team

The UK's Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), a.k.a. the "Nudge Unit", has been active in shaping public perception of COVID-19.

Exposure

On 24 April 2020, the Guardian "revealed the 23 attendees of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage). They comprise 21 scientists and two Downing Street political advisers." On the same day, The Daily Telegraph named "more than a dozen of its members", including one name not given by the Guardian. Also on 24 April 2020 Diane Abbott tweeted: "Dominic Cummings and former data scientist for Vote Leave campaign on Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). Does this explain how 'herd immunity' became policy?"

0n 29 April 2020 James Forsyth wrote in the Spectator that "I am informed that at that meeting Tim Gowers, a Cambridge maths professor and Fields Medal winner, and Demis Hassabis, the founder of the AI company Deep Mind, dialled in at Dominic Cummings’ request."

On 4 May 2020, the UK government named 50 members of SAGE, reportedly failing to name just two, who refused to give permission to be identified.

Criticism

In August 2020 Mark Woolhouse, a SAGE advisor, commented that "Lockdown was a panic measure and I believe history will say trying to control Covid-19 through lockdown was a monumental mistake on a global scale, the cure was worse than the disease."

Charles Walker MP has criticised SAGE for its lack of accountability.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Ian Boyd	“What happens is that you get an email through or you get a calendar invite through which is a calling notice that says there’s gonna be a Sage at a particular time you’re invited to attend, and here’s the agenda.”	Ian Boyd
Ian Boyd	“There’s an immense amount of interest outside from people who would love to get inside, and change what Sage is saying, and that must never ever be allowed to happen. Otherwise, the trust in the whole process will just evaporate. I think it is not ideal. In an ideal world you’d have complete transparency, but it’s not an ideal world. There’s a lot of what I would call dark forces who are trying to undermine the validity of the way that science works and as a result of that Sage has to be conducted in a way that makes sure that they don’t have that opportunity. And it’s difficult, and I don’t think anybody who sits on Sage or chairs Sage really wants it that way. But on the other hand, there is no real option other than to do it that way.”	Ian Boyd	2020
Ian Boyd	“I’m really, really adamant about that – one cannot have a public debate about what the science is saying and what it’s not saying.”	Ian Boyd
Michael Yeadon	“Government’s response to emergencies is guided by the scientific group who sit together under the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies or SAGE. So they should provide scientific advice to the government about what’s appropriate to do. SAGE has got several things wrong, and that has led to advice that’s inappropriate and – uh, not only has had horrible economic effects, but has had continuing medical effects in that people are no longer being treated properly.”	Michael Yeadon	November 2020
Michael Yeadon	“So why aren’t the media telling us that the pandemic is over? It’s not over because SAGE says it’s not. So SAGE consists of very many scientists, from a range of disciplines – mathematicians and clinicians – and there are multiple committees. But I found to my surprise – and I’m actually going to use the word – horror, that in the spring, all the way through the spring and summer, SAGE did not have on their committee someone who I would call a card-carrying immunologist; a clinical immunologist. I have to say I think that in the spring and summer SAGE was deficient in the expertise it had.”	Michael Yeadon	November 2020

 

Known members

9 of the 88 of the members already have pages here:

Member	Description
Ian Boyd
Dominic Cummings	Suspected UK deep state operative who was a "special adviser" to UK PM Boris Johnson.
Jeremy Farrar	Wellcome Trust/Director, took part in A Spreading Plague in 2019, assisted Daszak in promoting the zoonotic origin of COVID-19, 2021 Monkeypox Tabletop Exercise
Neil Ferguson	Academic used by the UK deep state to create frightening epidemiological models. In 2020 his group promoted the UK COVID Lockdown. Resigned from the SAGE after breaking the lockdown rules.
Demis Hassabis	Dialled into a SAGE meeting at the request of Dominic Cummings. First Bilderberg in 2015
Susan Michie	COVID 19 scientist. A promoter of the harshest of lockdown measures.
James Rubin
Patrick Vallance	UK revolving door "expert" who moves between government advisory leadership roles an Big Pharma.
Mark Walport	UK/Government Chief Scientific Adviser (2013 to 2017) "In defending science against political pressure, he is, in other words, as much use as a suit of paper armour."

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Charles Walker's 2021 SAGE speech	Speech	16 June 2021	Charles Walker	A Tory Backbencher suggests full financial disclosure from members of SAGE and full elections, or they advise the Government, and if they do not want to do that, but want to advise TV studios, they do that, but they do not do both.
Document:Why is disgraced MI6 author of the dodgy Trump-Russia dossier involved in a controversial group seeking harsh Covid restrictions?	Article	24 July 2021	Kit Klarenberg	Christopher Steele, the Russiagate spook is involved in lobbying for more lockdowns in the UK.

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