In the reports of lots of the modelling of covid19, it may look like mitigation save a lot of lives, rather than just delays the deaths. It is vital that reports of modelling are as honest and transparent as possible, to avoid later disillusionment and backlash against what modelling offers. A blog making this critique is “A call to honesty in pandemic modeling” by Maria Chikina and Wesley Pegden available here: https://medium.com/@wpegden/a-call-to-honesty-in-pandemic-modeling-5c156686a64b

Given the difficulties in being completely dispassionate about ones own model and a wish to trumpet its results, this can only be completely achieved if models are released publicly with their documentation and so can be checked and investigated by the community of researchers.