When evidence does not matter – What Brazil teaches us about the fragility of evidence based policymaking This sheds light on the disturbing fact that scientific evidence can and has been utterly ignored when it contradicts the dominant interests in majoritarian and relatively closed political systems A Post by Flavia Donadelli at the LSE at:… Read More A reminder of what happens when science is not listened to in policy making (and why)

So this represents progress over the Imperial/Ferguson model, which took a long time to publicly release. This ticks many of the boxes but fails to document the code. Article at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1001-6 See here for what to do to make ones code effectively open.

Sensible stuff, including the following quotes: “…multidisciplinarity in science advice is essential. These discussions across disciplines have to be organised and co-ordinated well, given that the range of perspectives is wide and the scholars involved may not always be familiar with working across the territories of other disciplines.” “Communicating uncertainty and complexity to policy makers… Read More The European Commission’s Group of Chief Scientific Advisors’ guidance for giving advice in pandemic situations

“The overwhelming majority of our advice is ignored,” Dr. Michie said, “but the pieces are picked up and used for political purposes.” The whole piece at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/world/europe/sage-britain-coronavirus-ferguson.html

In the 2012 Civil Service Reform Plan (under the coalition government – remember how we used to be critical of them?), there was a general commitment towards making the whole policy-making process more transparent and open to multiple voices (see Civil-Service-Reform-Plan-final). This has been forgotten under subsequent governments (indeed the page for this plan has… Read More Principles of Policy Transparency seeming being forgotten by the Current Government..

To make sure predictions do not become adjuncts to a political cause, modellers, decision makers and citizens need to establish new social norms. Modellers must not be permitted to project more certainty than their models deserve; and politicians must not be allowed to offload accountability to models of their choosing Quick summary: Mind the assumptions… Read More Manifesto in Nature: Five ways to ensure that models serve society

Building on report from OpenAI and others (http://www.towardtrustworthyai.com/) an article in WIRED argues for citizen councils to do this regulation, though how this might work is sketchy. See article at: https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-a-council-of-citizens-should-regulate-algorithms/

Sense about science (https://senseaboutscience.org/) campaigns on similar issues to this site.  They have recently written to the prime minister asking for a “fresh approach to scientific advice” . In particular, asking … you could ensure that SAGE’s minutes, membership, and plans for its expansion are open  for people to see, as so many are urging.… Read More Transparency Matters @ Sense about Science

As this article says: The giant data set was never made available for inspection by other scientists, which would be critical for demonstrating that results are reproducible. More astounding, the private and secretive company that owned the data, called Surgisphere, denied full access to the papers’ authors too. That’s bad faith, and it violates best… Read More Wired: Discussing the Latest Covid-19 Science Meltdown

“Scientists and doctors in advisory positions face a dual obligation to the state and to the public. But what happens when the government’s integrity no longer matches your personal or professional integrity, when your public accountability seems greater than that of the politicians you advise? Do you fight from within? Do you speak out, and… Read More BMJ article questions the UK Gov’s lack of clarity between scientific advice and politics