1. Is diversity of age-range opinion important when policy decisions are made? Almost without exception, the key decision-makers and their advisors in the UK have been people in or around their 50s. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/covid19/2020/12/14/for-the-middle-aged-by-the-middle-aged-how-the-responses-to-covid-have-ignored-the-preferences-of-those-most-affected/

2. This is exactly the age at which we value quantity of life most highly relative to quality of life and when we are most scared of dying.

3. Considerable attention has rightly been devoted to the lack of diversity in decision-making and how better judgements can be made when a greater range of perspectives are accounted for.

4. Any response to COVID will have more legitimacy if those most affected by it (older people) and the responses to it (younger people) are properly consulted about what they consider to be the best course of action.

5. So not only should the government have sought advice from social scientists as well as medical scientists, it should have engaged with experts and non-experts of all ages.

6. This post represents the views of the author and not those of the COVID-19 blog, nor LSE. @profpauldolan