Back channels. I've heard from a high-level source that rabid SAGE members are putting heavy pressure on government ministers and scientists outside of meetings. 1/n

What happens is that the SAGE meetings take place, and while it's full of fear-mongering it at least keeps up a semblance of balance, and there are saner voices on the committee who can dial things back.
2/n

But afterwards the foaming-at-the-mouth members who are raging for lockdowns get onto their phones and start berating the minmisters and scientific advisors, telling them they'll be killing millions if they don't act decisively.
3/n

It's these interventions that push the government over the edge into irrational authoriarianism.
4/n

This, of course, all squares with what I've been saying all along, in partricular when I observed that Ferguson's influence wouldn't diminish by being off SAGE, he was still the kingpin and would just
tell the government himself what to do.
5/n

And also when I observed that those people (like Chris Snowdon and Toby Young) who thought the SAGE minutes were the be-all-and-end-all of the scientific advice the government was getting were naive.
6/n

There's more to how power works than what you read in official minutes. This shouldn't need to be said, but unfortunately it does have to be said.
7/n