Over the past two months we have gathered evidence from scientists, experts & officials on the effectiveness of the UK response to #Covid19

Today we have written to the Prime Minister with the lessons we have learned so far.

These are some of our key findings:

The decision by Public Health England to limit testing capacity to its own laboratories, which led to the discontinuation of community testing, was 'one of the most consequential made during [the] crisis'. The Government must learn from this ahead of possible vaccine manufacture.

The Government must 'urgently' build up capacity for contact tracing. We underlined the importance of contact tracing in managing the easing of lockdown measures in the UK and for minimising the risk of a second peak of infections.

We recommended that the Government set out a clear approach for managing the risks around asymptomatic transmission of the disease.

We recommended that further transparency is needed regarding the provision of scientific advice, providing clear distinction between scientific advice and policy decisions.

We called for more transparency on the membership and actions of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), including regular updates on participants at meetings, as well as for a summary of the scientific advice which has informed Government decisions to be published.

You can read the letter and the full list of our recommendations here: http://bit.ly/2AINFMV 

Commenting on the letter, our Chair @GregClarkMP, said: