Rapid Reactions: responding to breaking news. The demands of the 24-hour media machine mean that news journalists often don’t have the luxury of time to track down the best scientists when a science story lands on their desks, so availability can sometimes win out over expertise. This is where the Science Media Centre steps in. When a story breaks – whether it’s the latest flu epidemic, health scare or a potential nuclear crisis – the SMC persuades leading experts to drop everything and engage with the story, then contacts journalists at all the major news outlets to offer those experts for interviews or immediate comment.
Roundups: putting new research into context. One of the other ways the SMC ensures that the media have easy access to scientists and their views is by offering journalists a variety of comments from scientists reacting to the latest research. This service differs from our ‘Rapid Reactions’ as scientists have time to react before new research is announced, rather than in response to breaking news.
With access to embargoed journals before publication, we can pick stories of most interest to journalists, asking third party experts to provide comments and information to put research into context before it appears in the media. The SMC’s unique Roundups help busy journalists critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of new research, and highlight when studies are very preliminary or display a correlation that should not be read as causation. Equally, when leading scientists are excited about a significant study this can reassure journalists that the study should feature strongly in their coverage.
The government have released the latest estimates for the COVID-19 R value and growth rates. Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus … read more
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released the latest data from their COVID-19 Infection Survey. Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor … read more
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has issued its interim advice on Phase 2 of the COVID-19 vaccination … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, suggests that a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine reduces asymptomatic infections. … read more
A study published in Nature Geoscience suggests that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), also known as the Gulf Stream System, is … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed paper from the REACT-2 programme, looked at prevalence of antibody positivity to SARS-CoV-2 in … read more
A study published in The BMJ suggests that there is no overall effect of statins on the frequency or severity … read more
A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) looks at the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in a nationwide … read more
A comment from Professor Paul Hunter on today’s update on the UK Government website for data and insights on COVID-19. … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, looks at Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 in Israel. … read more
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales in the … read more
The Prime Minister laid out England’s roadmap out of the current lockdown in the Commons this afternoon. Dr Julian … read more
New reports from PHE on the early impact and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in England, and on the effectiveness of … read more
The latest batch of SAGE documents, giving the scientific evidence supporting the government’s response to COVID-19, have been published this … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, looks at effectiveness of the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines against hospital admissions … read more
It has been announced that Pfizer and BioNTech have submitted their COVID-19 vaccine stability data at standard freeze temperature to … read more
The government have released the latest estimates for the COVID-19 R value and growth rates. Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus … read more
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released the latest data from their COVID-19 Infection Survey. Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor … read more
A letter published in the Lancet looks at data from Israel on SARS-CoV-2 infections in healthcare workers after receiving the … read more
It has been announced that the UK government will launch a new research agency, the Advanced Research & Invention Agency … read more
