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.
Following an announcement made at the Downing Street press conference that the new UK variant, B.1.1.7, may be associated with … read more
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released the latest data from their COVID-19 Infection Survey, and the government have released the … read more
A study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology suggests being fat linked with worse heart health, even in … read more
Eli Lilly have published a press release today stating that their neutralizing antibody bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555) prevented COVID-19 in US nursing … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, looks at immunisation, asymptomatic infection, herd immunity and the new variants of COVID-19. … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, looks at viral load, how infectious an individual is, and detection by lateral … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, reports on the latest data from the REACT-1 study on COVID-19 spread across … read more
A trial in Brazil published in the BMJ suggests adding the arthritis drug tocilizumab to standard care for patients in … read more
A modelling study published in the Lancet Public Health looks the effectiveness of a ‘test to release’ strategy for contacts … read more
A comment from Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter on the latest reported COVID-19 daily deaths, including the 1,038 deaths recorded on … read more
A study published in Nature looks at cognitive decline in mice when treated with a drug that reduces inflammation and … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, suggests that the South African variant of SARS-CoV-2, 501Y.V2, escapes neutralisation from antibodies … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, suggests the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine might be effective against the SARS-CoV-2 variant found in … read more
There have been media reports of results from a serological study conducted at Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre suggesting Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine … read more
The number of deaths reported today within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test has reached 1,610. Dr Michael … read more
The second report on progress from the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response has been released. Dr Gail … read more
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released data from their COVID-19 Infection Survey on antibodies for January 2021. Prof … 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
A study published in Heart looks at whether fried food intake is linked to risk of heart disease and stroke. … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, looks at early immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and likelihood of developing severe and … read more
