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 published the latest estimates for the COVID-19 R number 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 James Naismith, Director … read more
The government have released the latest statistics from the COVID-19 Test and Trace system. Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor … read more
A study published in Cell looks at injecting human stem cells into primate embryos to grow human-monkey chimeric embryos. … read more
In an article by the BBC, it’s suggested that analysis of data from Public Health England (PHE) shows 82% of … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, looks at incidence of Cerebral Venous Thrombosis (CVT) after COVID-19, compared to incidence … read more
The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) have published a press release on an observational study looking at intake of red … read more
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released data from the COVID Test Trace Cases Insights Survey on self-isolation after … read more
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine looks at phase 2 trail comparing psilocybin, the active compound … read more
A comment from Professor Sheila Bird on data from the UK vaccine roll-out in case useful. Prof Sheila Bird, … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study, looks at antibody generation and cellular immune responses in people over the age … read more
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released the latest report from the COVID-19 infection survey, looking at antibody and vaccination … read more
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) have released a joint statement … 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
Two observational studies, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases and The Lancet Public Health, suggest that the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7 … read more
A preprint, an unpublished non-peer reviewed study from the PRINCIPLE trial, looks at the use of budesonide, a common corticosteroid, … read more
Meeting highlights from the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) safety committee, the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), have been published, including … read more
The government have published the latest estimates for the COVID-19 R number 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 Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales in the … read more
