COVID-19: what are the options for the UK? Recommendations for government based on an open and transparent examination of the scientific evidence

This report focuses on the priorities for measures to be taken in the United Kingdom to support a gradual release from social distancing measures through a sustainable public health response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The authors do not address the clear structural and procedural weaknesses that contributed to the current situation as there are expected to be addressed in a future inquiry.

The main recommendations, among others, are (pp. 5-7):

1. The government should take all necessary measures to control the virus through suppression and not simply managing its spread.
2. The government should refocus its ambitions on ensuring sufficient public health and health system capacities to ensure that all cases are identified, isolated, tested and treated, as well as quarantine contacts are traced.
3. Government ministers, National Health System (NHS) bodies and their officials should adhere to the Code of Practice for Statistics and the UK Statistics Authority should report breaches of the code.
4. Recognising the centrality of human behaviour in virus transmission, the government should ensure that as social distance measures are eased, measures are taken to enable population-wide habit development for hand and surface disinfection, using and disposing of tissues for coughs and sneezes and not touching the T-zone (eyes, nose and mouth).