The UK government has always said it is relying on scientific advice to fight the pandemic, and the documents released on Friday (see our earlier entries) reveal the internal discussions of the scientists themselves.

One disagreement was over when to close schools. One of the documents spells out how different models came up with very different results for how much closures would reduce the spread of Covid-19. Some said it would bring a reduction of between 20-60% while another suggested it would be 7.5-30%.

Other insights include the age for people to be considered at risk. The government’s advice is aimed at over 70 - but behind the scenes scientists have been discussing a threshold of 65.

And it’s clear that in developing the advice, there is a pessimistic view of how the British public will respond. It’s assumed that only 50% of households will abide by the request to self-isolate if one member shows symptoms of the virus and that even this “may be unachievable”.

The scientists and the Home Office explored whether the measures would lead to public unrest but this was judged unlikely.