Sing into the funnel please: inside the Covid-19 lab hoping to declare singing safe

Britain's 40,000 choirs have all been silenced, brass and woodwind players too. We meet the scientists racing to find out exactly how dangerous blowing instruments and singing are

Declan Costello, an ear, nose and throat surgeon with an interest in voice disorders and a side career as a tenor, is looking back on the year. Six months ago, if you'd said, You're not going to be doing any clinical work or singing, and your mates who are professional singers are going to be driving Tesco vans instead, and you're going to be in an orthopaedic theatre on a Sunday morning watching flutes being played into funnels', I would have thought you were mad."

Early in the year, Costello also learned some rudimentary intensive care skills" and developed and crowdfunded a novel piece of PPE to shield healthcare workers from infection during the intubation process. But that is a story for another day.