I'm proud to be a scientist in Sage – to call us 'secretive' is unjustified | Ian Boyd

The group has published much of its advice - but it's not there to make political judgments about how this advice gets used

Ian Boyd is a contributor to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies

Some of my earliest memories are of wanting to study science. It has been a privilege to have had the opportunity to make this my career, and it has been a pursuit in search of making the world a better place.

Scientific research is built on the idea of learning from mistakes in order to come closer to the truth. It involves a combination of ambitious conjectures, blunt criticism and humble admissions of error. Misunderstandings arise when the scientific method meets social and political intolerances; uncertainty and doubt can be interpreted as a sign of weakness or vacillation.