Neil Ferguson: 'I gave them an open goal to some extent'

The Imperial College epidemiologist behind influential Covid modelling found himself in the unwelcome glare of the media

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This year will go down as a challenging one for most people, but for Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist in charge of Imperial College's influential Covid-19 modelling, it has been an intense, professionally rewarding but personally difficult 12 months.

It has been very hard to switch off," he says, taking care to point out that it's a problem with which many of his colleagues have also had to contend.