The UK’s covid-19 data collection has been “world beating”—let’s not throw it away (25 February 2022)

Summary

It is critical the UK keeps the bones of its world leading data infrastructure so that we can protect ourselves from lingering and future threats, writes Jennifer Beam Dowd.

While the UK’s perceived pandemic missteps abound, the country was truly “world beating” in at least one important arena—investment in crucial population data to help us understand the virus. Despite earlier reports that the Coronavirus Infection Survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) was at risk of being scrapped, the government's new “Living with covid” strategy has retained the scheme, although it's not yet clear to what extent. While these efforts could rightfully be scaled back from crisis levels, we need to carefully transition surveillance from pandemic to “endemic” to protect ourselves from lingering and future threats.