Models are back in Vogue, and it didn't take that long.

If the UK Health Security Agency is modelling Bird flu, perhaps they should start by revisiting the 2005 models.

The UK Health Security Agency stopped publishing Covid modelling data this January. However, finding alternative labour for the out-of-work modellers only took a month. 

The UKHSA’s Chief data scientist Dr Nick Watkins said the country is living with Covid thanks to vaccines and therapeutics, and the data is “no longer necessary.” 

The Agency is now turning to models to understand the impact of Influenza H5N1 - Bird Flu - if mammalian transmission is established. Models will estimate the prevalence of the outbreak using different surveillance approaches, reasonable worst-case scenarios and the impact of public health measures, including border measures, on containing an outbreak - Hmmm, sounds familiar. 

Information from the government’s Independent Technical report - we wrote about this in December - stresses the importance of modelling. 

‘Epidemiological modelling has been an important tool throughout the pandemic to interpret data to support understanding the situation, and to provide …