In the third episode of our new podcast series on science advice and government, host Dr Rob Doubleday discusses the Ebola outbreak of 2014 and how the government used science and evidence in helping to tackle it. He's joined by three people who were closely involved at the time:  

-Dame Sally Davies, Master of Trinity College Cambridge, who was Chief Medical Officer for England from 2010-2019 and co-chaired the SAGE process during the outbreak. 

-Sir Oliver Letwin, an MP for over 20 years and was a Senior Minister in the Cabinet Office during the time.  

-Professor Melissa Leach, Director of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. She's also an Anthropologist who has worked in West Africa and played a crucial role in bringing evidence from the social sciences into the government's response to Ebola. 

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Season 5 is produced in partnership with the research project Expertise Under Pressure, Centre for the Humanities and Social Change at the University of Cambridge.

CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Jessica Foster. Research for this series is supported by CSaP Policy Researcher Nick Cosstick.

Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here.

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Resources relevant to this episode: 

• Sage website: https://bit.ly/SAGEwebsite


• Ebola Response Anthropology Platform website: https://bit.ly/Ebolaanthropology


• Paper - Providing incentives to share data early in health emergencies: the role of journal editors


• UK Vaccine Network website: https://bit.ly/ukvaccnet


• Report by the Wellcome Trust and UK DIFD Joint Initiative on Epidemic Preparedness: Towards a People-Centred Epidemic Preparedness and Response: https://bit.ly/3glkZer. 


• Social Science and Humanitarian Action Platform website: https://www.socialscienceinaction.org/


• Oliver Letwin's book: Apocalypse How?: Technology and the Threat of Disaster.

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