[MadeThisToReply]

My first thought was the UK's "Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies", who have become a household name in Britain during the pandemic, and are most famous for having been repeatedly wrong about everything yet for some reason still taken seriously by many.

[BoxOfRain]

'Independent SAGE' were worse in my opinion, they were shamelessly trying to piggyback on SAGE's credibility with the public with their intentionally misleading name. SAGE are the government's official scientific advisory group, Independent SAGE are little more than a lobby group for excessive use of the precautionary principle typo-squatting on an official organisation.

But yeah, I'm not a fan of a lot of decisions SAGE made either. I think the decision by SAGE to use behavioural psychology to 'increase the sense of personal threat' and other manipulative tactics like that was unethical for example, and of course the modelling turned out to be quite far out from what actually transpired. I definitely think the press deserves a good chunk of the blame though, they latched onto the worse case scenarios SAGE modelled regardless of their likelihood and caused preventable panic in the process which isn't necessarily SAGE's fault.

I guess it's all a moot point now, the recent revelations of the PM and other high-ranking politicians hosting parties in Downing Street with impunity while we were in the first 'nobody's allowed to leave the house but to work or shop' lockdown has massively reduced the any chance of further restrictions I think regardless of what SAGE or other scientists say. Regardless of anyone's opinion on their merit as a policy, lockdowns always depended on public consent which just isn't there any more.