A St Andrews University academic has been appointed to support the UK Government’s scientific advisory group.
Dr Muge Cevik, from the School of Medicine, has been co-opted to NERVTAG (New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group) as a temporary member for Covid-19.
She will be advising and producing guidance documents on Covid-19 transmisison for SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies).
As a clinical academic in infectious diseases and medical virology, she has been working on the NHS front line of the response, as well as providing scientific advice to the Chief Medical Officer in Scotland and advisory groups.
Dr Cevik said: “Since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, there has been an unparalleled global effort to generate scientific knowledge.
“For instance, as of the end of October, there were more than 80,000 published scientific articles on Covid-19.
“This highlights the critical importance of timely synthesis of rapidly evolving scientific knowledge during emergencies.
“I am very honoured to be able to help in my capacity and contribute to informing the policy response during these challenging times.”
Throughout the pandemic, Dr Cevik has made use of Twitter to keep the public up-to-date with coronavirus-related research.
She has given interviews for radio and TV programmes such as BBC Science in Action, Euronews, BBC Radio 4, NPR, and communicated with news media outlets such as the New York Times, BBC, Reuters and Euronews.
