ARE the costs of becoming involved in public life too high? Last week, Edinburgh University public health professor Devi Sridhar told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry about her experiences over the pandemic.

Sridhar needs no introduction. Like ­Jason Leitch, she became ubiquitous on the nation’s airwaves for months on end from the beginning of the pandemic to its ­concluding stages – becoming in the ­process one of the best-known academics in the country.

As her public profile rose, she also gained direct access to a range of political figures during the long months of changing policy to tackle Covid-19, contributing to policy debates about freedoms and restrictions not only in public but behind the scenes.

Sridhar didn’t position herself just as a neutral mapper and explainer – which can be a comfort position for academics dipping their toes into the public domain – but as an analyst and critic of government policy. She not only shared her knowledge of the state of the science on Covid-19 but gave her opinion on that evidence.

Jason Leitch (Image: PA)

Experts should. Most of us aren’t equipped with the background and ­education to decode the strengths and weaknesses of emerging scientific ­studies. We need a friendly guide to take us through the ­detail if we’re to begin understanding it at all. That requires interpretation as well as facts. Interpretations sometimes vary.

Participating in hundreds of media ­interviews, Professor Sridhar was ­given countless opportunities not only to ­explain the latest knowledge about the novel ­coronavirus to the public but to make errors in the heat of the moment, to ­misspeak or mis-predict the future.

Live broadcasts

There were moments where she ­probably misspoke or was asked to speak ­beyond her expertise. This often ­happens in live ­broadcasts – sometimes because of the ­compressed nature of the format, ­sometimes because of scientific ­uncertainties, ­sometimes because experts are invited to steer out of their academic lanes by ­presenters.

But I reckon most folk who tuned in to the telly or radio during this uncertain ­period in our shared history were grateful to have the opportunity to hear directly from expert voices prepared to talk in a........

© Herald Scotland