Neil Ferguson’s mysterious membership of Nervtag

It seems like a lifetime ago when the Imperial College academic Neil Ferguson was caught breaking lockdown rules to meet his married lover. Since then, a whole series of mad, bad and downright nonsense regulations have come and gone. At the time though, the breach was taken very seriously by both the government and Ferguson himself, who had been the main champion of strict lockdown rules being instated in Britain.

On 5 May, Ferguson promised to stand down as a government advisor, saying he regretted ‘undermining’ the government’s harsh measures on social distancing. His decision was backed by the government. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said Ferguson had made ‘the right decision to resign’ and told Sky News, that it was ‘just not possible’ for the Professor to continue advising the government. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said Boris Johnson agreed with his decision to resign from Sage, and added that Ferguson’s membership of Nervtag (the new and emerging respiratory virus threats advisory group) had also been relinquished.