Rapid communication by our team @UCL_IHI and @UCL_ICS: Clinical academic research in the time of Corona: a simulation study in England and a call for action. Preprint today: bit.ly/2yaUzZT @JccmoonMoon @profhhemingway @dr_manisty @SpirosDenaxas @mnoursad 1/10
First we modelled the population infection rate and daily infection growth rate in the UK during COVID-19 pandemic using official COVID-19 case data 2/10 
We then used @NHSDigital staffing data to estimate the effect of the pandemic on the clinical academic workforce and its ability to do research. 3/10
Clinical academics are not available to do research, either because they are being pulled to frontline healthcare duties in the current public health emergency, or because they are self-isolating due to COVID-19 infection. 4/10
Even when population infection rate is lower and suppression measures are in place(e.g. lockdown), the number of clinical academics will be <400 for up to 1 month, and will take until end of June to return to 80% of usual capacity. 5/10
In the worst case scenario, the UK will be left with no clinical academics for over one month until June, and will not return to 80% of clinical academic capacity until the end of October. 6/10
We used our experiences of planning and delivering research, including in the @NightingaleLDN to develop recommendations for clinical academics and health systems to plan a quick and timely research response to #COVID-19. 7/10
We highlight six key strategies: radical prioritisation, deep resourcing, non-standard leadership, rationalisation, careful site selection and complete suspension of academic competition with collaborative approaches. 8/10
Our study supports more stringent suppression measures at population level to avoid not just immediate deaths but also to enable an adequate research response to quickly improve prevention and treatment. 9/10
As @JeremyFarrar says ‘The only exit from this pandemic is through science’. But that requires staffing and requires policy responses to reduce the rate of infection in the population. 10/10
