The Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board () is a group of medical scientists set up by the Ministry of Health to develop measures in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey that are imposed by the government.
The Scientific Advisory Board was set up on 10 January 2020 following the emergence of the coronavirus outbreak, before the World Health Organization confirmed it mid March as pandemic. The board initially consisted of 26 members, including 21 university professors and 4 medical experts specialized in Pulmonology, Infectious Diseases, Clinical Microbiology and a legal adviser. The number of board members later increased to 31 with the joining of expert academics in virology, internal medicine, intensive care medicine. The Minister of Heath Fahrettin Koca mentioned in a press conference on 7 April that the advisory board has 35 members. This number later increased to 38.
The board members do their own work in the morning and meet every day in the afternoon at the Ministry of Health. The board works out guidelines for the treatment by medicals and measures to be followed by the public, and updates them in context of the disease's course in the country. The board reports to the Health Minister. The implementation of the measures is carried out by the government. Almost every board member is invited by television, radio and newspapers to inform and warn the public about the coronavirus and personal protection as well as to prevent information pollution in the social media.
Activities
Until now the Scientific Board has published a set of general recommendations, including moving Turkish citizens in China back to Turkey, prohibiting international flights, closing the land borders to certain countries, establishing hospitals exclusively for the pandemic, postponing the trips by Turkish citizens to other countries, enforcing a 14-day quarantine for people coming back from other countries, promoting remote education, temporarily changing the working system for restaurants, dormitories and nursing homes, and postponing meetings between family members and prisoners in all prisons.
After the first death on 9 January 2020 in Wuhan, the "2019-nCoV Disease Guide" prepared by the Scientific Board was published by the Ministry of Health on 14 January. In the guide, general information on the care and isolation process for patients are written in detail for healthcare workers, and the symptoms helpful for the identification and confirming a case and the procedures to be followed after the identification are also included. Following the emergence of new information and further developments, the information on the guide was updated on 28 January after a meeting between board members. On 2 February, an oral presentation on the guide was released on the website as a result of the decision taken after another meeting.
To spread information on COVID-19, the Ministry of Health prepared booklets that were distributed to the Provincial Health Directorates, all health units and public institutions. The booklet included information on the definition of the virus, symptoms of the disease and methods of transmission. On 26 March 2020, members of the Scientific Board met with Chinese officials and scientists using the video conferencing method. During the three-hour meeting, discussions about sharing knowledge and experience took place. Hürriyet newspaper columnist Abdulkadir Selvi said that during the meeting, Chinese scientists made four recommendations. He claimed that isolation is the main means of fighting the disease and quarantining confirmed cases, those coming back from other countries and infected healthcare workers would be helpful.
Writing for the Habertürk website, Muharrem Sarıkaya claimed that the Scientific Board had worked on a three-stage plan following their meeting on 27 March 2020 to control the pandemic in Turkey. He added that all of the plans included enforcing quarantines and curfews in certain parts of the country, and out of the three plans only Plan A was being used at the time. He wrote that the quarantine of some villages and towns was the result of this plan. He claimed that the partial curfew would be implemented under Plan B, and the absolute curfew would be applied under Plan C. While explaining that the provisions of "National Preparation Plan for Influenza Pandemic" prepared in 2009 were implemented, he said that they were not considering a switch to Plan C under the current conditions.
After the Science Board's meeting on 28 March 2020, the Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca said that the decisions taken were forwarded to the Office of the President and he would make a statement after evaluation by the President. After evaluating and taking into consideration the Science Board's recommendations, the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced new measures to battle the ongoing pandemic across the country. He announced that the international flights were completely terminated, the intercity trips could only be done with the permission of the governorships, pandemic boards would be formed by the governorships, and that these decisions would be implemented meticulously in 30 metropolitan areas. Based on the directions by the Ministry of the Interior, the "Circular on Flight / Bus Schedule within the Scope of Coronavirus Measures to 81 Provincial Governorships" was published. According to the circular, it was announced that instructions were sent to the governorships in order to increase the effectiveness of the decisions taken in line with the recommendations of the Ministry of Health and the Scientific Board. It was also mentioned that the citizens should apply to the new platform "Travel Permit Board" to be created by the governorships for the domestic and intercity bus services, and those who are deemed eligible can travel by obtaining a "Travel Permit Certificate". Based on this circular, additional decisions were later made and a "2-Day Curfew" was announced on 10 April 2020 by the Ministry of the Interior, adding that curfews would be imposed on two consecutive days in 30 metropolitan municipalities as well as Zonguldak. After the details of the new arrangements were revealed, people went to the markets and grocery stores in an hour or two before the ban was imposed, violating the social distancing rules, and this caused controversy among the public. According to a claim made by Yeniçağ columnist Fatih Ergin, the announcement of the decision late at night even disturbed some members of the Scientific Board. It was said that the violation of the social distancing rules brought some members of the Scientific Board to the brink of resignation, but as a result of Fahrettin Koca's intervention, they changed their mind. It was also alleged that Koca was disturbed because of the panic buying at markets and grocery stores, believing that it had disrupted their efforts against the pandemic. Tevfik Özlü, a member of the Scientific Board, said in a program he on 24 TV, "unfortunately, there is a possibility of a terrible contamination now, because our people went out without caution last night." At the same time, he mentioned that this was a breaking point and added, "... I think there will be a price paid in the next 10 days because of the people who are on the streets today and spread the disease." Another board member, Serap Şimşek Yavuz, addressed the issue on Twitter and said, "What is this confluence when we all have food for 10 days at home? Please come to yourself! It is done to prevent the virus from spreading, but the social distancing has disappeared based on the videos I watched ..." Candas Tolga Işık, a columnist for Posta newspaper, quoted Ateş Kara, a member of the Scientific Board, and wrote, "The risk has grown very, very much. As of last night, those who went out to the street must quarantine themselves for 14 days."
On 13 March, the Scientific Board convened with the participation of the Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gül, Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca and Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Mehmet Cahit Turan. Abdulhamit Gül said that all the recommendations given by the Scientific Board and the Ministry of Health would carried out by the Ministry of Justice, and during their meeting they talked about measures necessary for the units and services related to the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice announced an emergency action plan based on the Scientific Board's recommendations. The plan contains measures such as closing prisons to visitors until the end of April, looking for convicts who had spent time abroad before their first detention period during the pandemic, and keeping detainees and convicts who come to the institution for the first time in a separate area for 14 days. On 28 March, the period for executing these measures was extended for two weeks. With the proposal of the Scientific Board on 10 April, it was agreed that the measures will be carried out at least until 30 April 2020. In another statement made by the Ministry of Justice, it was announced that all meetings between convicts and lawyers and the transfer process for detainees from one prison to another would be postponed to a later date.
The "COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 Infection) Guide", prepared by the Scientific Board members to assist healthcare professionals in diagnosis, precaution, and possible procedures, was updated on 14 April. New modifications were made to several sections on the guide, including "sampling, contact follow-up, ambulance patient transport, home patient monitoring, adult patient management in the designated COVID-19 outpatient clinic, adult patient treatment, supportive treatment, pediatric patient management and treatment, evaluation of health workers who have had contact with the infected people, morgue and burial arrangements." Bülent Ertuğrul, Member of the Board of the Turkish Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Association, said that "according to the treatment guide, we will start treating the disease in a very early stage."
Members
The members of the board are people who have experience with Ebola, Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever and flu cases. Among them are people with various scientific studies and people who examine the studies on different diseases by international scientists. Their studies contribute to precise case definition, developing guides and treatment algorithms. The board initially had 26 members.
Some members of the board, including Levent Akın, Firdevs Aktaş and Ayşegül Füsun Eyüboğlu, had contributed to the preparation of the "Influenza Pandemic - National Preparation Plan" in 2009, which was again updated in 2019 and released for giving information to the general public, institutions and organizations across the country. Ateş Kara, one of the members of the Board, has been an adviser to the World Health Organization at various times. He was also among the 25 people who worked as a group to assist WHO in preventing the spread of Ebola. He prepared the "Ebola virus disease information and case management guide" with Şebnem Erdinç. Cemil Güneş, Legal Counsel of the Ministry of Health, was included in the Board to inspect the decisions taken and to investigate that there were no violations of laws. Levent Akın actively served during the emergence of Swine flu cases and was a member of the Pandemic Board. Recep Öztürk was a member of the Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Scientific Advisory Board.