Authors' reply to the discussion of ‘Estimation of reproduction numbers in real time: conceptual and statistical challenges’ by Pellis et al. in Session 3 of the Royal Statistical Society's Special Topic Meeting on COVID‐19 transmission: 11 June 2021

Lorenzo Pellis1,2,3 Paul J. Birrell2,4,5,6 Joshua Blake2,4 Ian Hall1,2,3,6,7 Thomas A. House1,2,3 Christopher E. Overton1,2,8 Francesca Scarabel1,2 Helena B. Stage1,2,9,10 Daniela De Angelis2,4,5,6 1Department of Mathematics, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK 2Joint UNIversities Pandemic and Epidemiological Research, UK 3The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK 4MRC Biostatistics Unit, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 5Statistics, Modelling and Economics Department, Public Health England, London, UK 6Joint Modelling Team, Public Health England, London, UK 7School of Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK 8NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester University, Manchester, UK 9Department of Physics, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany 10Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany