In March 2020, Calder was appointed Clinical Lead setting up the
NHS Nightingale Hospital London. Early in the pandemic, the quest to increase ventilator capacity in the NHS led to the concept of converting the
Excel Exhibition Centre into a 4000-bed critical care facility. The co-ordination of NHS, military and private sector workers which enabled the hospital to open for patients within 10 days was rightly praised but few patients actually used the facility. The
O2 Arena became a training centre for NHS staff across London to teach the skills required to work in critical care but whether the Nightingale would have been able to staff the hospital had it become fully operational remains in doubt. There are disagreements as to whether the £500M spent setting up the seven Nightingale Hospitals across England should have been used elsewhere or whether they were the ultimate insurance policy that were thankfully not needed. The
King's Fund concluded "There were undeniably some positives from the Nightingale experience. Staff who worked in these locations speak of less hierarchical working styles and rapid learning and improvement systems (including the use of bedside learning co-ordinators)". These were then taken back to their home organisations for the benefit of the wider NHS. In April 2020, Calder was appointed independent Chair of the
Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee tasked with returning elite sport during the COVID-19 pandemic. The "Five Stage Model" developed by sports chief medical officers,
UK Sport and the sports National Governing Bodies enabled elite sport to re-commence in May 2020. Calder was also medical advisor on the DCMS Entertainment and Events and Broadcasting groups. Calder was appointed to the Sports Technology and Innovation Group by the Culture Secretary,
Oliver Dowden MP CBE which aimed at returning fans to elite sports venues. He was subsequently made a scientific advisor on the Science Board for the Events Research Programme. This reported on the environmental and behavioural risk factors associated with the transmission of SARS-CoV-19 in more than 2 million participants at 31 pilot events across various sectors including sports, theatre, nightclubs and festivals. Calder also co-ordinated various collaborative research studies aimed at assessing risks and dispelling myths surrounding COVID-19 transmission in sports and the culture sectors. A joint study between
Imperial College London and
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine using live COVID-19 virus demonstrated that the risk of its transmission from shared use of sports equipment was very unlikely. This enabled recreational sports clubs to allow people to share tennis balls, footballs, crash mats and for golf clubs to allow green pins and bunker rakes to be used which was previously banned. Following the award of a
UKRI research grant, Calder co-ordinated aerobiology experiments which were performed in the ultra clean-air of orthopaedic operating theatres. The researchers from
Imperial College London and
Bristol University investigated the potential for aerosol transmission of COVID-19 in professional and amateur singers, woodwind and brass instrument musicians and the effect of exercise on aerosol generation in elite and amateur athletes. The results have helped shape guidelines for several areas of the performing arts as well as gyms. This body of work was awarded the Faraday Horizon Prize by the
Royal Society of Chemistry in June 2025. == References ==