nameandnature

What have we learnt from a year of Covid? | Tim Harford: Tim Harford has a decent reflection.
(tags: covid19 pandemic science)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there (where there are currently comments) or here.

COVID-19: what health experts could and could not predict | Nature Medicine: Devi Sridhar in Nature: “Nearly a year after the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, it is time to look back and assess what could have been predicted by health experts.”
(tags: science covid19 pandemic medicine)
I thrived on the tension and drama of British politics. Then I had a heart attack | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian: “I lived for the nerve-shredding rollercoaster of Westminster. But the stress got under my skin, and into my blood”
(tags: twitter Politics brexit journalism health)
I’d love to ignore ‘Covid sceptics’ and their tall tales. But they make a splash and have no shame | Media | The Guardian: Neil O’Brien on the fantasies of those in the media, and beyond, who oppose lockdown. There have been a few articles like this recently, hopefully it marks a tide rising against the loonies.
(tags: covid19 science lockdown pandemic)
Rise of the Coronavirus Cranks – Quillette: Another demolition of the smiley face crew.
(tags: twitter pandemic covid19 science)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there (where there are currently comments) or here.

Reasons for the COVID tier decisions in England: A presentation from NHS Test and Trace which David Spiegelhalter found.
(tags: disease pandemic covid19 nhs)
Balancing Epistemic Humility and Prior Knowledge – Insight: “This was a textbook virus. Why didn’t we act more like it?”
(tags: covid19 disease pandemic)
Chris Hopson on Twitter: “1/21 Parliament votes on the new tiered restctions on Tuesday. A lot of comment in today’s papers on what’s happening in the hospital sector. Important questions on NHS capacity, demand, preparedness, Nightingales etc. Thread: CEO of NHS Providers: “A lot of comment in today’s papers on what’s happening in the hospital sector. Important questions on NHS capacity, demand, preparedness, Nightingales etc. Thread below sets out NHS hospital trust perspective.”
(tags: covid19 nhs hospital pandemic)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there (where there are currently comments) or here.

Yes, PCR tests can detect “the COVID virus” – Virology Down Under: The latest conspiracy theories allege that the test doesn’t work, so it’s interesting to see in explained.
(tags: pcr covid19 medicine biology science)
Johnson: The boy king who can’t grow up: “The ultimate problem with Johnson’s lack of seriousness is that he does not take the British people seriously. That is to say, he is a child who also treats us as children. He lies and jokes and tries to cheer people up, but never levels with us as adults. And so he has never confessed to the damage of Brexit. In the summer he declared it our “patriotic duty” to go to the pub. And last week he declared we should behave “fearlessly” in the face of the virus. Everyone must be mollycoddled or condescended to. The sordid reality must never be spoken.”
(tags: politics covid19 pandemic)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there (where there are currently comments) or here.

“Are we experiencing a second wave?” – asks Stuart McDonald | AgeWage: Making your money work as hard as you do: Actuary says yes.
(tags: covid19 pandemic actuary statistics)
How to store dotfiles | Atlassian Git Tutorial: The best way to store your dotfiles: A bare Git repository
(tags: git linux)
QAnon is a Nazi Cult, Rebranded: Points out that the QAnon new religious movement has some familiar sounding rhetoric: “A secret cabal is taking over the world. They kidnap children, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from their blood. They control high positions in government, banks, international finance, the news media, and the church. They want to disarm the police. They promote homosexuality and pedophilia. They plan to mongrelize the white race so it will lose its essential power.”
(tags: conspiracy qanon nazis)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there (where there are currently comments) or here.

The Pandemic’s Biggest Mystery Is Our Own Immune System – The Atlantic: More Ed Yong: the immune system is very complicated
(tags: biology disease immune covid19 pandemic)
E7201. The Epidemiology of Viruses | by Paul Bleicher | Jul, 2020 | Tincture: “Welcome Class of 2045 medical students to E7201… Most of you were toddlers when the COVID-19 epidemic arrived, the largest health-related disruption of human activity that the modern world has seen since the influenza epidemic of 1918–1920.”
(tags: covid19 medicine prediction)
Shane Crotty on Twitter: “1/ There are various tweets misinterpreting COVID-19 “pre-existing immunity” and making dangerous claims about herd immunity. Since many of those claims refer to our scientific papers, we will reiterate the facts. @SetteLab @: There are various tweets misinterpreting COVID-19 “pre-existing immunity” and making dangerous claims about herd immunity. Since many of those claims refer to our scientific papers, we will reiterate the facts.
(tags: covid19 immunology antibody medicine science)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there (where there are currently comments) or here.

Here’s What The UK Government Was Told By Scientists, Said In Public, And Did On The Big Coronavirus Issues: “Much of the evidence to the government has been made public, and it means we have a level of insight into where the government’s words and decisions, and the advice from the experts, come together — and diverge.These timelines explore five of the biggest issues: mass events, social distancing, school closures, isolation, and testing.”
Via the ever-interesting tomchivers

(tags: pandemic uk sage government covid19 science)
The problem with our response to Covid-19 wasn’t that we didn’t have a plan – it was the opposite: “People make plans, but plans exert power over people. Covid-19 is not a flu virus but something new for which we don’t yet have effective medications, and it is more infectious than Sars and Mers, the other two coronaviruses to have emerged since the turn of the century. Faced with the novel problem of an untreatable, highly transmissible virus, the government’s current advisers seem to have found it hard to break with the plan they had – now unfit for purpose – and think anew.”

(tags: covid19 uk politics influenza flu)
Fatal exceptionalism and lack of humility to learn from the Asian example: “Covid-19, or how the West was undone by its assertion of civilizational difference bordering on provincial narcissism”

(tags: covid19 korea china politics epidemic)

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Entries tagged with pandemic