The Met Office’s confused climate change forecasts
Oh, do make your mind up. Is snow in Britain going to be eradicated for good due to climate change…
What does the different Covid data tell us?
In spite of the approval of one vaccine and the likely approval of at least two others, the government seems…
What do excess deaths tell us about Covid?
Assessing the number of Covid deaths has been notoriously difficult throughout the pandemic. Over the summer, English figures were revised down…
Do some people have hidden immunity against Covid?
Remember ‘immunity passports’? Back in April they were floated as a possible means by which we could all get back…
The fatal flaw in Boris’s ten point carbon plan
There is nothing wrong with the general direction of policy contained within the government’s ten point plan to cut carbon…
Have Moderna outdone the Pfizer vaccine?
Another week, another set of preliminary results from a Covid-19 vaccine trial. This time it is the Moderna vaccine candidate,…
Will the Pfizer vaccine live up to the hype?
So is this the big turning point? Markets certainly seem to think so. No sooner had news broken that the…
Gone with the wind: why electricity shortages are becoming the norm
If it wasn’t miserable enough being told that I have to spend the next month at home, now I have…
Covid or no Covid, social distancing could be here to stay
Throughout this year, the biggest worry for healthcare planners has been what happens if a second wave of Covid-19 coincides…
The growing evidence on lockdown deaths
That the lockdown had a terrible impact on the nation’s health — in ways other than just Covid-19 — is…
The US is coming out of COVID no worse than any European country
It has become a received wisdom in recent months that the US has failed where the EU had succeeded. On…
The curious case of the man who caught COVID twice
Does catching the SARS-CoV-2 virus give us immunity from further infection by the virus or can we catch it a…
How likely are you to catch Covid on a plane?
It is little surprise to see the International Air Transport Association (IATA) claiming that the risk of catching Covid-19 on a…
Quantifying the cost of lockdown
We have had plenty of anecdotes about people failing to be diagnosed with serious diseases during lockdown. This is thanks to…
Could we see Covid anti-virals before a vaccine?
In a strategy that now appears to be one of outright suppression, the government has put huge stock in the…
There is no Covid consensus
Today, 32 scientists, economists and other academics have written to the Prime Minister demanding a change in policy on Covid-19,…
Five questions for Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance
The chief medical officer, professor Chris Whitty, and chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, made a statement this morning on…
The growing evidence for T cell Covid immunity
Back in May I wroteabout a study by La Jolla Institute for Immunology, which raised the possibility that exposure to…
Rise in cases not (yet) affecting the over-70s
Perhaps the most reliable test of Covid-19 levels is carried out by the Office for National Statistics, which every week…
How Extinction Rebellion shot itself in the foot
It was easy to criticise Westminster for caving into Extinction Rebellion’s demands for a ‘citizen’s assembly’ on climate change when…
What David Attenborough's 'Extinction: The Facts' didn't tell you
It was only a matter of time before Covid-19 got swept up into the wider narrative of humans facing impending…
Government jobs don’t have to be in the capital
Home-working shows how many government jobs can be moved out of London
Europe's 'second wave' has fizzled out
Has the Covid ‘second wave’ already run out of steam? On 9 July, just when Britain was reopening the hospitality…
We may be closer to herd immunity than previously thought
Are we a lot closer to achieving herd immunity with Covid-19 than has been made out? It is a question…
What is behind the increase of non-Covid related deaths?
The latest data on weekly deaths in England and Wales, published today by the Office of National Statistics, show what…