Living in West London during the lockdown imposed as a consequence of the Coronavirus outbreak is a surreal experience. Normal existence, such as we knew less than two months ago, seems to have occurred in another lifetime. Some of us older ones lived through the nervous uncertainties of the Cold War and we all look with some trepidation at the imminent challenges posed by climate change. But this is something altogether different.
As a 58-year-old diabetic male my vulnerability in the face of this virus is heightened. As is that of my son, who is asthmatic. Neither Coronavirus Stats by Countries us is listed among the 1.5 million most vulnerable as identified by the UK government, but we are open enough to complications for us to have gone voluntarily into more or less full isolation, along with the remainder of the household who are supporting us. Various in-laws and outlaws seem to be trying their level best to tempt us out into the perilous yonder, but thus far we are holding firm.
Readily available data
I am neither a virologist nor an epidemiologist. I am not even a statistician. But I have an O-level in Mathematics. And modest though this achievement may be in the wider scheme of academia it is sufficient to enable me to identify trends and to draw conclusions from data that is readily available to anybody with a connection to the Internet and a working knowledge of Google. Which is why I shudder at the evident bemusement of many of those commentators who pass for experts.
Throughout its handling of the crisis, my government has been keen to stress that it is "following the science". Political spokespersons are invariably accompanied during briefings by medical advisers and scientists aplenty of order and esteem. And yet what passes as the best of scientific advice one day seems so often to fall by the wayside the next. Thus our initial reluctance to suspend large sporting events was based on "scientific advice" which stated there was no evidence that large crowds of people packed closely together presented an ideal environment in which a virus might spread, only for contrary advice to be issued barely a day or two later. Likewise pubs and restaurants. "Following the science" has even been offered as an explanation for deficiencies in the provision of protective equipment to frontline workers and in testing capacity. One could be forgiven for wondering whether political policy was being informed by the science, or vice versa.
As a 58-year-old diabetic male my vulnerability in the face of this virus is heightened. As is that of my son, who is asthmatic. Neither Coronavirus Stats by Countries us is listed among the 1.5 million most vulnerable as identified by the UK government, but we are open enough to complications for us to have gone voluntarily into more or less full isolation, along with the remainder of the household who are supporting us. Various in-laws and outlaws seem to be trying their level best to tempt us out into the perilous yonder, but thus far we are holding firm.
Readily available data
I am neither a virologist nor an epidemiologist. I am not even a statistician. But I have an O-level in Mathematics. And modest though this achievement may be in the wider scheme of academia it is sufficient to enable me to identify trends and to draw conclusions from data that is readily available to anybody with a connection to the Internet and a working knowledge of Google. Which is why I shudder at the evident bemusement of many of those commentators who pass for experts.
Throughout its handling of the crisis, my government has been keen to stress that it is "following the science". Political spokespersons are invariably accompanied during briefings by medical advisers and scientists aplenty of order and esteem. And yet what passes as the best of scientific advice one day seems so often to fall by the wayside the next. Thus our initial reluctance to suspend large sporting events was based on "scientific advice" which stated there was no evidence that large crowds of people packed closely together presented an ideal environment in which a virus might spread, only for contrary advice to be issued barely a day or two later. Likewise pubs and restaurants. "Following the science" has even been offered as an explanation for deficiencies in the provision of protective equipment to frontline workers and in testing capacity. One could be forgiven for wondering whether political policy was being informed by the science, or vice versa.
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