Dr Duncan Robertson Profile picture
Mar 16, 2020 11 tweets 3 min read Read on X
I am concerned about the UK Government’s approach to social distancing. A Thread #covidー19uk #SocialDistancing
The real problem with Coronavirus Covid-19 is that when the health service becomes overloaded, the death rate goes up significantly. So, it is imperative that we keep the number of cases at any one time below or as near as possible to NHS capacity.
The Government’s model relies on shifting the peak. I am not clear that we are doing this fast enough. We are an outlier compared to other countries in our social distancing policy response.
There is a tension between epidemiologists – those who study how diseases spread (a very established science started around the time of the Spanish Flu 100 years ago), and behavioural scientists who study how people behave and react.
Epidemiologists have models validated against past pandemics. Behavioral scientists do not.
There are economic and social costs of social distancing. But if you delay social distancing too much, there are potentially very real human costs in increased mortality. Doctors will need to make very difficult moral decisions on who to treat and who not to treat.
I do not understand why, if the intention is to create herd immunity, why we are not isolating our vulnerable population, especially those in care homes.
Behavioral insights are great when you are trying to get people to pay their tax bills on time. And if people don’t, it doesn’t really matter.
With a pandemic, if you get the timing wrong, more people die unnecessarily. Then you look back from your computer and say, yes, we got that behavioral model wrong while doctors and nurses on the front line are exposed to extra cases that could put their own lives at risk.
Here's a video I made on #SocialDistancing - but don't play with matches, people

And here's an interview I gave on BBC Local Radio @BBCLeicester - have a listen - it starts at 42:00

bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0…

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More from @Dr_D_Robertson

Jul 18
The UK Covid Public Inquiry has published its first Report, on Resilience and Preparedness. It is the most urgent report, as we are still ill-prepared for the next pandemic.

🧵
This is the first of many reports, each reviewing a specific area, including healthcare systems; test, trace, and isolate; and the economic response to the pandemic.

The Module 1 Report sets out nine significant flaws from the Covid-19 pandemic: Image
The Report suggests 10 recommendations: Image
Read 11 tweets
Jun 9, 2023
Data thread from today's @IndependentSage briefing including a discussion on sick pay, the topic of today's discussion. 🧵 Image
Cases and tests. Relatively low.
Caveat that the ONS Covid infection survey has been paused ImageImageImageImage
Hospital admissions. Trend not upward.
Caveat that testing has changed in hospital. ImageImageImageImage
Read 14 tweets
Apr 21, 2023
Covid data presentation for the @IndependentSage briefing on 21 April 2023 🧵 Image
Testing has changed from 1 April 2023, so it is difficult to compare before and after this date.
gov.uk/government/new…
The ONS survey has been 'paused', so we can look at the (less recent, less representative) data on PCR positivity

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testin… ImageImage
Read 11 tweets
Apr 20, 2023
Alright. Another maths thread. And why it's non-trivial to ask exam questions.
🧵
OK. So the 'exam question' is:

"Inflation is currently 10%. If inflation halves, how much will a £1 pint of milk cost".

Sounds easy. It's not. It's ambiguous. It's not a good question. Unless it's designed to be a bad question. In which case it's a good question.
1. It talks about 'inflation'. But *what* inflation? At the moment, we have overall inflation at roughly 10% but inflation of food at roughly 20%. So is the overall inflation rate the same as the inflation rate for milk? It's not clear. Bad question.
Read 9 tweets
Mar 24, 2023
Data thread from today's @IndependentSage briefing. 🧵
First, the @ONS Covid Infection Survey is being paused, and @CovidGenomicsUK is being retired. This will have implications for data reliability and availability going forward.
Read 17 tweets
Mar 20, 2023
OK, I'm going to write a response to this maths problem, published in @DailyMailUK, that has caused a lot of comment, some thinking the answer is 1 and some thinking the answer is 9.

A thread. 🧵

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…
So, what answer is correct? Is it 1 or is it 9?

Many of us would go straight to the answer 1. That's because we know (or our children know, and have taught us), that there is a 'rule' for how you deal with the order of doing the calculation - do you do + first or ÷, for example?
Enter BIDMAS (or BODMAS).

"It stands for Brackets, Indices [or Order], Division, Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction."

That's the conventional order. Forget about indices [or order] for now - that's not important for this one.
bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topic…
Read 12 tweets

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