Thread by @DavidSteadson

Well, Happy New Year everyone. Many people did not survive 2020, if you're reading this, you did!

Congratulations!

One thing I am *extremely* grateful for from 2020 though is the incredible number of new friends I have made this past year, primarily through twitter

I started the year rarely using twitter and with maybe 100 or so followers. I ended it with more than 3000, many of whom are far smarter, more experienced, and more qualified than I to talk about a pandemic, but apparently they found my contributions of interest.

For that, I am extremely flattered and thankful!

Some of them I'm now proud to call friends, despite the pandemic having prevented us from yet meeting in real life. Hopefully that will change for many of you before this spin around the sun is complete.

Thank you to all I've engaged with, whether in disagreement or agreement. In many ways, those who disagree have been of more value. You've forced me to think, to understand my own biases, and acknowledge my weaknesses and errors. I hope I've done the same for you! 😁

2021 is a year where I think we can truly celebrate science. *Science has mattered* and most people have listened. The speed of Covid-19 vaccine development has been nothing short of stunning, and scientists are being recognized as heroes in a way long reserved for sports stars.

I only hope that this new found respect (so few headlines about "boffins" in 2020!) can transfer into realms outside of epidemiology and virology, in particular in to climate science. The scientists have been screaming warnings for decades, let's all start listening.

Let's not forgot that in 2020 millions of people saved the lives of of countless people they don't know - simply by changing their behaviour. We need to continue that lesson. By changing our behaviour, individually, we can turn around the climate crisis.

In 2003 - 18 years ago! - the World Health Organization pointed out that *just getting people to do what we (and usually they too!) already know they should already be doing* will have far more effect on public health than any medical breakthrough.

But as leadership expert @JohnCMaxwell has pointed out

"The greatest gap in life is the gap between the knowing and the doing"

So while in 2020 most of you started following me because of my statistics and weird spaghetti graphs, in 2021 I hope to spend a bit more time on what's been my real passion - behaviour change.

So I'll be tweeting some more about that field, and helping us all - not least me - close that gap, the gap between the knowing and the doing.

2020 showed we *can* change, and we can make a difference to ourselves and others.

Let's keep it going!