1/ . @jimalkhalili's Life Scientific on @BBCRadio4 this morning had a scientist (? @SirPaulNurse of @TheCrick ) saying:

"When [SARS-CoV-2 and the Covid-19 pandemic] arrived, we knew nothing about it."

Nonsense!

We knew a lot about Coronaviruses.
2/ We knew a lot about the immune system, how it interacts with pathogens, and how it can overreact to cause an acute (short term) overreaction (cytokine storms…); and about long-term autoimmune disease.

We knew a lot about treatments for autoimmune diseases.
3/ We knew a lot about vaccines and how they work. (Objections to sensible decisions - like extending the prime-boost interval - were based on the fallacy that "we know nothing…", and ignored decades of work on vaccination.)
4/ We knew a lot about behavioural science and how it could be applied to change behaviour.

We knew a lot more.

Sure, there was a lot we didn't know. But we knew a helluva lot!
5/ I know @SirPaulNurse knows this.

I know he meant that there was a great deal we didn't know, including how much of what we knew about very similar things would would apply to this pandemic.

I know it was a throwaway line in preparing a point.
6/ But I am fed up with this fallacy being repeated so often.

In this case the fact that it was a throwaway line meant it was accepted unchallenged.
7/ I'm sure Nurse didn't intend it as propaganda; but sneaking false premises through so people accept and believe them is a favourite tool of populist polemicists (like the evil man I shan't name who's been described as "nicotine-stained frog man".)
8/ But "we don't know…" became an excuse for procrastination, inaction, and delay.

We could and should have acted quicker, based on vast amounts of knowledge.
9/ This excuse - "we don't know [enough]" or "we're not certain" - was used too often as a pretext, and to justify ministerial lies that "we are following the science".

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More from @petermbenglish

14 Oct
What an appalling interview from Sajid Javid starting a few minutes ago on @BBCr4today.

He is clearly incompetent, way out of his depth. I've seldom heard a minister say so many stupid things in a single interview.
@BBCr4today health inequalities are NOT caused by an unequal distribution of GPs.
@BBCr4today How, exactly, are you fighting the virus? Why are mask mandates not in place and rigorously enforced on public transport, in shops and other places, and in schools? Why is health and safety in schools and workplaces not ensuring good ventilation / air filtration?
Read 6 tweets
3 Oct
The tories claim to be the economically competent.

So why do they give visas to very high earners while deporting/preventing entry of people prepared to work for low wages?
1/
I don't know what happened to tweet 2 which I sent just after tweet 1… Will try again. It will be tweet 3, now.
2 /
That said, it pains me to agree with Johnson, but we have exploited low-paid workers for far too long.

Care and health care workers, pluckers and pickers, cleaners… particularly jobs typically done by women…
3/
Read 11 tweets
22 Sep
1/ Regarding infections in schools, a colleague has pointed out that it is Department for Education directives that require schools to stay open, not PHE advice.

I am aware of this.
2/ Before I retired in January a complaint was made against me by the education sector for refusing to change my advice that a school or section of a school should close because of an outbreak of Covid-19 that was putting staff, other students, and their families at risk.
3/ The complaint went nowhere - I was giving the right public health advice, no matter how awkward it was.
Read 7 tweets
21 Sep
Gross incompetence on behalf of BBC?

Bad legal advice?

Surely it wasn't impossible to make full vaccination a condition of employment eg on H&S grounds?

"Strictly chaos as 'third professional dancer refuses vaccine'" metro.co.uk/2021/09/21/str… via @MetroUK
@MetroUK who are the three vaccine refuseniks?

If the BBC won't replace them now, the public should know, so we can vote them off ASAP.
@MetroUK is there anything that would prevent it being a condition of employment that Strictly Come Dancing #SCD competitors are fully vaccinated?
@AdamWagner1 @BarristerSecret @davidallengreen
Read 4 tweets
5 Sep
Maybe the JCVI decision does make sense. Thread.

I've revisited their terms of reference. They're all about cost-effectiveness.

gov.uk/government/gro…
They appear to have framed the benefits of vaccinating 12-15-yos exclusively in terms of the short term healthcare costs that would be avoided.

They appear not to have considered the wider benefits to children's.

Such as a reduction in disruption to education.
Such as distress when parents or grandparents get ill, can't work/earn due to Long Covid, or die.

Or the harm to the 1 in 7 children who get Long Covid, or the minority with permanent organ damage.
Read 13 tweets
30 Aug
We know SARS-CoV-2 can infect the brain.

So can measles, which occasionally causes SSPE - a progressive and invariably fatal brain disease, which typically becomes apparent years after measles infection. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subacute_…
About a century ago something - almost certainly virus - caused an epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephali…

How do we know that SARS-CoV-2 won't do something similar, possibly years after infection?

The answer is that we don't. It might do this.
That's one reason why I worry so much about the "children aren't at risk" messaging. It will be years before we will be able to say this with confidence.
Read 4 tweets

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