I did a quick spot of analysis on the UK's Eat Out to Help Out scheme... what was the impact of 50% discounts on dine-in meals?
Posted today at @ConversationEDU @ConversationUK. A few key points... 👇🏼

theconversation.com/eat-out-to-hel…

#CovidUK 1/ the policy gave people a 50% subsidy (up to £10) on meals on Mon-Wed during August. This *definitely* enticed more people to dine out – almost 2x previous Aug 2019 levels on relevant days.

(this is data from OpenTable)

Our team has put up a second working paper this week, this time looking at the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (eg lockdown) on the spread of #COVID19

with collaborators from @BlavatnikSchool @uvmlarnermed @EdinburghUni @OxUniMaths

(thread)

medrxiv.org/content/10.110… I think everyone has understood, at least intuitively, that countries with stricter lockdown can control the virus better.
But the big take home message here is about the *speed* of government response; the *timing* is at least as important, if not moreso...

2/4

I have been watching with some alarm as the UK and Australia respond to #covid19

Both countries have responded badly, although today the UK did a 180 turn.

So here is a thread for Aussies 🇦🇺 on why you should ignore the government. Don't wait for them to tell you to act...

1/ First up: the UK announced an approach of "herd immunity", where enough of the population is infected (and then immune) so as to provide a buffer to protect the vulnerable.

THIS IS NUTS, but Australia followed and it was in the press on the weekend
afr.com/policy/health-…

2/