38 years ago a woman in Coventry sent a letter to some scientists. That letter went on to be the most important in Alzheimer's research. Last year, I met Carol Jennings, who wrote it. 1/

thetimes.co.uk/article/e78c47…
Carol's letter was prompted by her dad. He had got Alzheimer's, far too early. So had some of his siblings. So, in fact, had a lot of people in her family. She was told Alzheimer's wasn't genetic; she didn't believe it. "Please contact me, if you think we should be of help.”

October 25, 2020, from Vallance diary: "PM meeting - begins to argue for letting it rip. Saying yes there will be more casualties but so be it - 'they have had a good innings'" It's important to note, says Vallance, "the next day he might have asked for no deaths at all"

If only as a real time bit of history from inside the room, I think more people should read Dominic Cummings' witness statement - there is a lot in there (115 pages), that is ill served by just looking at the drama and beef.

A few random snippets. 1/

covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/upl…
We start with some epigraphs. More documents at covid inquiry should have epigraphs

(I promise this will not be a mocking thread - there is really serious stuff in the document - but the epigraphs are great)

Because I think it's important to share what happens when you make a total tit of yourself and (nearly, thank god) fall for a scam, here is the embarrassing story of what happened when I clicked on this: Context. Like everyone, I think I'm not a total credulous fool. Extra context. I have had plenty of messages like this, not clicked on them, and thought, "silly scam". But, this time, I had literally just been thinking, "I was expecting a parcel". I clicked like an idiot.

82 years ago, while flying over the North Sea, a Dane called Thomas Sneum stepped onto the wing of his biplane, put a nozzle into the tank, and started to refuel it midair.

The tale of how he came to be here, and what he carried, is one of the great stories of WW2 derring do🧵 The mid-air refuelling was probably the 4th time he should have died that day (there was one more time to come). Really, though, he should have been caught by the Nazis long ago.

Paying for interviews is a tricky topic - sometimes people give their time and go to effort. But…

When it comes up I always think of the Facebook Republican Army.

In the late noughties, when Facebook was scary to old people rather than the place they post nostalgia memes…🧵 The FRA popped up. They were every middle class parents nightmare. It was run by mid 20s plumbers from an estate, who scoured Facebook to find the parties of nice teens to crash, and then do unspeakable things. Unspeakable:

Five star reviews of waitrose toilet roll

1. Does the (big) job 2. Luxurious waitrose quality on your bottom

One star reviews of Salisbury cathedral

1. Not very modern. 2. Has outreach program

One star reviews of Hadrian's wall

1. Didn't keep the scots out 2. Doesn't meet building regs

One star reviews of the north sea.

1. Too wet 2. Too northern

One star Ben Nevis reviews.

1. Too tall 2. Too small

Consumer advice thread.

I tweet the following as a cautionary tale, and advice I wish I'd known. Hopefully some people will find it useful.

But, the tl:dr version - don't use a travel intermediary to book a flight. 1/x Four months ago I went to skyscanner (excellent website), chose some flights, and clicked on buy. It took me through to lastminute.com and because I'm lazy I went through the process rather than going to the airline direct.

More than a year ago there was an oddity in covid testing in the south west. Anecdotally, people were testing positive on lateral flows, then being given the all clear by PCR. So many reports came in that, eventually, there was an investigation. 1/ thetimes.co.uk/article/studen… The culprit was identified. A lab was found to have given around 40,000 people the wrong result.

thetimes.co.uk/article/testin…

Musk is an impressive guy who has done incredible things. I would be an idiot to write him off. But here is my worry about prioritising blue ticks in search and replies.

It is (just) conceivable that media organisations like mine might pay. Great for me. Great for our egos 1/ Except, once I get beyond my ego, the main professional justification for twitter is what I read on it, not what I write. During covid, would Civil Service have paid for @kallmemeg to be promoted? Or @statsgeekclare? I doubt it.

At this stage this is just a level of either stupidity or basic ignorance that should disqualify you from talking about this subject permanently. The trial protocol wasn’t secret, none of this is new, and it did hit transmission - it just wasn’t tested in initial phase 3 1/x.

https://twitter.com/gbnews/status/1580290070397034497

How could you even design the protocol? The vaccine worked so well they only had eight positives who were vaccinated among the 40k participants.

History can do odd things to memory...

Apropos...

In January 2021 I wrote about how scientists were saying that the government, astrazeneca and Pfizer were being a bit over-cautious when they warned vaccines couldn't stop transmission. 1/5

thetimes.co.uk/article/what-w… This article was written on the back of this statement by JVT
gov.uk/government/new…

Guess whose boss decided there’s nothing happening in science, so he might as well be sent to sleep rough for 36 hours? (I’m queuing for the queen)

Britain appears to have taken the difficult and controversial decision that, on balance, it doesn't like swimming in poo. Now what?

How do we get less poo in our waters? Here's my "it's complicated" article

thetimes.co.uk/article/914e19… 1. The problem.

The original sin, the turd in Britain's water ointment, was Bazalgette. In 1858, as The Times put it, MPs were "forced by sheer stench" to solve the Thames poo problem.

So Bazalgette built a big pipe. But he allowed rainwater in. We mixed sewage and storm.

One horseman of the apocalypse is enough for anyone.

War has galloped into view; Pestilence is being ignored

Here's my piece on how cases have risen while we were looking elsewhere. 1/x

thetimes.co.uk/article/why-ar… It's not (largely) our fault. Focus on the minutiae of mask mandates and isolation ignores that this is happening everywhere.

This is a tale about patriotic cats.

In the 1980s the CIA released a document with the subject line "views on trained cats". Because what intelligence agency doesn't have views on trained cats? 1/x The thing about cats, from an espionage point of view, is that no one suspects a cat. Dogs, obviously. Dogs are always being used by one army or another. But who would recruit a cat?

(PIC: Sgt Stubby, the US army's most highly-decorated dog)

This is the tale of a snail. Because today seems like a good day for a snail tale.

In 1846, a snail had a bad day. It was a desert snail, Helix desertorum, and it was picked up by British collector Charles Lamb in Egypt, who decided it needed to be seen in London. 1/x On the way, in conditions not terribly desert-like, it was declared dead.