A Sudden Death

…written a will? Where is it? If it is not obvious, who is your formal next-of-kin? And if that person is indisposed, who might stand in? Make sure someone knows what you want done. Do you want to be an organ donor? Do you want to be buried or cremated? Do you want a religious or non-religious ceremony? Where will the grave be or the ashes scattered? Is there a charity you would like to support as an alternative to people paying for flowers or gif… Continue reading

The COVID Chronicles – 2

…ies’ reporting of their own COVID-19 statistics.) Below are the daily COVID-19-related deaths.  Taking a global view of things, these two graphs tell us a great deal about the pandemic and about data collection. First, we are not really living a second wave of this pandemic; we only have that impression because in some countries from around May to September we were able – to a degree – to control the number of cases through social distancing measu… Continue reading

The COVID Chronicles – 15

…this with its political implications was published yesterday by my full-of-common-sense friend Filippa Lentzos in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Filippa picks apart the WHO team’s report, points out that the WHO hierarchy may not agree with it and lays bare the political stakes.    As if to muddy the waters, a study, published last week in the European Journal of Epidemiology, concluded that the virus responsible for COVID 19 might have b… Continue reading