Another exercise in critical evaluation of statistics from Adam. Short version: when a study looks at a lot of related outcomes and finds one pointing in the opposite direction to all the others, there's a good chance it's a statistical phantom.

Here's one of many reasons not to listen to charlatans who still bang on about how Sweden protected people from COVID-19 by ignoring it. If they wanted to push for the Swedish approach to healthcare or paid sick leave, they might be worth listening to. But that's never what they mean.

Still thinking about this. There was a study in Milan that showed installing air filtration improved attendence for less than 11 euros per day of pupil absence prevented. I wonder how much they've paid consultants for coming up with these edicts. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Thanks to this article, we know that Watson & Crick didn't steal Franklin's data, although Watson boasted that he did. Long past time to stop amplifyng his boast. And to remember that Franklin's article was published alongside Watson's and Crick's.

So SARS-CoV-2 rise that looked worrying a fortnight ago may have been a flash in the pan but seasonal influenza's coming in early. If what's going on in Japan is any indication, this year's winter flu is going to be a bad one. It's vaccine and respirator mask time. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A really good explanation of the difference between scientific consensus and ideological dogma, and on why people who find the former inconvenient try to dismiss it as the latter.

Quick update on Covid in England - hospital data showing that the latest significant Covid wave is - thankfully - on its way down. This chart by @bob-hawkins.bsky.social and his substack bhawkins3.substack.com/p/covid-situ...

Lookks like covid's back with a vengeance. Oh well, it's been a nice year - almost - without too much of it. Time to get the FFP2 masks out and get vaccinated if at all possible. Thanks to @chrischirp.bsky.social for keeping an eye on it. christinapagel.substack.com/p/england-is...

"I remember when children were sent home from school with headlice. Now, they’re encouraged to attend school with a dangerous virus." A child's 2nd infection is more likely to cause long covid than their 1st. The 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc don't bear thinking about. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Please don't take this seriously. The functional unit of a vaccine is the antigen. A child can handle up to a million at a time. Each bacterium living in the human gut has several thousand. No vaccination has more than 200. This is a man who has never taken his own children to be vaccinated.

I suppose I should be happy that the emergency test actually worked this time but why did it need to come in the voice of Elon Musk's robot girlfriend? And can anyone tell me whether the Welsh it lapsed into was as bad as I think it was? pretty sure that's not how to pronounce 'Cymraeg'!

As recommended by the JCVI nearly two years ago and as the USA has been doing for about 30 years. Better late than never. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Saw a copy of this in St Panras Station WH Smiths yesterday. A spectral chap called Richard kept tapping the subtitle and saying, "You mean the LATEST rise and fall of the House of York". Then he demanded a horse.

If it smells like a quack, it quacks like a quack and it ducks like a quack when challenged, it's probably working for RFK Jr. It's frustrating becauseimportant questions around autism going unanswered while these quacks pretend vaccines have anything to do with it. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The day the Beeb broke Betteridge's law of headlines. Is a spade a spade? Is the pope a catholic? Is this a picture of a man who can't be trusted with a dead dolphin, his babysitter or decisions that will affect millions of people? Same answer. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Interesting to get a view of his home and family life. There's so much information about his work on vaccines but far less about Hilleman outside Merck.

Looks like our few months of respite from covid waves is about to end. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Thanks to @chrischirp.bsky.social for keeping track of the little so-and-so. christinapagel.substack.com/p/latest-cov...

Tickets prepped for tomorrow's trip to speak at Pint of Science in Colchester. I'll be talking cheerful subjects like smallpox, rabies and mRNA vaccines right in the footsteps of Boudicca. pintofscience.co.uk/event/the-in...

A couple of days before I talk about how chickens in Paris and self-inoculation with cholera led us to modern vaccination. Livestream link below.

Nearly 80 since the precursor to the measles vaccine was isolated from an infirmary full of semi-conscious children in Boston and a crazy old man thinks the sick kids were the best part of the story. Some days I really miss the enlightenment.

Here's me pontificating about the 1918 pandemic, the vaccines made by a brilliant virologist (and terrible poet) and other matters influenzal . Many thanks to @rmatheists.bsky.social for hosting it.

I'll be spending the evening talking in Reading. Typing that makes me expect someone to say 'shhh' but I shall persevere with the story of how Pearl Kendrick and a Great Depression-hit city invented a whooping cough vaccine we still use today. www.meetup.com/chalk-scribb...

Getting into practice to talk about whooping cough vaccines in Lincoln on Tuesday. Always nice to discuss the reason why millions of children haven't died. lincolnartscentre.co.uk/event/cafe-s...

This sums up how I feel about... well, everything at the moment. All in 10 minutes. Thank you @writereralk.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Heading to Yorkshire to talk influenza with Beverley Cafe Sci tomorrow. If someone could distract the train gremlins, it would be much appreciated. cafescientifique.org/uk/beverley

Looking forward to heading back to Abingdon next week. Hope the ATOM crowd isn't too tired of my talks by now!

How Vaccines Work is finally available in the USA and Canada. So far, paperback and kindle editions only. Audio version to come. It's the sort of book that RFK Jr really doesn't want you to read. www.amazon.com/dp/B0DS19PXHF

Finished last year by making fun of Del Bigtree with @thinkthisthrough.bsky.social and @alhill.bsky.social. What else can you do with his fantasy that Bill Gates is going to tell him he's a genius for not being vaccinated except point and laugh? www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mv9...

How one popular movement gave us the whooping cough vaccine and another one scared us away from it and gave us our whooping cough back. I’ll try to make sense of it at the Barbican Library 12:30 Tue 8th Oct. Free tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whooping-c...

How did a slave, a witchfinder, an aeronautical pioneer, a tanner's son and countless scientists save our lives? Answers between the covers: www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/david...