My first substack for Independent SAGE. The failures of 2020: why didn’t the UK ‘Act Fast and Isolate’? open.substack.com/pub/independen…

The UK's COVID death toll could have been 50,000 - instead it was 235,000 - and the worst public health disaster of our lifetimes. We did not get the 'big calls right'...
READ:
'The failures of 2020: why didn’t the UK ‘Act Fast and Isolate’?' by Anthony Costello…

Four years on from our first wave, here is a brilliant examination by Anthony Costello of the failures of the UK pandemic response in 2020 - emphasising that we did NOT need hindsight to have responded differently.

open.substack.com/pub/independen…

End of this month will be 20 years at University of Oxford, Oxford Biology. Time flies!

When two pandemics intersect: very useful thread and key take home message.

New format Independent SAGE, Stephen Griffin on pandemic basics:

Hello!

Our live briefings may have stopped, but we haven't!

We've started a (free) Substack - subscribe now to get regular info about all aspects of the pandemic from Indie SAGE members :-)

open.substack.com/pub/independen…

Yesterday we declared a trade dispute over our fundamentally broken organisational culture and our employer's damaging approach to industrial relations which is adversely affecting our members' mental and physical health, safety, terms & conditions, and security of employment. 🧵

Important comparative review, findings of course not surprising to those following these matters.

Not now, surge in gastrointestinal illnesses, not now. (Don't say immunity debt. Seriously. The article doesn't. I am sure someone will).

theguardian.com/world/2024/mar…

If your envelope for #UCU GS/VP/NEC/Trustee elections is still on the worktop/in your bag, please do still post your votes as they may yet arrive by noon on Friday!

(I'm told replacement ballots for those whose papers didn 't arrive 1st time have return 1st class prepaid SAEs)

This is transformative philanthropy in a way that funding a building with ones name on could never be. Think of the lives transformed, the impact, the change. And all this, for the self evident value in higher education-it should be free for all.

Morning. Today is the last safe-as-in-safe posting date for UCU voting forms.

I'm giving Vicky Blake Vicky Blake UCU @vickyblake.bsky.social my first preference for Gen Sec, as are all the people at vickyblakeucu.uk/endorsements/, which I'd advise you to take a look at. #Vicky4GS

Spontaneous, persistent, T cell–dependent IFN-γ release in patients who progress to Long Covid

science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…