It's publication day for the paperback of How to Expect the Unexpected. It's about predicting the future. @theAliceRoberts called it "Fascinating and fun." If you've enjoyed my insights on here, do me a favour: get yourself a copy. https://t.co/byAwRJ47Wt

Unfortunate choice of words from South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus describing an eye gouging incident: “The optics weren’t great”!

Et in Arcadia ego. https://t.co/iHJJPXuvjk

Persistent fatigue was prominent in children and young people up to 24 months after Covid infection. Fatigue does not decline and affects around 40% of those infected. This is a huge public health finding. https://t.co/R6sH5zBe4Z

Was it by having no kids with chronic illness at the school? Must let everyone else know how they managed that. I hate these sorts of stories. https://t.co/fub35Q5Qyj

@Kit_Yates_Maths Thank you, Kit - and for all the immensely important work you & all at @IndependentSage did throughout xx

Beautiful day on campus at the University of Bath for the kick off meeting of our GW4 mathematical biology mentoring programme.

“My NHS colleagues and I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Johnson no longer mentions them at all.” Hard hitting and necessary on the government’s covid complacency from @doctor_oxford https://t.co/3XHQmC0CWp

"Boris Johnson took four days off from official government business during a key period in the UK’s Covid preparation when the NHS was bracing to be “overwhelmed” by the virus." When we most needed a leader we, instead, had this guy. https://t.co/qCSuPJCFqs

Matt Frei, "The covid 19 pandemic was the greatest challenge the British state has faced since the second world war" "It was one they failed" "They failed to learn the lessons from other countries, and the lack of urgency and attention to detail" "Led to 10s of thousands of

@Kit_Yates_Maths I found this one utterly mind blowing. Especially when we hear “Covid is mild” “baseline levels” “building immunity”. These are PR phrases purposefully chosen. They choose to keep truth narratives out of the press re Covid harms as its suits far too many inc the general public!

Moss can survive 9 months in space! Plus, scientists have worked out why coffee that’s passed through the gut of a civet, tastes so good. Today I was on Inside Science with @whippletom & @Kit_Yates_Maths, chatting about my fave science news. https://t.co/dn8NGdRvd5

🧵 Covid Inquiry Module 2 report published and the misrepresentations and rewriting has already begun For instance framing the findings as recommending locking down soon and for longer Report says earlier effective action leads to a shorter lockdown or even no full lockdown

Really lovely to be back on BBC Inside Science again today talking about record breaking and climate change (as well as moss surviving in space) with Tom Whipple and Caroline Steel. Listen here https://t.co/oF9q5Fk5V4

"Professor Susan Michie, Director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London, stated that the “initial secrecy surrounding SAGE’s membership, minutes and reports” was the “main reason” for the formation of Independent SAGE." 4/4

"This was an independent group of scientists set up to monitor and assess UK strategy and to “provide open and transparent advice about public health issues relating to the Covid pandemic”." 3/4

"In the spring of 2020, Sir David King, Government Chief Scientific Adviser from October 2000 to December 2007, responded to the situation by convening Independent SAGE." 2/4

Independent SAGE is mentioned in the report of module 2 of the UK Covid Inquiry. "Much comment and expertise existed in the public domain, with Independent SAGE (see below) being one of the most visible commentators." 1/4

Boris Johnson "should have appreciated sooner" that this was a crisis that needed "prime ministerial leadership to inject urgency into the response". https://t.co/EJTfBdJMzO 3/3

By the end of January 2020, it should have been clear that the virus posed a "serious and immediate threat" and "urgent planning" should have started, it says. Instead, February 2020 is described as a “lost month” with life continuing almost as normal across the country. 2/3

The report on module 2 of the UK covid inquiry heavily criticises a "lack of urgency" at this time, saying that governments in all four UK nations "did not take the pandemic seriously enough until it was too late”. 1/3