I've taken the various bits of analysis and visualisation I've done with #RStats in relation to COVID-19 data, tidied the code up a bit, updated it using the latest data and put it all in one place:.

RT @InstAlcStud: In our latest blog, Colin Angus (@VictimOfMaths) looks at why alcohol deaths continue to rise in England, despite plateaui….

RT @TomHCalver: NEW: How baby boomers became the least healthy generation. Until recently, bad habits were concentrated in the young. Now,….

RT @DrSarahEJackson: New paper finds 1 in 8 adults (~7 million) in Great Britain in 2023 were finding it difficult to manage financially an….

RT @P_H_S_Official: New research by @sheffielduni commissioned by PHS has found that minimum pricing policies for tobacco could help reduce….

Also, I'm not posting much here on this hellsite anymore. If you want more health policy/graph/cake/bird content, I'm over on the other channel.

. we also find that it would increase tobacco industry profits. This could be at least partially recouped by government if the minimum price was introduced alongside an increase in tobacco duties. You can read the full report here:.

We've published a new report, commissioned by @P_H_S_Official, modelling the potential impact of a minimum price for tobacco in Scotland. We find that it would reduce smoking rates, save lives and narrow inequalities. But.

RT @alcohol_review: "The brew, which carries an abv of 5% in Europe, was relaunched in the UK by Asahi in 2020 at an abv of 4%. However, it….

RT @SARG_SCHARR: *New paper* published in @ijdrugpolicy looking at trends in alcohol expenditure among risky drinkers in England 2014–2023.….

RT @DrSarahEJackson: New paper documents changes in the amount adult risky drinkers spend on alcohol. ⬇️ around the start of the pandemic….

After adjusting for inflation, the prices of beer, wine and spirits have fallen during the cost-of-living crisis. Fruit and fish are the only other food and drink categories that haven't got more expensive in real terms since January 2021.

And here's a (hopefully less broken) link to the paper:.

Huge credit to my @SARG_SCHARR colleague Damon Morris for leading this work, and all of our other colleagues who contributed their time and effort. If you think this sounds interesting, we've got a whole project to evaluate the alcohol duty reforms:.

There's also a nice commentary from @MarkRobinson_Oz and Jaithri Ananthapavan about the role that our modelling has played in alcohol policy debates.

. We find that this would have a substantial impact - averting almost 75,000 deaths over 20 years. This really highlights just how big the cost that we, as a society, pay for the exceptionalism that keeps cider taxes so much lower than all other alcohol. .

. (although the tax gap is so large that it would take 40 years of this before taxes on cider and other alcohol were equivalent). We also look at what would happen if we just closed the gap now - taxing all alcohol at the same rate within each strength band. .

. The biggest wrinkle in the new system (panel B below) is the continuing low tax on cider. We estimate that if we increased cider taxes by 2% above inflation each year we would save a further 8,257 lives over 20 years.

. Our best estimate is that the reforms will reduce alcohol consumption by 0.3% and avert 2,300 deaths over 20 years. But we also look at further options to improve the new system from a public health perspective. .

We've got a cool new paper out today in @TheLancetPH modelling the impact of the reforms to alcohol taxes that happened in the UK last summer. We find that broadly the reforms are a step in the right direction, but only a small step.

Some useful statistics on alcohol consumption and harm from Ireland here:.