Anjana Ahuja
@anjahuja
Followers
8,592
Following
2,512
Media
34
Statuses
12,504
Writing mostly science, mostly for @FT . Wrote Spike w/ @JeremyFarrar , Shortlisted 2022 @TheOrwellPrize & @RoyalSociety Book Prize. Never knowingly underbold.
London
Joined January 2013
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
Kendrick
• 613961 Tweets
Drake
• 537263 Tweets
Rio Grande do Sul
• 263152 Tweets
Madonna
• 185138 Tweets
Ole Miss
• 109440 Tweets
Nicki
• 93839 Tweets
Sony
• 81522 Tweets
Star Wars
• 64680 Tweets
Porto Alegre
• 62192 Tweets
ウズベキスタン
• 42734 Tweets
Hope Hicks
• 37912 Tweets
Starc
• 30474 Tweets
#الاتحاد_ابها
• 26339 Tweets
#David69
• 24550 Tweets
الوحدة
• 22130 Tweets
Helldivers 2
• 21354 Tweets
ブライアン
• 20350 Tweets
Luton
• 18852 Tweets
日本優勝
• 17494 Tweets
Henry Cuellar
• 17241 Tweets
Mark Hamill
• 16290 Tweets
Keyshia
• 14502 Tweets
Lizzo
• 10941 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
Utterly thrilled and honoured at our shortlisting for this prestigious book prize.
@JeremyFarrar
and I will be onstage at
@TheCrick
tonight, discussing
#Spike
with
@emahase_
@absw
#ukcsj22
We're proud to have two brilliant books on this year's
@royalsociety
#SciBooks
Prize shortlist:
@JeremyFarrar
&
@anjahuja
's bestselling
#Spike
, and Nick Davidson's geological marvel
#TheGreywacke
. Huge congratulations to all authors!
0
4
2
10
5
52
I know I’m being slow but…100 people in Downing St were invited to *that* gathering. Only 30-40 came.
If you were working in Downing St IN A PANDEMIC and thought it was genuinely a ‘work meeting’, you would definitely attend, right? And yet 60-70 ppl thought, ‘Nah, I’m ok’.
50
309
2K
It’s happening! The pace of vaccine research is absolutely staggering: back in May, when I wrote about deliberate infection, it was just a crazy idea.
By
@clivecookson
London to host world’s first human challenge trials for
#COVID19
via
@financialtimes
121
447
891
Blimey! You’d have hoped that someone at
@thetimes
would have asked: where are the women? My first
@FT
column on the Wuhan virus was on 8 Jan 2020, before it was sequenced.
Thank you
@janemerrick23
for amplifying our voices. I am honoured to be in this company.
Despite me being the first journalist in the world to break the story of the Omicron variant, in the days that followed lots of people on Twitter went “here are some great accounts of scientists/journalists to follow” & they were all men. This is so tiring
220
2K
11K
12
142
894
Cannot believe that, 16 months into the pandemic, I am writing this
@ftopinion
column. Freedom Day beckons but only for
#COVID19
.
Monday is surrender day, not freedom day, in England
via
@financialtimes
21
251
655
Two thoughts.
1. Do her advisers hate her? Why are they letting her go out and embarrass herself like this?
2. What would be the reaction if Diane Abbott had screwed up this badly?
Repeat: the problem with Dorries is nothing to do with her sex or class. It’s that she quite literally doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
750
4K
20K
41
126
595
Wish I could understand what the actual
#Covid19UK
plan was, because right now it’s looking like herd immunity. Which means avoidable deaths. All very well
@sajidjavid
begging for arms, but people have nostrils too, and they are getting infected.
35
108
448
My thoughts tonight:
1. Without free/heavily subsidised LFTs, low income households may suffer disproportionately. The health opposite of levelling up.
2. This model of ‘living with Covid’ lacks compassion for the vulnerable
3. Respect to JVT for getting out in time.
No amount of diplomatic crafted messaging by our medical advisers can avoid the reality that by standing alongside these new government policies they risk increasing illness, deaths, health inequalities and new variants.
164
1K
4K
13
133
422
I think this is a mistake
@British_Airways
. Wearing a mask on a plane is no big deal. With rising rates and possibly waning vaccine immunity, this is the wrong message at the wrong time. You could lead by example and set standards to protect passengers and staff.
From 16 March, our face mask policy is changing.
Where we’re clear the destination you’re travelling to doesn’t require a face mask on board, it will become optional 😷 ✈️
Please continue to respect fellow passengers' mask preferences in these instances.
#BritishAirways
5K
4K
20K
22
51
410
My daughter and her friends guessed what their mock papers would be. Some chose to look up the paper in advance, others not (so it felt like a real exam) .
Just one small reason why mocks cannot be a sole, fair measure of achievement.
#ExamResults
2
28
386
This is just what I needed. What a beautiful couple.
The world is still full of lovely and good things.
A doctor and nurse from St Thomas’ who had to cancel their wedding due to the
#coronavirus
outbreak have got married in the hospital’s historical chapel.
Read about Jann and Annalan’s special day and why it meant so much to them to tie the knot at work
515
2K
19K
3
34
383
Absolutely heartbreaking testimony
Testimony from the owners of the shop where George Floyd was arrested.
Awful to hear the story of exactly how it happened, the absurd context for his arrest, right before he was killed.
#BlackLivesMatter
50
3K
5K
1
147
341
Good god, this is astonishing, beautiful, terrifying journalism on what is happening in
#India
and
#Kashmir
So much respect for
@RanaAyyub
and others brave enough to tell the story.
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents himself as an ascetic economic visionary. He is also a hero of anti-Muslim bigots.
174
2K
3K
15
95
309
Yeah, whatever.
My teen son was racially abused on way to school this week. Woman screamed that Brexit would be great for getting rid of immigrants like him.
Proud to say he replied in Spanish.
There has probably never been less racism in Britain but broadcasters have probably never given more attention to it.
438
360
3K
25
48
278
Kinda proud to have written this column though definitely did not foresee things panning out like this 😔
#Covid_19
10
38
212
Like
@dgurdasani1
on
@BBCRadio4
just now, I’m struggling to grasp 🇬🇧 reluctance on child vaccination given
@MHRAgovuk
approval, v high transmission,spectre of
#LongCovid
& school interruptions in early 2022. Yet 4th doses being considered for adults.
14
52
199
This is why I’ve been off the
@FT
pages recently.
Both exciting and scary. Unbelievably, there are still new stories to tell.
@JeremyFarrar
@ProfileBooks
#COVID19
#SpikeBook
Insider's account of pandemic for
@ProfileBooks
-
@wellcometrust
director Sir
@JeremyFarrar
has teamed up with
@anjahuja
to write Spike – The Virus v. The People: The Inside Story
(£)
0
2
14
24
29
192
Dangerous nonsense. The virus was unknown last year. Immunity might be incomplete & transient. Young fit people being struck down. Long term health effects unknown. I too want life to be normal but the precautionary principle for now.
@RobertCourtneyX
Actually, If they and their kids get the virus and make a full recovery, as most will, they will be protecting the elderly and vulnerable. The more immunity we have in the country the better.
689
11
192
11
49
169
For my latest
@ftopinion
column, I look into
#TESCREAL
, a term coined by
@xriskology
&
@timnitGebru
. It’s a mix of futuristic beliefs driving some big names in tech &
#AI
- and it usefully sheds light on where we’re at.
8
71
155
Also hard to believe, given the lack of diversity, that this photo was taken in the 21st century.
Future generations might find it hard to believe that this photo was taken at the White House in the midst of a pandemic that had by that stage killed more than 200,000 Americans.
3K
19K
68K
5
22
155
What an absolute mess.
EU blocks UK scientists from €95bn Horizon research programme
15
71
150
OMG. Have been shortlisted several times but never won. It means an awful lot to be recognised by such an amazing bunch of peers. A real honour for me and
@ftopinion
#ABSWawards21
@GrahamLawton
@newscientist
@heidiledford
@JoePinkstone
@MailOnline
@JuanitaBawagan
@sciencefocus
@debmackenzie1
@whippletom
@thetimes
@KamranAbbasi
@bmj_latest
@anjahuja
@FT
@EWRCarr
@TheEconomist
Our
#ABSWawards21
winner of Opinion Piece or Editorial of the Year is
@anjahuja
in
@FT
for . The judges said: “The author doesn’t claim that their article changed policy, but it absolutely would have carried influence.” Congratulations!
2
1
15
37
5
139
@NatWorldPhoto
@chrischirp
Without isolation pay, which is ending, low-paid workers may feel they cannot afford to isolate, even if they have symptoms (which will cost to test). They are more likely to live in crowded housing in communities with lower 💉 uptake. Risk for spread.
4
26
133
I knew it would come but the character assassination of scientists like Neil Ferguson is still disturbing. Nobody is above scrutiny but they are working with shifting data under unimaginable pressure. Forecasts are about enabling poor scenarios to be averted, not fulfilled.
11
30
120
A consequence of not regarding infection with Sars-Cov-2 as a net harm, as many other countries did.
We will be dealing with the health fallout from the pandemic - in Long Covid, mental health, and obesity - for a long time.
13
42
133
1
34
117
Can attest. The virus has reached our home, despite WFH, kids out of school & uni since before Xmas, shopping mostly online and exercising outdoors at quiet times. No Xmas/NY mixing.
Now wondering a) if aerosols play bigger role & b) why NHS not testing asymptomatics?
Please stay at home as COVID-19 is running amok in London and it really is getting desperately bad. No long, eloquent and well referenced tweet I'm afraid, just the reflections of a busy and tired ICU consultant. Worst that I've seen it in my 20 odd years by a cataclysmic margin
157
3K
9K
38
25
120
People are ‘pro-lockdown’ in the same way that surgeons are pro-amputation: it’s never a first choice but a last resort to avoid the worst.
#Covid19UK
2
27
117
If you are a
@nationaltrust
member, please vote by 28 oct. It literally takes one minute.
We can’t sit by and watch as more opaque ‘grassroots’ groups, agitating for a culture war, undermine our institutions. As with all elections, our votes give us collective power. 💪🏽
2/. There are various ways of voting but you can do it online and if your main aim is to BLOCK the laughably named “Restore Trust” candidates the quickest and easiest way is to tick the Quick Vote option which supports the National Trust Leadership preferences.
They are
10
36
83
8
69
118
This weekend marks exactly two years since I first wrote about a mystery viral pneumonia sickening 59 in Wuhan.
150,000 lives now lost in U.K. as I write in
@ftopinion
I never expected such suffering to be normalised in affluent economies.
4
53
112
My latest on the dreaded
#Omicron
, and why it’s difficult to know how much to dread it.
Also, how travel bans are a poor but showy substitute for the hard graft of everyday infection control - & it’s beyond time to vax the 🌎
7
42
114
Well! Just got a text from the hospital where my son was born, inviting me to book a covid vaccine for him there.
An excellent development, should be rolled out nationally (or allow walk-ins)
Why is it taking so long to vaccinate 12-15 year olds? Infection rates are climbing fast. Why can’t we take them to a walk-in venue?
#VaccinesWork
15
5
40
2
18
112
Unsparing by
@RoryStewartUK
“Johnson often compares himself to Pericles on the grounds that they both enjoy good speeches, democratic engagement, big infrastructure and fame. But Pericles built the Parthenon, not the Emirates Cable Car.”
Some of my thoughts on Boris Johnson: with a review of The gambler, by Tom Bower in this week’s
@TheTLS
315
1K
4K
1
13
101
This is the trouble: it never needed to to be world-beating. We did not need to assert our sovereign superiority over anyone with our test track and trace system.
It only needed to work.
Boris Johnson last month: "We have growing confidence that we will have a test, track and test operation that will be world-beating and yes it will be in place by June 1".
Independent SAGE group of scientists: "Test, track & trace system is not fit for purpose."
34
424
675
3
33
95
I’ve been wanting to write this piece for *ages*. Could awarding grants by lottery be fairer than using peer review?
@BritishAcademy_
and
@NERCscience
are giving it a go. And not everyone’s happy. My latest
@ftopinion
col. Feat.
@jameswilsdon
&
@HetanShah
8
34
91
In case you’re wondering why 🇬🇧 gov has thrown a distracting curveball over travel from France, I’m sure it’s nothing to with our book Spike, by
@JeremyFarrar
and me, extracted in
@thetimes
from today.
The first of our exclusive extracts from Sage adviser Jeremy Farrar’s new book, Spike — The Virus v the People: The Inside Story
2
12
25
3
36
92
Not sure it’s even at the stage of being looked at by
@MHRAgovuk
, even though it is being considered by
@EMA_News
.
I feel sorry for parents denied the option to protect their young ones. Also need a 🇬🇧 decision on 2nd doses for teens.
As country after country starts the rollout of vaccines for kids 5-11, the U.K. doesn’t even give parents the option to make a choice for their own kids & family situation. I’m sure we will get there but prob months after everyone else. And when kids have already been infected.
246
871
3K
9
33
94
I don’t understand why 🇬🇧 is knowingly risking mass teen infection amid
#DeltaVariant
uncertainty.
I know fit and healthy 12-15 yo’s who’d like to stay that way by getting age-approved
#CovidVaccine
as in other countries. Baffling that 🇬🇧 parents/kids not being given the choice.
“Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: "Regardless of whether you're young, fit and healthy, these harrowing stories really show that Covid-19 can affect anyone.” So why aren’t all 12-15 year olds being offered vaccination then, Sajid?
53
478
2K
5
32
82
My latest for
@ftopinion
on the insanity of leaving HorizonEurope, how 🇬🇧 gov policy is slowly destroying British science & why academics are leaving.
#Science
via
@financialtimes
5
45
87
This has interesting implications for the principles of ‘policing by consent’ and the test of reasonableness.
The govt is defending someone who broke the lockdown rules, in the eyes of the majority of the public.
1
15
83
I’m on
#UniversityChallenge
tonight, mum!
Here’s my
@FT
column what it’s like for a superfan to get the call-up. And big thanks to fab teammates
@helenarney
@marksilcox
&
@Tweetisaurus
Plus, first reader comment is ‘chef’s kiss’…
via
@ft
8
14
79
Thrilled to get this
@absw
award.
It means a lot. Not just for me & colleagues
@ftopinion
but for the wider cause of getting science into the political, social & cultural conversation.
We need to talk more about the difficult issues that matter.
Whether undocumented asylum seekers should be deported or not is a political & ethical issue. In
@anjahuja
's Award Winning Opinion Piece, she asks if scientists should lend their expertise in bone, dental and DNA testing to help detect adults masquerading as children
#abswawards
5
6
32
21
15
81
About to freeze my bum off to watch my son will play footie alongside team-mates of different faiths and backgrounds, and I feel grateful today for the lovely young people in this great capital city who choose love over hate and unity over division. ⚽️ ❤️
2
10
79
Publication Day.
I would like to be excited, and I kind of am, but not without guilt.
#Spike
is the inside story of 🇬🇧 pandemic response - of how 130,000 died. Tens of thousands could have been saved by more timely, coordinated decision-making.
#Covid19UK
This is why I’ve been off the
@FT
pages recently.
Both exciting and scary. Unbelievably, there are still new stories to tell.
@JeremyFarrar
@ProfileBooks
#COVID19
#SpikeBook
24
29
192
10
19
78
You can see the attempt to rewrite history now. The dead and bereaved are being erased. It is shocking. That’s partly why
@JeremyFarrar
and I wrote Spike.
Updated paperback out now.
As excellent as ever on the NHS situation, but this piece also raises a more general issue: the history of the pandemic is in dire danger of being rewritten. We're seeing this in the stories being spun about the "scientific errors" that motivated lockdown.
3
46
103
1
32
78
That press conference was as good as it can be in the uncertain circs. Many questions eg closing schools, were answered clearly and with reasons. UK govt is fortunate to have Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance advising - and that Johnson is deferring to the experts.
#Covid_19
5
26
73
I love the
@sciencemuseum
. I raised my kids in its galleries. But, by taking sponsorship from the pro-coal Adani conglomerate for a 2023
#climate
gallery, it has fallen prey to ‘cultural carbon capture’ & green washing.
By me, for
@ftopinion
#COP26
1
26
73
Cool cool cool to hear my column 👇🏽on
#JCVI
& teen vaccination read out on
@BBCr4today
and credited to some imposter called Anjara…
A generation of young people is at risk from the UK’s latest Covid experiment
7
22
73
Quite something to hear
@MPIainDS
on
@BBCr4today
sounding as if his real enemies are hospital docs & public health officials rather than a pandemic virus.
👏🏽 to
@rupert_pearse
for countering this ‘inversion of reality’ (my new favourite phrase)
3
9
74
I reckon it’s 80-90 per cent masks on the London Overground today. Much higher than of late. The message is getting through.
#OmicronVariant
3
5
62
I think the headline is pretty self-explanatory on this one, as we square up to another surge. My latest for
@ftopinion
Main message: don’t ignore but mitigate.
Living with Covid does not mean pretending it no longer exists
1
33
62
I remembered this morning - again, in our book - that the first clinical paper
@TheLancet
published 24 Jan 2020, on family who got sick after Wuhan visit, showed a relative excreting virus but with NO symptoms.
Asymptomatic spread was,literally, in the air from late Jan 2020.
Something is not sitting right in the revisionist amnesia about asymptomatic spread.
In our book Spike,
@JeremyFarrar
and I detail a top-level teleconference on *27 Jan 2020* that aired suggestion of developing diagnostic tests for asymptomatic spreaders.
1
12
33
5
30
62
👏🏽. Taking the knee when the gesture is ‘universally understood’ , as
@SteveBakerHW
suggested on
@BBCr4today
he would do, comes at no personal cost.
It is those who risked and knelt because it was the right thing to do, the boos ringing in their ears, who earn my respect.
Pitiful. Steve Baker and other
#Conservatives
now praising England’s football team for taking the knee, now speaking out against those who booed them. Nothing to do with principle or leadership all to do with piling in when they see the direction of public opinion.
236
1K
7K
0
10
59
Pinch me please.
#Spike
has been picked by Kazuo Ishiguro as one of his top books of the year. 🎉🎉🎉
@JeremyFarrar
@ProfileBooks
The best books of 2021, chosen by guest authors - what an honour to be selected by such an icon of creative writing
@KazuoIshiguro6
& alongside
@Elif_Safak
& so many amazing books of 2021.
@anjahuja
@ProfileBooks
1
9
44
5
3
58
I despair. If you don’t want ppl to go, then shut pubs and restaurants. That’s what
#WhateverItTakes
means.
This is an unfolding public health catastrophe. We know enough about the virus now to know that it’s the confusing messaging around
#COVID19
that will cost lives.
“The mixing in pubs and restaurants… needs to stop.”
Sir Patrick Vallance says that unless everyone - young and old - start social distancing, “it doesn’t have the effect.” Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warns that healthy young people are also susceptible to the illness.
300
780
1K
2
29
56
Yes we won!! It was worse watching than taking part!
Thanks to
@helenarney
@Tweetisaurus
@marksilcox
for an amazing experience and hope we did
@imperialcollege
proud. And to
@amolrajan
and the production team for making it such an enjoyable experience.
#UniversityChallenge
8
2
56
Very painful listening to
@MattHancock
on
@BBCRadio4
saying, more or less, that the only people who should get tested are those who are will test positive. Surely we should be in a position of being able to give out tests like sweets?
#Covid19UK
12
9
54
This is shocking. One of the lessons of the pandemic was that 🇬🇧, whether through a sense of exceptionalism or ignorance, failed to learn from experts in other countries. One ethicist described the blindness as ‘a form of racism’.
#ICYMI
: The Home Office declined to explain why its new 'High Potential Individual' visa scheme, aimed at attracting talent to come work in the UK, excludes people who studied at university in:
- Africa
- Caribbean
- Latin America
- South Asia
Full list:
23
431
854
1
13
52
Neil Ferguson should not have broken
#lockdown
. But while a fine scientist is thrown under a bus, don’t get distracted from the *real* story of the moment.
UK death toll from virus becomes highest in Europe via
@financialtimes
2
30
51
If Horizon goes, it will be another incalculably stupid move for 🇬🇧. Losing access to this EU-wide research programme will be a severe threat to this country’s future knowledge base, prosperity and wellbeing.
UK’s Brexit losses more than 178 times bigger than trade deal gains
37
672
1K
2
26
50
OMG!!!
Just saw that
#Spike
is
@thetimes
Science Book of the Year!
🎉🎉🎉
Huge thanks to the brilliant
@whippletom
and colleagues for serialising. 🙏🏽 to
@ProfileBooks
and, of course,
@JeremyFarrar
, who has been a clear and honest voice through
#COVID19
, both on and off Sage.
Special mention to
@JeremyFarrar
&
@anjahuja
for
#SPIKE
, Times Science Book of the Year;
@JacRiding
for
#Hogarth
, Sunday Times Art Book of the Year and
@janicehallett
for
#TheAppeal
, Sunday Times Art Book of the Year. 💥💥💥
1
1
9
6
5
49
Just booked 2nd
#COVID
vaccine for teen son, to protect his health & so we can go to Spain for half-term (over-12s need 2doses)
He said thank you.
Have told him he will need a mask in school from tomorrow.
He said ok.
Teenagers: just getting on with stuff❤️ ❤️ ❤️
1
2
49
Good move. I hope others follow suit.
New: Cambridge University is announcing today that it plans to offer all undergraduate and postgraduate students living in college accommodation a weekly test for SARS-CoV-2, even if they show no symptoms.
21
203
670
3
15
47
We will look back at the handling of this pandemic, especially of kids in schools, with disbelief and anger. I cannot view the mass infection of schoolchildren with a vaccine-preventable disease as anything other than unethical.
A literally unmitigated policy failure.
Yikes, just 2 weeks into term, over 100,000 kids in England are off school with confirmed or suspected Covid
An educational & health policy crisis, no?
Why didn't England adopt masks, ventilation & other measures? Why so late offering vax to adolescents?
106
613
1K
1
13
48
OH MY GOD NO…
Every doctor, every biologist, everyone with any grasp of antibiotic resistance and its development, just clutching their heads and screaming OH MY GOD NO...
2K
13K
63K
2
12
47
For the love of God.
Listening to health minister on Today saying let’s wait before Plan B.
The one thing we should know is that if you already think you might need Plan B, you do it now. Are we actually waiting for 100k+/day?
indoor😷 +💉 + WFH today better than Nov lockdown
3
18
47
The
#PfizerBioNTech
vaccine: developed in Germany, by Turkish immigrants, tested in Brazil, US, SA and Argentina, manufactured in Belgium, approved in the UK.
What a moment for the world.
My
@ftopinion
on
via
@financialtimes
1
12
44
Agreed.
If it was
@UKLabour
presiding over sudden business closures, ruined family Xmases, crony deals, dodgy spads, 20mile lorry queues, & imminent food and medicine shortages - all after ennobling a rich Russian - there would, rightly, be demands for resignations.
Amazing to think of how many businesses have been forced to shut, often with stock going to waste, and people suddenly deprived of an income and not a peep out of Rishi Sunak.
Nine months into this pandemic and still no increase in poverty levels of statutory sick pay.
19
323
1K
0
12
41
Sadly have to agree with
@soniasodha
&
@robfordmancs
.
@MishalHusain
not well-briefed and spurious
#Covid19UK
claims went unchallenged. Am sure
@BBCNews
sci/health reporters aghast - leaves impression
#r4today
is pushing fringe science.
@bbckamal
@bbcfeedback
I think Today producers, editors and presenters have some serious questions to answer about why they have today invited a discredited scientist with a repeated track record of making falsely dismissive claims on COVID threat to offer her views to the nation this morning
40
334
1K
1
11
42
Irritating & pointless posturing. Horizon involvement, of unis AND industry, is not a drain on finances but a multiplier. The best scientists know their ideas & money will be valued elsewhere.
‘Science superpower’ needs to be more than just a slogan.
4
21
41
Never had so much ❤️ for one par.
🙏🏽
@katebevan
FT knocking it out of the park this morning: this para in a fab piece about superconductor frenzy, by
@anjahuja
, is a masterpiece of science communication
2
14
70
2
5
40
My
@FT
column on the ‘difficult choices’
#COVID19
will demand - or the ethics of deciding who lives and who dies. Already happening, tragically, in Italy.
#FlattenTheCurve
#Coronavirus
could force difficult choices on health systems via
@financialtimes
1
30
39
Why is it taking so long to vaccinate 12-15 year olds? Infection rates are climbing fast. Why can’t we take them to a walk-in venue?
#VaccinesWork
15
5
40
It might not happen for a decade or more but I suspect that, post-
#coronavirus
, there will be a public inquiry into what increasingly looks like government negligence in protecting public health.
This story is important, not because of what it means for
#coronavirusuk
now, but because it shows the crazy places that an ultra-ideological position about role of EU law in future
#Brexit
talks can lead - and where expert advice is flatly rejected.
Let me explain 1/thread
84
2K
3K
5
18
38
I wonder if this helps, after today’s
#Covid19UK
report and the tone-deaf govt response?
This excerpt from chapter 5 of
#Spike
, by
@JeremyFarrar
with yours truly.
Chapter 5 title is a direct quote: “If the plan is chicken pox parties, we’re fucked.”
0
21
39
I’m sorry but it is now more than 2 months since lockdown.
@WHO
has advocated test track trace from the start. This should not be beyond the wit of a high-income country to organise, as others have done.
Why is the UK unable to organise this basic pillar of
#publichealth
?
BREAKING: Britain is at ‘critical’ moment in COVID-19 crisis as new report from Independent SAGE says test, track & trace system is ‘not fit for purpose’
1/
56
1K
1K
7
23
39
If a teenager expressed some of hardline sentiments that Sunak and Truss have espoused, we would wonder which far-right extremists had radicalised them.
There has to be a rule in politics that the higher the stakes, the closer the race, the worse the policies. Because omg the vileness of the anti-asylum bidding war is scarcely believable
6
18
140
2
15
39
Love this. Flawless advice.
It feels like the advice I wrote for young journalists is resonating with people, so here's a screengrab. I hope it's useful; I consider this also to be a memo to myself.
And here's the original source:
37
584
2K
0
10
39
Ok. Just going to put it out there.
Today, I can’t help feeling a bit nervous. for the future of my country. Such consistent contempt for the people by the elites in power.
3
5
37
Important piece here. It reminds us that the biggest
#COVID19
challenge might not actually be making a great vaccine but persuading ppl to have it. By
@clivecookson
Public trust in
#vaccines
rises in most of Europe, study says via
@financialtimes
5
29
37
Indeed. There is a false logic doing the rounds, that being born to immigrant parents and having experienced racism simply makes it impossible to hold unpalatable views. Sadly, not so.
I too am the daughter of immigrants from East Africa. That doesn’t give me a free pass to tell black footballers what to do when they experience racism. Taking the knee is a fitting and appropriate action.
9
69
494
2
6
38
Imagine how thin-skinned you have to be to get offended by a supermarket overtly rejecting racism.
#Sainsburys
Good to see
@PaulEmbery
being upfront about his views here. Anti-racism is an "ideology" and saying you won't tolerate it is "virtue signalling".
24
98
468
2
10
37
What are we waiting for? Maybe 30k or 50k more avoidable deaths?
We should be clamouring for an inquiry right now. Find the reasons, put them right.
#100kDeaths
#Covid19UK
1
8
38
You can be simultaneously blown away by the brilliance and audacity of
#NHSNightingale
*and* staggered by the almost negligent lack of testing.
#COVID19
I know we're supposed to be negative about everything the government does at the moment. But this NHS Nightingale story is seriously impressive. If the Chinese had done that everyone would be going bananas and asking why we can't do it.
1K
1K
10K
0
7
36
That a government minister could even think of writing such a column when hospitals are overflowing due to an uncontrolled (yet controllable) pandemic defies decency.
#CovidUK
Such a hilariously desperate piece. The only concrete example he can cite of "woke militants" who "our history" needs saving from is Birmingham Council calling a (new) street "Humanity Close". The horror.
134
263
1K
2
2
36
.
@r4Today
just followed
@BorisJohnson
interview with a trailer for The Life Scientific on how to spot a liar. 😂
Incredible:
@BorisJohnson
just told off
@bbcnickrobinson
for 'trying to associate Brexit with our NHS plans' after touring Britain in a bus to drive home this link to voters with a fraudulent claim
#r4today
37
1K
4K
1
15
33
Thrilled and honoured to be in the mix here, for an
@ftopinion
piece, and alongside the amazing
@clivecookson
, up for best science journalist.
Congratulations to everyone - what a year!
7
1
35
Can’t tell you how utterly patronising and illogical I find this tweet.
I’m female, BAME, daughter of immigrants.
Is he saying these characteristics somehow exempt me/her from the rules?
#PritiPatel
A female, BAME, daughter of immigrants who:
• speaks out against the “woke” left
• won’t vote the way they say she should
• wants controlled immigration
• dared to become Home Secretary
Of course they want to tear her down.
6K
1K
9K
3
9
33
This, by
@SarahNev
, is brilliant, a weekend must-read.
Global sperm counts are falling. This scientist believes she knows why
2
15
33
Something is not sitting right in the revisionist amnesia about asymptomatic spread.
In our book Spike,
@JeremyFarrar
and I detail a top-level teleconference on *27 Jan 2020* that aired suggestion of developing diagnostic tests for asymptomatic spreaders.
1
12
33
I urge you to read
#Superior
by
@AngelaDSaini
. An essential book for these troubled times. We had a terrific, challenging conversation last night - helped by a fantastic audience.
on academic racism, IQ tests and the rise of the alt-right, “ideas that have been designed to divide and subjugate”
@AngelaDSaini
and
@anjahuja
in conversation
@BurghHouse1704
1
4
35
2
3
30
There is not a word in this searing piece with which I disagree.
By
@Halima_Begum
from
@RunnymedeTrust
3
22
33
Why is it ‘unwise+apology’ for some, and ‘police raid+conviction+fines’ for others?
The dying were not permitted 10-minute gatherings. Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, aged 13, died alone in hospital.
Ministers defending LockDowningSt parties demean themselves beyond redemption.
“It’s clearly unwise to do those things”, Shapps eventually says.
Notably cites
@BorisJohnson
's own line that he should have sent people back inside for the drinks party in the garden that summer.
Feels like the line-to-take response to this was it too was 'unwise'.
10
14
53
1
11
33
This is the kind of thing that happens to other people…thrilled that
#Spike
is on this list! 🎉
@JeremyFarrar
@ProfileBooks
@TheOrwellPrize
Featuring reportage, history, essays, economics and anthropology,
many of these often in the same book, the finalists for
#TheOrwellPrize
for Political Writing 2022 are a mixture of established names and debut
authors. Congratulations to all those on this year's shortlist!
13
54
142
2
4
32