COVID-19. Simple Arithmetic and ‘The Economy First Delusion’. PART 2.

I'd like to think that the most democratic countries have been the best at controlling COVID-19, but this would not be true, although there is no doubt that China did a great job at under reporting the severity of its outbreak, claiming that any suggestion that this was a  problem originating out of China as racist. There was little about the way China reported on its outbreak that would help other countries to prepare. In the U.K. by 8th April over 60,000 had tested positive for COVID-19, with more than 7,000 deaths as a result of the virus. At the…

Continue ReadingCOVID-19. Simple Arithmetic and ‘The Economy First Delusion’. PART 2.

COVID-19. Simple Arithmetic and the ‘Economy First’ Delusion.

Although most of us now have some idea of how to behave in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, few of us understand how 'the thing' really operates, but we can still glean information from the freely available daily figures. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of politicians who don't understand the virus very well either, despite having access to expert advice and a lot more information. One wonders if perhaps they had spoken more regularly to immunologist rather than economist, whether things would be different now, standing as we are on the  pandemic side of the infection - somewhere…

Continue ReadingCOVID-19. Simple Arithmetic and the ‘Economy First’ Delusion.

UP, UP AND AWAY. From Ebola to Exponential and Beyond.

Perhaps the most reliable way to ‘save the planet’ is to take a picture that has been constructed by using mathematics and arithmetic; these exist in a variety of forms, but most commonly they are represented as charts or graphs that can provide at a glance, information on any subject for which there is reliable data, and graphs in particular are good at showing numerical change against a baseline of time. I'm one of those unfortunates who have trouble adding up a column of figures - seldom do I get the same total twice - even with a calculator! That's…

Continue ReadingUP, UP AND AWAY. From Ebola to Exponential and Beyond.