Suggested readings, 7 February 2021

Here are some interesting articles I've read over the past week I think are worth checking out.

Pat Leahy, “United Irelanders need to stop talking to themselves.” 30 Jan, Irish Times.

"[U]nited Irelanders have a lot of persuading to do. At the moment they seem to be talking mostly to themselves. But they will have to reach beyond nationalists if they are to assemble a majority."

Peter Singer, “Give up the meat - I’ve been doing it for 50 years.” 31 Jan, The Age.

"We stopped eating meat because we did not want to support the cruelties inflicted on farm animals, but even in 1971, concern for animals was not the only reason for avoiding factory farmed animal products."

Alberto Giubilini, “The UK should share the vaccine with the other countries – but only after all the vulnerable have been vaccinated.” 3 Feb, The Conversation.

"Vaccination delays in other countries translate into lives lost. So once the UK has vaccinated its most vulnerable people, there is a question whether it should give some of its vaccines to other countries."

Robert Langreth, “The Five Things to Get Right Before the Next Pandemic.” 3 Feb, Bloomberg.

(1) Pathogen surveillance; (2) Repairing and augmenting the WHO; (3) Genetic sequencing; (4) Developing more vaccines; (5) Ironing out distribution and logistics.

Tom Chivers, “Can the vaccine keep up with the Covid variants?” 3 Feb, UnHerd.

"The way to keep the number of mutations down is to keep the number of cases down. It’s fairly linear: if you have twice as many infected people, all else being equal, you have about twice as many chances for a virus throwing up some dangerous new mutation"

Kelsey Piper, “Smallpox used to kill millions of people every year. Here’s how humans beat it.” 5 Feb, Vox.

"In the broader context of humanity’s fight against infectious disease, it’s fair to think of the coronavirus as a close call. As bad as it has been, it could have been much worse. It could have been more transmissible; it could have been deadlier. Diseases far worse than Covid-19 have appeared throughout human history, and there’s every reason to believe we may someday face one again."

Richard Yetter Chappell, “There's No Such Thing as 'Following the Science'” 29 Jan, Philosophy, et cetera.

"I like science, and I like scientists. We should defer to them on empirical questions: what the facts are, and what the risks are. But they do not have the expertise to evaluate either those facts, or those risks. If you want to trust and follow the experts, you need more than just doctors and scientists at the table."

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