Hi Gareth,  Just a quick information about new developments conc. Corona testing in Germany. We had about 2 weeks ago a new (testing)”outbreak” in a well known meat factory in Gütersloh (Tönnies), Nordrhine- Westfalia here in Germany. The whole area is in strict lockdown.   In the meantime – government sent military people and other helpers from home to home […]

Excess deaths in Ireland from March to June were “substantially” less than the officially reported Covid-19 figures, analysis from the Health Information and Quality Authority has found. HIQA says this could be due to the inclusion within official figures of people who were infected with coronavirus but whose cause of death may have been predominantly due to […]

The so-called ‘outbreak’ of Covid-19 in the English city of Leicester, which has precipitated a second lockdown there, has been driven by the young and people under 40. The very people who aren’t much at risk of death. On Monday, the UK government announced that schools in Leicester will be shut to all children except […]

A mysterious increase in radiation levels over northern Europe was detected this month by authorities from several countries, although no nation has yet come forward to claim responsibility for the anomaly. The subtle radiation spike – at levels that are considered harmless to humans, but significant enough to be picked up by radiation monitoring stations […]

Three thousand people living in nine public housing towers in Melbourne have been placed under the harshest lockdown rules of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia so far and banned from leaving their homes for at least five days. The Victorian government’s decision to lock down all nine towers was made because of “patterns of movement, […]

We now have mortality data for the first few months of 2020 for many countries, and, as you might expect, there were steep increases associated with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in each one. Surprisingly, however, these increases did not begin before the lockdowns were imposed, but after. Moreover, in almost every case, they began immediately after. Often, […]

The coronavirus has mutated in a way that might help the pathogen spread more easily, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday. Research is underway to confirm the possible mutation and its implications, Fauci said, adding that “there’s a little dispute about it.” Viruses naturally mutate and scientists have previously said they have […]

The acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey, has written to Kent Police asking them to investigate whether Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has broken coronavirus quarantine rules. Mr Farage tweeted a picture of himself at lunchtime on Saturday having a pint in a pub, as many businesses in England reopened. Exactly a fortnight […]

Behavioural scientists are taking to the streets of Leicester to see whether people are sticking to lockdown rules. Public Health England’s Nick Phin today said that the team of behavioural scientists are working within the city to see if people are observing social distancing and other guidelines. If people are not, targeted measures and communications […]

Normally, the jobs report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is released on the first Friday of the month. And the unemployment claims report is released Thursday every week. But this month, the monthly jobs report was also released today because of the 4th of July weekend. And now we have this delicious situation of both reports on […]

Harry Potter fan sites are shunning Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling after she said only women can menstruate. Two biggest Harry Potter fan sites — Leaky Caldron and Mugglenet — said they will no longer provide links to Rowling’s personal website, cover her personal endeavors, or use photos of her. The fan sites also said they will censor the author’s […]

Twitter on Friday announced a list of words and phrases that their engineering team will begin using in place of ‘problematic’ language which “does not reflect our values as a company or represent the people we serve.” Now, “man hours” will be “person hours” or “engineer hours,” the word “Blacklist” will become “Denylist,” and Whitelist […]