https://pinboard.in/u:jm/public/ recent bookmarks from jm 2026-06-26T11:37:05+00:00 https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2026/06/sky-broadband-users-accidentally-blocked-from-uk-nhs-website-and-app.html jmcustomers of Sky Broadband reported that they were unable to access the main NHS website and app earlier in the week, seemingly after the internet provider accidentally managed to block it. But Sky has since suggested that the fault might have been with the NHS. The issue prevented people being able to access their medical data and manage appointments etc. The problem appears to have occurred on Tuesday morning (23rd June 2026) and was reported across social media (X, Facebook etc.), including via threads on Reddit and Sky’s Community Forum. Customers initially thought the problem was with the NHS itself, but the health service instead pointed the finger of blame at the ISP (no other internet providers seem to have experienced the issue). (via gwire, who notes that all DNS traffic for Sky customers is filtered...)]]> sky broadband isps uk networking via:gwire dns https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:6c756c58cb03/ 2026-06-10T09:53:25+00:00 https://www.publictechnology.net/2026/06/09/communities-housing-and-planning/what-uk-councils-stand-to-lose-when-ai-enters-a-reorganisation/ jmContested decisions became consensus. Dissenting voices disappeared into summaries that read as agreement. And the output read as authoritative because it was produced from an authoritative source. In testing AI systems against a municipal commemorative report from Newark, New Jersey, I asked each system how the initiative compared to similar programmes in the region — using only the document provided. ChatGPT invented a comparative framework, asserting the programme stood out from “traditional anniversary programmes” and “typical county-level commemorations.” Neither category exists in the document. The system didn’t hallucinate a date or misattribute a quote. It constructed an entire analytical frame from nothing and presented it as document-based retrieval. In the same test, the document contained outreach tactics — radio, direct mail, community networks — that worked because they aligned with how civic organising functions in Newark’s Black, ageing community. An AI system extracting those tactics would present them as applicable elsewhere, while stripping away the demographic and political context that made them effective in that specific city. [...] To test whether the same failure modes appear in UK civic documents, I applied the same protocol to the Somerset Council Plan 2023–2027 — the post-reorganisation vision document produced when five predecessor councils merged into a single unitary authority in April 2023. I tested four AI systems: Gemini, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude. Every model hardened aspirational language into apparent commitments. The plan states the council would “demonstrate leadership around the whole range of housing issues” and “strive to develop an inclusive culture.” No targets, no timelines, no delivery mechanisms. Every model converted those statements into bullet-pointed commitment lists. A council officer reviewing those outputs would have no way of knowing the specificity came from the model, not the plan. Copilot — the model most UK councils are currently deploying through existing Microsoft 365 contracts, often without separate AI governance review — described Somerset as committed to “co-design” with communities and “fair access” to education, housing, jobs, and services. Neither phrase appears in the document. Copilot synthesised fragments from three separate passages into a single clean commitment the council never made. On the comparison question, it added that Somerset’s emphasis on rural inequality “is less prominent in many urban unitary authorities” — a comparative claim with no basis in the source. It did not flag any of this as inference. ChatGPT fabricated a comparative framework and constructed a tension narrative. Asked how Somerset’s approach compared to other UK unitary authorities, it responded that “unlike more fragmented models, Somerset frames inequality as interconnected” with multiple service areas. No other authority is described anywhere in the document. It also described the “main tensions” in the reorganisation process — a framing the document never uses. The word tensions does not appear in the Somerset Council Plan. [...] Across original research testing three civic documents against three major AI systems, failure modes were structurally predictable based on document type: - Celebratory documents get reproduced uncritically — institutional PR becomes authoritative historical record, success metrics are cited without methodological context, and dissenting voices go unmarked. - Accountability documents get softened — AI systems introduce balance and healing language that the original document explicitly rejects, restoring a both-sides framing the institution deliberately refused. - Pre-event planning documents get filled in — aspirational inclusion language invites AI to supply the racial history, equity frameworks, and comparative data the institution implied but never produced. In each case the output reads as grounded in the source. In each case something the document actually said — or deliberately did not say — has been quietly rewritten. Standard AI procurement frameworks test for hallucination, data security, and cost. They do not test for narrative flattening — because it doesn’t look like an error. It looks like a summary. (via gwire) ]]> narrative-flattening via:gwire summarisation summarization ai llms corruption katryna-peart hallucination confabulation errors uk documents https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:2e0e9261fa7f/ 2026-03-20T10:10:42+00:00 https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1rk690v/i_run_a_selfhelp_forum_for_people_with_depression/ jmI started getting email from Ofcom [regarding OSA compliance] around November 2025 and now have multiple letters. I've repeatedly told them I'm from Canada, I'm not based in the UK. Eventually, I blocked all UK IP addresses in mid-February 2026 and told them I'd blocked the UK and that I was done engaging with them. I've now got ANOTHER email from them saying they're going to commence enforcement action against me because simply blocking UK IPs is "insufficient to comply with the Online Safety Act 2023." ]]> osa uk politics filtering censorship law geoblocking ofcom web https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:62264b402830/ 2025-12-16T10:51:06+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/16/boost-for-artists-in-ai-copyright-battle-as-only-3-per-cent-back-uk-active-opt-out-plan jm95% of the more than 10,000 people who had their say over how music, novels, films and other works should be protected [in the UK] from copyright infringements by tech companies called for copyright to be strengthened and a requirement for licensing in all cases or no change to copyright law. By contrast, only 3% of people backed the UK government’s initial preferred tech company-friendly option, which was to require artists and copyright holders to actively opt out of having their material fed into data-hungry AI systems. ]]> ai training data copyright law uk uk-politics llms https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:6abe0b9d290c/ 2025-11-26T11:56:54+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/25/shameful-attacks-covid-inquiry-right-anti-science-delusion-lockdowns jm That number will stay fixed for ever in public memory: 23,000 people died because Boris Johnson resisted locking the country down in time. As Covid swept in, and with horrific images of Italian temporary morgues in tents, he went on holiday and took no calls. With the NHS bracing to be “overwhelmed” by the virus, he rode his new motorbike, walked his dog and hosted friends at Chevening. Nothing is surprising about that: he was ejected from Downing Street and later stepped down as an MP largely for partying and lying to parliament about it. Everyone knew he was a self-aggrandising fantasist with a “toxic and chaotic culture” around him. But this is not just about one narcissistic politician. It’s about his entire rightwing coterie of libertarians and their lethally dominant creed in the UK media. I'm glad the science side kept their receipts but I fear this argument will be relitigated indefinitely by anti-lockdown libertarians.]]> lockdowns covid-19 history uk uk-politics medicine health pandemics boris-johnson https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:9fe828e5ca76/ 2025-09-16T11:14:26+00:00 https://doublepulsar.com/the-elephant-in-the-biz-outsourcing-of-critical-it-and-cybersecurity-functions-risks-uk-economic-96205e0585bf jmWe’ve ended up in a situation where to deliver shareholder value, large organisations are incentivised to outsource core IT and cybersecurity functions to a low cost managed service providers abroad — and then when hit with ransomware, the insurance will cover paying the ransom (some insurers will actually push for payment to criminal groups, to cover their potential losses). This cycle plays into the ransomware economy, where the same criminal groups can then reinvest the money into purchasing exploits and gaining initial access to other organisations. Because ransomware is such big business, many of the groups have far bigger research and development funds than the organisations they’re attacking. Especially when the organisations they’re attacking have outsourced key areas to low cost providers. The net effect is ransomware and extortion groups continue to gain access to more organisations, and risk UK economic security. It is only a matter of time before they hit some kind of essential UK service that directly impacts millions of people — by which point millions of people will be asking what is being done about the problem. And the answer is: not enough. When we’re at the stage of having to look at urgent furlough schemes for JLR’s suppliers to rightly save jobs, it isn’t so much a sign as the canary in the coalmine has died, but that the coalmine is also about to collapse on people. Also this is _terrible_ PR for Tata Consultancy Services, wow.]]> tata tcs security infosec lapsus outsourcing it uk ransomware insurance https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:fa3043556f1d/ 2025-07-11T09:31:22+00:00 https://onlinesafetyact.co.uk/in_memoriam/ jm regulation uk internet shutdown censorship daily-mail via:mattround osa https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d260c648f41b/ 2025-07-02T10:36:32+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/18/covid-inquiry-hallett-prescribes-red-teams-as-antidote-to-flawed-thinking jm The scientific advice on pandemic risks was overly weighted in favour of biomedical science, Lady Hallett said. What about the social and economic consequences? There was also no “guard against the risks of conventional wisdom becoming embedded in the institutions responsible for emergency preparedness and resilience”. As a result, she called for non-expert "critical thinkers", skilled in "incisive challenge" to be included in "red teams", teams of devil's advocates, to puncture groupthink in future pandemic crisis planning committees. TBH this sounds like a recipe for Dominic Cummings and his Torygraph edgelord pals to ensure that no coherent future pandemic response takes place. But that's the state of the UK for you I guess. Gabriel Scally's take: https://www.bmj.com/content/386/bmj.q1865]]> uk uk-politics edgelords dominic-cummings pandemics planning future covid-19 devils-advocates critical-thinking red-teams groupthink experts expertise https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:f77c6964e1af/ 2025-02-10T10:25:17+00:00 https://blog.woof.group/announcements/updates-on-the-osa jmOfcom carefully avoided answering almost all of our questions. They declined to say whether ~185 users was a “significant number”. Several other participants in Ofcom's livestreams also asked what a significant number meant. Every time, Ofcom responded obliquely: there are no numeric thresholds, a significant number could be “small”, Ofcom could target “a one-man band”, and providers are expected to have a robust justification for deciding they do not have a significant number of UK users. It is unclear how anyone could make a robust justification given this nebulous guidance. In their letter, Ofcom also declined to say whether non-commercial services have target markets, or whether pornography poses a “material risk of significant harm”. In short, we have no answer as to whether Woof.group or other Fediverse instances are likely to fall in scope of the OSA. Do we block pre-emptively, or if and when Ofcom asks? This is the ethical question Woof.group's team, like other community forums, have been wrestling with. Ofcom would certainly like sites to take action immediately. As Hoskings warned: "Don't wait until it's too late. That's the message. Once you do get the breach letter, that is when it is too late. The time doesn't start ticking from then. The time is ticking from—for part five services, from January, part three from July." ]]> woof.group fediverse mastodon social-media uk osa laws ofcom porn blocking https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:f0dce6ad07cd/ 2025-01-14T12:24:09+00:00 https://bsky.app/profile/marshdavies.bsky.social/post/3lfnile2kpc2m jm The UK Government believes several things: 1) The AI genie is out of the bottle and cannot be put back in 2) Embracing AI would definitely be good for the British economy 3) Enforcing copyright on AI training would put Britain out of step with rest of the world and subsequently... 4) Enforcing copyright would be ineffective as AI would just be trained elsewhere, cutting out Brit creatives entirely 5) Govt's preferred option is permissive enough to be attractive to AI firms but demands transparency so at least rights holders have some recourse; the alternative is bleaker. Obviously, I contest all of these beliefs to one degree or another, but this is where the govt is, and it's useful to understand that. The real crux of the debate, as they see it, is how Britain's laws can practically deal with the *global* inevitability of AI. They believe it's untenable to make Britain a legislative pariah state for AI, and that this would not lead to good outcomes for British creatives anyway. This is a point worth considering when replying to the consultation. However, the govt says it's not going to implement policy before it has a technical solution for rights holders to opt-out and chase down infringements. My view is that this is difficult to the point of being pure fantasy, and either means that the govt is not serious about finding a real, effective technical solution, or this policy will be kicked indefinitely down the road. My dinner partner was optimistic a solution could be achieved within the timespan of a year or two. I just don't buy it. Government says it has not sided with AI firms over creative industries. However, its understanding of "not taking a side" creates a false equality between massive companies whose business relies on crime and individuals whose livelihoods will be destroyed. I got the sense that there is no political will whatsoever to seriously challenge firms who offer to spend big in Britain, and that any thought of holding them to account for actual crime is simply considered naive. But we do have a bit of time while govt attempts to confect their magical, easy to use, opt-out solution—time during which one or several of these AI firms might implode, making the true cost more apparent. ]]> uk government ai policy copyright ip britain economy future https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7e2472a1f794/ 2024-12-17T15:41:14+00:00 https://russ.garrett.co.uk/2024/12/17/online-safety-act-guide/ jmA service has links to the UK if any of the following apply: - the service has a “significant number” of UK users - UK users form one of the target markets for the service - the service is accessible to UK users and “there are reasonable grounds to believe that there is a material risk of significant harm to individuals in the UK” (this seems less likely to apply for smaller services but who knows) ]]> osa uk safety regulations ofcom https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:fe529be913f2/ 2024-12-06T10:15:00+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/dec/06/revealed-bias-found-in-ai-system-used-to-detect-uk-benefits jmAn artificial intelligence system used by the UK government to detect welfare fraud is showing bias according to people’s age, disability, marital status and nationality, the Guardian can reveal. An internal assessment of a machine-learning programme used to vet thousands of claims for universal credit payments across England found it incorrectly selected people from some groups more than others when recommending whom to investigate for possible fraud. The most interesting aspect of the report published is that currently "there is no established numerical or statistical benchmark at which referral or outcome disparity can be defined as within tolerance". I would have assumed a lack of bias, measured against a "false positive" rate -- ie. benefits recipients who were selected for additional checks, who were then found to be legitimate and not committing fraud, should have been a design goal, and a critical KPI for such a system. There are going to be a lot of similar examples in the years to come -- here's hoping this "bias measurement" KPI becomes established as a concept.]]> bias ai kpis dwp uk benefits welfare fraud ml https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:8299a0c37161/ 2024-11-07T10:38:02+00:00 https://www.publictechnology.net/2024/02/08/science-technology-and-research/ai-firms-must-address-hallucinations-before-gov-uk-chatbot-can-roll-out-digital-chief-claims/ jmTrials of a generative AI-powered chatbot for GOV.UK users have found ongoing issues with so-called hallucinations that must be addressed before the technology can be widely deployed, according to one of the government’s digital leaders. [....] Speaking at an event this morning, Paul Willmott said: “We have experimented with a generative advice [tool] on GOV.UK. You will just say ‘I’m trying to do this’, or ‘I’m annoyed about this’… The challenge we are having – which is exactly the same as in the commercial sector – is what to do with the 1% of hallucinations where the agent starts to get challenging, or abusive – or even seductive.” Even if only present in a tiny minority of instances, these issues mean that GOV.UK Chat is not yet ready for widespread deployment, according to Willmott. Addressing hallucinations will require the support of the likes of OpenAI and other creates of large language models. “Until we have managed to iron that out – which will require the support of the foundational model creators – we won’t be able to put this live,” he said. This is hardly surprising, but it's good to see it being acknowledged and the brakes being applied.]]> ai llms hallucations confabulation gov.uk chatbots chatgpt uk https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d802cd8c28a3/ 2024-08-29T08:46:18+00:00 https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/news/the-scale-of-long-covid-new-study-highlights-the-widespread-impact jmIn the new paper, researchers from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues from the Universities of Leeds and Arizona, analysed dozens of previous studies into Long COVID to examine the number and range of people affected, the underlying mechanisms of disease, the many symptoms that patients develop, and current and future treatments.   They found: Long COVID affects approximately 1 in 50 people in UK and a similar or higher proportion in many other countries; People of any age, gender and ethnic background can be affected; Long COVID results from complex biological mechanisms, which lead to a wide range of symptoms including fatigue, cognitive impairment / ‘brain fog’, breathlessness and pain; Long COVID may persist for years, causing long-term disability; There is currently no cure, but research is ongoing; Risk of Long COVID can be reduced by avoiding infection (e.g., by ensuring COVID vaccines and boosters are up to date and wearing a well-fitted high filtration mask) and taking antivirals promptly if infected. ]]> long-covid covid-19 medicine health disease uk trish-greenhaigh https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:76d871843419/ 2024-07-25T11:15:17+00:00 https://gidmk.substack.com/p/the-cass-review-into-gender-identity-c27 jm In some cases [...] the review contains statements that are false regardless of what your position on healthcare for transgender children is. Take the “exponential” rise in transgender children that the review spends so much time on. It’s true that there has been a dramatic rise in the number of children with gender dysphoria. The rise mostly occurred between 2011-2015, and has plateaued since. These are facts. One theory that may explain the facts is that this is caused by changing diagnostic criteria - when we changed the diagnosis from gender identity disorder to the much broader gender dysphoria, this included many more children. We’ve seen this exact trend happen with everything from autism to diabetes, and we know that broadening diagnostic criteria almost always results in more people with a condition. Another theory is that these changes were caused by the internet. [...] The Cass review treated these two theories unequally. The first possible explanation, which I would argue is by far the most likely, was ignored completely. The second possible explanation was given a lengthy and in-depth discussion. [...] The point is that the scientific findings of the Cass review are mostly about uncertainty. We are uncertain about the causes of a rise in trans kids, and uncertain about the best treatment modalities. But everything after that is opinion. The review did not even consider the question of whether normal puberty is a problem for transgender children, or whether psychotherapy can be harmful. That’s why these are now the only options in the UK - medical treatments were assumed to be harmful, while non-medical interventions (or even no treatment at all) were assumed harmless. [...] What we can say with some certainty is that the most impactful review of gender services for children was seriously, perhaps irredeemably, flawed. The document made numerous basic errors, cited conversion therapy in a positive way, and somehow concluded that the only intervention with no evidence whatsoever behind it was the best option for transgender children. ]]> transgender trans uk politics cass-report cass-review gideon-m-k healthcare children teenagers gender https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:45aca6f8a9d9/ 2024-04-19T10:05:47+00:00 https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/how-to-use-nhs-data-for-scientific?r=2bac6x&triedRedirect=true jm privacy data-protection nhs medical-records medicine research python sql opensafely uk https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:5500273f58a5/ 2024-04-02T16:03:24+00:00 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39868983 jm ross-anderson obituaries security infosec banking uk computer-science danny-obrien https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:b6d52c024d7c/ 2024-02-12T16:11:24+00:00 https://christinapagel.substack.com/p/where-are-we-with-covid-in-england jm excel python modelling statistics uk ukhsa qa covid-19 quality-control https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:67997cd0272c/ 2024-01-05T16:52:49+00:00 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.29.23285160v1 jmPersistent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections may act as viral reservoirs that could seed future outbreaks, give rise to highly divergent lineages, and contribute to cases with post-acute [covid] sequelae (Long Covid). However, the population prevalence of persistent infections, their viral load kinetics, and evolutionary dynamics over the course of infections remain largely unknown. We identified 381 infections lasting at least 30 days, of which 54 lasted at least 60 days. These persistently infected individuals had more than 50% higher odds of self-reporting Long Covid compared to the infected controls, and we estimate that 0.09-0.5% of SARS-CoV-2 infections can become persistent and last for at least 60 days. In nearly 70% of the persistent infections we identified, there were long periods during which there were no consensus changes in virus sequences, consistent with prolonged presence of non-replicating virus. Our findings also suggest reinfections with the same major lineage are rare and that many persistent infections are characterised by relapsing viral load dynamics. Furthermore, we found a strong signal for positive selection during persistent infections, with multiple amino acid substitutions in the Spike and ORF1ab genes emerging independently in different individuals, including mutations that are lineage-defining for SARS-CoV-2 variants, at target sites for several monoclonal antibodies, and commonly found in immunocompromised patients. This work has significant implications for understanding and characterising SARS-CoV-2 infection, epidemiology, and evolution. ]]> long-covid infection viruses covid-19 sars-cov-2 evolution medicine health uk epidemiology https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:674914a0c0af/ 2024-01-05T16:37:39+00:00 https://www.completecar.ie/features/post/8591/The-curious-case-of-MINIs-politicised-tail-lights jm minis tail-lights brexit uk cars automotive https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:0a6c7cfc9a64/ 2023-11-13T11:20:11+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/12/private-uk-health-data-donated-medical-research-shared-insurance-companies jmWhen the project was announced, in 2002, Biobank promised that data would not be given to insurance companies after concerns were raised that it could be used in a discriminatory way, such as by the exclusion of people with a particular genetic makeup from insurance. In an FAQ section on the Biobank website, participants were told: “Insurance companies will not be allowed access to any individual results nor will they be allowed access to anonymised data.” The statement remained online until February 2006, during which time the Biobank project was subject to public scrutiny and discussed in parliament. The promise was also reiterated in several public statements by backers of Biobank, who said safeguards would be built in to ensure that “no insurance company or police force or employer will have access”. This weekend, Biobank said the pledge – made repeatedly over four years – no longer applied. It said the commitment had been made before recruitment formally began in 2007 and that when Biobank volunteers enrolled they were given revised information. ]]> biobank uk politics health medicine data-privacy insurance discrimination science https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:4c79e5371f73/ 2023-11-01T12:29:21+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/01/boris-johnson-dominic-cummings-covid-inquiry-no-10?CMP=share_btn_tw jmFor me, the most depressing thing about the revelations at the inquiry this week – and no doubt for many weeks and months to come – is that they are not really revelations. The government was horrendously incompetent, didn’t have a plan, yet still wasted a huge amount of time – and a tragic number of lives – on mad posturing, pointless turf wars or buck-passing and catastrophic infighting. The sad fact is that all of this was said AT THE TIME, and all of it was denied repeatedly by those in charge. And it was denied not just in insidery lobby briefings or to individual journalists – but live on air, to the nation, in those wretched press conferences every night. They lied about everything, all the time, and the lies they told backstage were just the obverse of the ones they spouted front of house. Seeing inquiry witnesses feted for punchy WhatsApps now is a bit like congratulating a serial killer for switching to an energy-efficient chest freezer. I’m sure half of them will be reflecting amiably on the period on their inevitable podcasts in due course – but the British public deserve so much more, as they did at the time. ]]> uk politics covid-19 boris-johnson dominic-cummings marina-hyde funny grim https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:87e408965eab/ 2023-10-03T16:06:08+00:00 https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/covid-inquiry-uk-top-pandemic-scientist-verdict-boris-johnson-rishi-sunak-2660155 jmThe inquiry also heard that in October 2020, Mr Johnson wrote “bollocks” in capital letters across a Department of Health guidance document on Long Covid, from which it is estimated more than a million people are suffering. Anthony Metzer KC, representing Long Covid sufferers, said the former PM has admitted in his own witness statement that he did not believe the condition “truly existed” ]]> long-covid boris-johnson politics uk covid-19 patrick-vallance https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:8c1efebb0d84/ 2023-08-02T11:53:54+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/01/rishi-sunak-north-sea-planet-climate-crisis-plutocrats jm business economics climate-change george-monbiot uk carbon politics uk-politics https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:ac079e943e50/ 2023-06-29T09:34:57+00:00 https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/resource/ai-supply-chains/ jm regulation ai ada-lovelace-institute ian-brown supply-chains data-protection uk law copyright https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:ebd74d82818b/ 2023-06-21T11:05:30+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/21/children-raised-under-uk-austerity-shorter-than-european-peers-study jmExperts have said a poor national diet and cuts to the NHS are to blame. But they have also pointed out that height is a strong indicator of general living conditions, including illness and infection, stress, poverty and sleep quality. The amount of damage the Tories have done to the UK in 10 years is staggering.]]> tories uk politics austerity poverty britain height health https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d9223de23b14/ 2023-05-22T09:33:53+00:00 https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/11/5/988/htm jmWe present a novel methodological framework for estimating the potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination in previously infected children aged five to eleven, accounting for waning. We apply this framework to the UK context and for two adverse outcomes: hospitalisation related to SARS-CoV-2 infection and Long Covid. We show that the most important drivers of benefit are: the degree of protection provided by previous infection; the protection provided by vaccination; the time since previous infection; and future attack rates. Vaccination can be very beneficial for previously infected children if future attack rates are high and several months have elapsed since the previous major wave in this group. Benefits are generally larger for Long Covid than hospitalisation, because Long Covid is both more common than hospitalisation and previous infection offers less protection against it. Our framework provides a structure for policy makers to explore the additional benefit of vaccination across a range of adverse outcomes and different parameter assumptions. It can be easily updated as new evidence emerges.]]> vaccines vaccination covid-19 sars-cov-2 modelling long-covid uk https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:4b0f0914e572/ 2023-04-26T09:46:30+00:00 https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/rants/nothing-like-this-will-be-buil.html jmThe AGRs at Torness [in the UK] are not ordinary civil [nuclear] power reactors. Designed in the 1970's, they were the UK's bid to build an export-earning civil nuclear power system. They're sensitive thoroughbreds, able to reach a peak conversion efficiency of 43% -- that is, able to turn up to 43% of their energy output into electricity. By comparison, a PWR peaks at 31-32%. However, the PWRs have won the race for commercial success: they're much, much, simpler. AGRs are like Concorde -- technological marvels, extremely sophisticated and efficient, and just too damned expensive and complex for their own good. (You want complexity? Torness was opened in 1989. For many years thereafter, its roughly fifty thousand kilometres of aluminium plumbing made it the most complex and demanding piece of pipework in Europe. You want size? The multi-thousand ton reactor core of an AGR is bigger than the entire plant at some PWR installations.) It's a weird experience, crawling over the guts of one of the marvels of the atomic age, smelling the thing (mostly machine oil and steam, and a hint of ozone near the transformers), all the while knowing that although it's one of the safest and most energy-efficient civilian power reactors ever built it's a a technological dead-end, that there won't be any more of them, and that when it shuts down in thirty or forty years' time this colossal collision between space age physics and victorian plumbing will be relegated to a footnote in the history books. "Energy too cheap to meter" it ain't, but as a symbol of what we can achieve through engineering it's hard to beat.]]> engineering nuclear-power agr history uk torness power plumbing https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:9934ff8a7231/ 2023-04-24T21:31:48+00:00 https://theoutline.com/post/6536/british-feminists-media-transphobic?s=03 jmWhile claiming to be the country’s foremost critical thinkers, the group was riddled with anti-humanities bias and a fetish for a certain kind of “science” that it held to reveal a set of immutable principles upon which the world was built with almost no regard whatsoever for interpretative analysis based on social or historical factors. Part of this mode of thinking was an especially reductivist biologism: the idea that there are immutable realities to be found in our DNA, and if we just paid enough attention to Science and stopped trying to split hairs and discover meaning over in the superfluous disciplines of the humanities, then everything would be much simpler. It’s precisely this kind of biological essentialism — which skirts dangerously close to eugenics — that leads people to think they can “debunk” a person’s claim to their gender identity, or that it should be subjected to rigorous testing by someone in a lab coat before we can believe the subject is who they say they are. ]]> debunking scepticism skeptics history terfs uk uk-politics gender https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:da2292364949/ 2023-04-14T11:44:51+00:00 https://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~garciaf/publications/why_banker_bob.pdf jm Abstract. This paper presents a security review of the mobile apps provided by the UK’s leading banks; we focus on the connections the apps make, and the way in which TLS is used. We apply existing TLS testing methods to the apps which only find errors in legacy apps. We then go on to look at extensions of these methods and find five of the apps have serious vulnerabilities. In particular, we find an app that pins a TLS root CA certificate, but do not verify the hostname. In this case, the use of certificate pinning means that all existing test methods would miss detecting the hostname verification flaw. We also find one app that doesn’t check the certificate hostname, but bypasses proxy settings, resulting in failed detection by pentesting tools. We find that three apps load adverts over insecure connections, which could be exploited for in-app phishing attacks. Some of the apps used the users’ PIN as authentication, for which PCI guidelines require extra security, so these apps use an additional cryptographic protocol; we study the underlying protocol of one banking app in detail and show that it provides little additional protection, meaning that an active man-in-the-middle attacker can retrieve the user’s credentials, login to the bank and perform every operation the legitimate user could. See also: https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/software-security/ineffective-certificate-pinning-implementations/]]> ssl tls certificates certificate-pinning security infosec banking apps uk pci mobile https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:be29417d3934/ 2023-03-03T10:39:27+00:00 https://mas.to/@kityates/109958429104381225 jm boris-johnson fail covid-19 uk uk-politics whatsapp https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:ddd1832b7712/ 2022-04-07T15:14:01+00:00 https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1512069616809377803 jm long-covid covid-19 society health uk pandemics future https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:bf0bafb632cf/ 2022-03-31T09:03:41+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/30/uk-near-record-covid-cases-three-myths-omicron-pandemic jm covid-19 uk ireland omicron sars-cov-2 pandemics health https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:24e43840b81b/ 2022-03-23T11:17:27+00:00 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.18.22272607v1 jm papers preprints long-covid covid-19 uk https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:420b3b823ed7/ 2022-03-21T11:51:11+00:00 https://webdevlaw.uk/2022/03/18/a-quick-take-on-three-pretty-terrifying-changes-to-the-online-safety-bill/ jmThe UK is, indeed, taking the “world-leading” stance – not duplicated by any other western nation – of requiring any business or organisation whose online presence could possibly be accessed in the UK to proactively monitor and scan for legal content. That means you and your business and your project, not just the five or six companies the people who cooked up this law think the Internet is. This hits everyone and everything. I'd have to agree with the poster that the likely result will simply be websites going offline for UK users. ]]> politics uk online-safety-bill web regulation https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:06c2b06175cd/ 2022-03-11T11:28:20+00:00 https://www.ft.com/content/33444f29-bab1-4655-85b5-c0b1f68d9653 jmA quarter of UK employers say long Covid is now one of the main causes of long-term sickness absence among their staff, according to research that suggests the debilitating condition could be exacerbating labour shortages that are plaguing many parts of the economy. A survey of 804 organisations, representing more than 4.3m employees, found that one in four put it among the top three reasons for long-term absence, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said on Tuesday, while half had staff who had suffered from long Covid in the past 12 months. ]]> long-covid future uk disabilities covid-19 health economy https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7a4b2e97b40e/ 2022-02-22T09:38:47+00:00 https://twitter.com/PaulMainwood/status/1494756760174964744 jm covid-19 testing sampling random measurement ascertainment detectability epidemiology sars-cov-2 uk ons modelling https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:4d687652b4d1/ 2022-02-15T17:27:57+00:00 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukhsa-review-shows-vaccinated-less-likely-to-have-long-covid-than-unvaccinated jmThe data from some of the studies included in the review suggests that: people with COVID-19 who received 2 doses of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, or Moderna vaccines or one dose of the Janssen vaccine, were about half as likely as people who received one dose or were unvaccinated to develop long COVID symptoms lasting more than 28 days; vaccine effectiveness against most post-COVID symptoms in adults was highest in people aged 60 years and over, and lowest for younger participants (19 to 35 years) They also estimate prevalence of long COVID as affecting 2% of the UK population.]]> long-covid uk ukhsa vaccines sars-cov-2 https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:5f524dffd038/ 2022-02-10T10:54:11+00:00 https://www.jcwi.org.uk/news/we-won-home-office-to-stop-using-racist-visa-algorithm jmThe visa algorithm discriminated on the basis of nationality - by design. Applications made by people holding ‘suspect’ nationalities received a higher risk score. Their applications received intensive scrutiny by Home Office officials, were approached with more scepticism, took longer to determine, and were much more likely to be refused. We argued this was racial discrimination and breached the Equality Act 2010. Entrenched bias and racism in the visa system breaks hearts and tears families apart, like the four siblings from Nigeria unable to travel to the UK for their sister's wedding, or the countless skilled professionals refused unable to contribute to conferences and events in the UK just because they don't come from a rich white country - including scores of African academics and artists denied entry for no good reason. The streaming tool was opaque. Aside from admitting the existence of a secret list of suspect nationalities, the Home Office refused to provide meaningful information about the algorithm. It remains unclear what other factors were used to grade applications. The algorithm suffered from a feedback loop — a vicious circle in which biased enforcement and visa statistics reinforce which countries stay on the list of suspect nationalities. In short, applicants from suspect nationalities were more likely to have their visa application rejected. These visa rejections then informed which nationalities appeared on the list of ‘suspect’ nations. This error, combined with the pre-existing bias in Home Office enforcement (in which some nationalities are targeted for enforcement because they are believed to be easier to remove), accelerated bias in the Home Office’s visa process. Such feedback loops are a well-documented problem with automated decision systems. ]]> algorithms racism uk immigration automation home-office https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:7f3d2b387e37/ 2022-01-26T12:34:08+00:00 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/selfreportedlongcovidaftertwodosesofacoronaviruscovid19vaccineintheuk/26january2022 jm long-covid covid-19 ons uk vaccines vaccination https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d56261ffda1f/ 2022-01-21T12:07:06+00:00 https://www.deliverme.ie/how-it-works jm delivery brexit uk parcels shipping ireland https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c3d79e29a965/ 2022-01-20T11:07:59+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/12/long-covid-trial-britain-short-term-virus?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other jmAn outdated classification distinguishes diseases as “organic” or “functional”. Organic conditions, such as heart attacks, rheumatoid arthritis and bowel cancer are those that cause changes detectable by investigations such as blood tests or scans. Functional conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome, do not necessarily cause changes detectable by tests, or the right test may not yet be available. Stigma and misconceptions arising from this classification may lead to functional conditions being overlooked, which is surely familiar to many with long Covid. ]]> long-covid disease medicine uk health me-cfs gaslighting https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:6afb963504e0/ 2021-10-17T14:08:47+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/17/facing-chaos-and-needing-a-scapegoat-the-tories-seek-endless-fight-with-europe#comment-152562075 jmFrost is well aware of the futility of his demands – indeed, it is the whole point of his Lisbon performance. Instead of declaring victory, accepting the EU’s munificent offers and turning down the heat in Northern Ireland, he and Johnson prefer to make an impossible demand so that they can blame the EU for rejecting it. They are, as the South Belfast MP, Claire Hanna, has put it, “mining for grievance”. ]]> grievances neologisms phrases boris-johnson uk brexit politics northern-ireland eu https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:ba5d9adc89f5/ 2021-08-18T10:31:18+00:00 https://twitter.com/ThierryAaron/status/1425849989843103748 jm climate-change grim-meathook-future climate-delay denialism uk newspapers predatory-delay https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:2fddb8cda168/ 2021-08-11T15:38:41+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/21/i-dont-want-to-be-seen-as-a-zealot-what-mps-really-think-about-the-climate-crisis jmRunning these workshops was a fascinating experience. In each, there was a definite point which I came to think of as a “penny-drop moment”, when the participants came to realise the significance of the climate crisis and the way it would shape our collective future. In one workshop, for example, a very eminent scientist explained to MPs how crop yields are likely to be severely affected by extreme weather, a likely scenario if global average temperatures rise by 2C or more – and that this could lead to food shortages. The response was striking. There was a silence, a collective intake of breath, a recognition of the significance of the changes that could be upon us if we don’t act. And then, at the end of our workshop, they walked out of the door and back to their normal lives. [...] It became clear to me that there were two main reasons why MPs struggled with the issue: first, because it didn’t fit easily into the culture of political life and their own identity as a parliamentarian; and second, because they worried that public support for climate action was limited, and that, as representatives, they needed to be led by their electorate. I have some confidence that a Citizen's Assembly approach is the right answer here. In Ireland it was clear that politicians felt more comfort with gay marriage and abortion as topics once those CAs had delivered their findings and demonstrated how an electorate really felt about them. ]]> democracy elections future climate-change uk politics politicians https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d9a00ba47a41/ 2021-07-07T12:22:11+00:00 https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/07/06/we-should-shift-our-focus-from-covid-19-mortality-to-morbidity-particularly-in-children/ jmThe UK is an outlier by allowing children to remain unvaccinated at a time when lifting of restrictions will increase covid-19 infection rates. We have heard much about how vaccination is breaking — or weakening — the link between SARS-CoV-2 and the clinical manifestations of covid-19. We consider the nature of this link from the perspective of quantitative modelling — and what it means for risks following exposure to the virus. In brief, it suggests we should shift our focus from mortality to morbidity, particularly in children. ]]> bmj uk covid-19 morbidity mortality disease modelling kids https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:305304b659e8/ 2021-06-30T10:24:23+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/30/openstreetmap-looks-to-relocate-to-eu-due-to-brexit-limitations jmOne “important reason”, Rischard said, was the failure of the UK and EU to agree on mutual recognition of database rights. While both have an agreement to recognise copyright protections, that only covers work which is creative in nature. Maps, as a simple factual representation of the world, are not covered by copyright in the same way, but until Brexit were covered by an EU-wide agreement that protected databases where there had been “a substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting the data”. But since Brexit, any database made on or after 1 January 2021 in the UK will not be protected in the EU, and vice versa. Other concerns Rischard listed include the increasing complexity and cost of “banking, finance and using PayPal in the UK”, the inability for the organisation to secure charitable status, and the loss of .eu domains. The increased importance of the EU in matters of tech regulation also played a role: “We could more effectively lobby the EU [and] EU governments and have more of an impact, especially in countries where there is no local chapter,” Rischard wrote.]]> mapping brexit uk osm openstreetmap eu copyright databases ip https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c66761c45e4c/ 2021-02-17T11:42:43+00:00 https://twitter.com/i_petersen/status/1361576418694545411 jm ons uk covid-19 schools education https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:468da4a771f0/ 2021-02-09T09:53:41+00:00 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/958913/S1024_SPI-M_vaccination_ask_Imperial_College.pdf jm uk covid-19 vaccination imperial-college lockdowns epidemiology models https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:bdaf9c336078/ 2021-01-19T23:18:33+00:00 https://www.moneyguideireland.com/buying-from-amazon-uk-after-brexit.html jm brexit shipping shopping amazon uk ireland https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c2e64064d882/ 2021-01-10T21:48:56+00:00 https://i.imgur.com/bBnHmXz.png jm chance probability terminology words uk phia odds https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:4245f979d371/ 2020-12-31T15:03:28+00:00 https://twitter.com/Dereklowe/status/1344644935186833414 jm'The UK government is thus running a real-time experiment on its population in the hopes that the benefits of a first dose of its available vaccines (AZ/Oxford, Pfizer/BioNTech) will outweigh the risks of then messing with the dosing schedule. The horrible part is that there’s a good case to be made that running this big experiment (and taking on the risk of lowering the overall effect of the two-dose schedule) is still the right decision. Things are bad. But don’t pretend it’s not an experiment, or that we know what the outcome will be. This is a desperation move, and it’s a terrible thing that such a strategy has made it to the top of the list. I hope it works.' ]]> vaccines vaccination covid-19 uk dosing https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:b217a737144c/ 2020-11-03T16:01:36+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/02/fault-in-nhs-covid-app-meant-thousands-at-risk-did-not-quarantine jmThe root of the error, the Guardian has learned, was a decision to incorporate a measure of “infectiousness” into the app’s code. While the app was undergoing testing in the Isle of Wight, it used a simple metric that recommended isolation for anyone who had been in contact – closer than 2 metres – with a potentially infectious person for 15 minutes or more in a single day. But shortly before the app was launched nationally, it was updated to account for the fact that people are most infectious shortly after their symptoms show. The maths was changed so that people outside that period of peak infectiousness counted for just two-fifths of the risk. Since that meant the overall score was likely to be lower, the intention was to reduce the risk threshold correspondingly to ensure that someone of maximum infectiousness would need just three minutes of contact before they triggered an alert. But that change never happened, and as a result, users were only told to isolate if they had spent 15 minutes close to a very infectious person, or nearly 40 minutes near someone who was pre-symptomatic but still thought to be shedding the virus. The error was only discovered when a new version of the contact-tracing app, which can better account for exposures at mid-range (over a metre away) was created. The unfeasibly high risk score also explained another problem plaguing the app: “ghost notifications” warning users that they may have been exposed to someone with Covid, but which never resulted in advice to isolate. The app’s initial advice to users was that these notifications could be safely ignored, since they reflected a contact below the risk threshold; now that the NHS risk threshold is known to have been artificially low, one insider said, it is likely that the vast majority of those ghost notifications should in fact have been advice to self-isolate. ]]> bluetooth nhs bugs failure ble covid-19 uk https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:1d34106fc568/ 2020-09-29T11:25:59+00:00 https://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2020/09/29/covid-the-libertarian-population-immunity-strategy-is-wrong jmAs cases of covid in the UK surge once again, the debate has restarted about whether to suppress covid until a vaccine becomes available, or whether to pursue a deliberate strategy of achieving population immunity without a vaccine. The assumption is that vulnerable populations can be protected while the rest of the population, who are at low risk of hospitalisation and death, can be safely encouraged to live life normally and be exposed to the virus without a vaccine. Some even advocate that younger people, because they are at lower risk, should be the first to actively seek infection. "Not only is it a good thing for young people to go out there and become immune," one commentator said, "but that is almost their duty". It is this deliberate strategy which I find so troubling, for six reasons. [....] ]]> uk politics covid-19 herd-immunity immunity risk pandemics https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d1f2b3f74b50/ 2020-09-06T11:19:45+00:00 https://twitter.com/ewanbirney/status/1302010931480793088 jm twitter threads covid-19 ireland uk europe https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:74f948f9883e/ 2020-09-04T09:21:44+00:00 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.31.20183095v1 jm covid-19 symptoms kids schools sars-cov-2 studies preprints papers uk testing https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:802fb6bba3e2/ 2020-08-17T11:19:06+00:00 http://thaines.com/post/alevels2020 jm ofqual schools marks exams a-levels uk estimation statistics maths fail https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:f95b2089f16c/ 2020-08-14T13:15:48+00:00 https://twitter.com/xtophercook/status/1293841154782441474 jm ofqual uk education covid-19 estimation a-levels grades schools https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d5a5c8d3d589/ 2020-07-20T10:29:20+00:00 https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-the-inside-story-of-how-government-failed-to-develop-a-contact-tracing-app-12031282 jm nhsx palantir bluetooth covid-19 uk tories data-privacy nhs https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:827003909000/ 2020-06-14T22:24:06+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/14/the-lancets-editor-the-uk-response-to-coronavirus-is-the-greatest-science-policy-failure-for-a-generation jmHe still can’t understand why the government’s scientific advisers didn’t consult their counterparts in China. The world of medicine is a small one, he says, and everyone knows the people responsible for coordinating the Chinese government’s response. “These are people they could have literally sent an email to, or picked the phone up to, and said, ‘Hey, we read your paper in the Lancet, can it really be as bad as that? What is going on in Wuhan?’ And if they’d done that they would have found out that this was indeed as bad as described.” This is exactly what blew my mind. It was clear IN JANUARY what was happening in China, and how they had to deal with it.]]> covid-19 china lancet medicine pandemics uk policy https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:4daaf3112946/ 2020-06-02T09:49:01+00:00 https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/05/29/862602058/opinion-the-ghosts-of-colonialism-are-haunting-the-worlds-response-to-the-pandem jmThere was public knowledge of a viral respiratory epidemic threat from China in January, yet serious nationwide public health responses in the U.S. and U.K. did not start until March 2020. Even once it became clear that wealthy countries were at risk, there was a widespread reluctance to learn from China and from other Asian countries. The American reaction focused instead on blaming China – consider President Trump's use of the term "Chinese virus." China was further criticized for using draconian measures when millions of people in Wuhan were put under lockdown – even though the countries of the West that denigrated such tactics might today be better off if they had acted similarly. Indeed, recent data suggests that the majority of cases in the United States came from New York City. Restricting travel out of the city, as was done in Wuhan, might have meant far fewer cases in the U.S. ]]> colonialism diseases covid-19 history neocolonialism china usa uk asia https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:c70f059d297a/ 2020-05-18T15:08:48+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/18/lockdown-sceptics-coronavirus-brexit?CMP=fb_cif jmin the comment sections of some of the rightwing press, a new, virulent strain of Covid-19 scepticism has emerged that is the precise opposite of journalism. Rather than holding power to account, it distorts and bends reality to serve elite interests – and to warp public debate. In the pages of the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator and other outlets, Britain’s contemporary “lockdown sceptics” have dedicated themselves to a singular cause: proving that the UK response to coronavirus has been a massive, hysterical overreaction. “Lift the lockdown” is their cogito ergo sum; Sweden their promised land. ]]> lockdown uk politics brexit experts daily-telegraph spectator right-wing covid-19 sceptics libertarians contrarians culture-war https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:b5f10b0daef7/ 2020-05-07T21:01:48+00:00 https://twitter.com/NHSX/status/1258453749691027465 jm nhsx nhs uk covid-19 ble bluetooth tracking contact-tracing ios android apps https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:6c04196c212b/ 2020-05-05T10:34:29+00:00 https://rs-delve.github.io/reports/2020/05/04/face-masks-for-the-general-public.html jmFace masks could offer an important tool for contributing to the management of community transmission of Covid19 within the general population. Evidence supporting their potential effectiveness comes from analysis of: (1) the incidence of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission; (2) the role of respiratory droplets in transmission, which can travel as far as 1-2 meters; and (3) studies of the use of homemade and surgical masks to reduce droplet spread. Our analysis suggests that their use could reduce onward transmission by asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic wearers if widely used in situations where physical distancing is not possible or predictable, contrasting to the standard use of masks for the protection of wearers. If correctly used on this basis, face masks, including homemade cloth masks, can contribute to reducing viral transmission. ]]> facemasks masks health covid-19 uk infection https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:f82e8039ea9f/ 2020-04-29T22:04:12+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/29/revealed-the-inside-story-of-uk-covid-19-coronavirus-crisis jm uk government covid-19 omnishambles leaks guardian https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:bbd919b48b97/ 2020-04-28T11:06:08+00:00 https://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronavirus-and-brexit.html jmWhat both Brexit and coronavirus reveal are some fundamental flaws in the way [the UK] are governed and the political discourse around it. The populist explosion of this decade, of which Brexit was a prime example, has bequeathed a way of governing which is impervious to reason, and incapable of engaging with complexity. It isn’t just chance that we have a woefully incompetent Prime Minister, a dud stand in, and a cabinet of mediocrities, propped up by a cadre of special advisors with few skills beyond contrarian posturing. They are the legacy of Brexit. They were brought into power by Brexit. But all the things which secured the vote for Brexit – the clever-but-dumb messaging, the leadership-by-slogan, the appeal to nostalgic sentiment, the disdain for facts and evidence, the valorisation of anger and divisiveness, the bluff ‘commonsense’ and the ‘bluffers’ book’ knowledge – are without exception precisely the opposite of what is needed for effective governance in general, and crisis management in particular. ]]> uk-politics uk politics brexit covid-19 government populism crisis-management https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:ec79d9a751c2/ 2020-04-20T09:01:26+00:00 https://www.ft.com/content/5f393d77-8e5b-4a85-b647-416efbc575ec jmAn insider with direct knowledge of the process said that the basic products are now unlikely to be cleared for use in the UK against Covid-19.  “Pretty much all the basic new designs are not going to get through the Covid approval process. The government spin is the ‘clinical need’ changed, but the reality is that it was always misguided to think you could develop and create these ventilators,” the person said. “Starting the process in this way was unwise. It has gradually become more sensible.” ]]> covid-19 uk fail bureaucracy tories ventilators medicine https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:8ad7459f0be2/ 2020-04-20T08:52:47+00:00 https://www.wired.co.uk/article/uk-coronavirus-testing jmThe irritation being expressed by microbiologists and their colleagues who are critical of the government is not over the quality of labs or people’s willingness to dig in and help. Rather, it is to do with how testing for Covid-19 has been managed, particularly at a national level. As the chances of reaching 100,000 tests per day by the end of April grow ever slimmer, the UK’s sorry predicament is only becoming clearer. ]]> covid-19 uk shambles rt-pcr pandemics https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d35346f9e53c/ 2020-04-17T09:07:19+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/16/number-coronavirus-pandemic jmThere have been more than 93,000 cases of Covid-19 identified in the UK. Let’s round that up and say it is 100,000. So if the reports from the BMJ editorial are accurate, the actual number would be that multiplied by five, in which case there would have already been half a million infections in the UK. If this really is the peak and we see as many cases on the way down as on the way up, that would total 1 million infections from the initial surge in the UK – hopefully all of those people would then be immune. That would leave about 65 million people in the UK still without immunity. I am going to be unusually optimistic here, and assume that everyone who has Covid-19 becomes fully immune (not a given), and that the virus is towards the less transmissible end of the range of estimates currently available. If this is the case, you would need half your population to have been infected to achieve a level of population immunity that would stop the epidemic continuing to grow and overwhelming healthcare systems. ]]> guardian health uk covid-19 pandemics herd-immunity future https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:8ccaadae30f8/ 2020-04-15T14:30:43+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/15/uk-government-coronavirus-science-who-advice jmon 12 March, the government alarmed many public health experts by abruptly abandoning containment and announcing that community case-finding and contact-tracing would stop. The aim was no longer to stop people getting it, but to slow it down while protecting the vulnerable. The evidence underpinning the government’s decision appears in a report from 9 March summarising the potential impact of behavioural and social interventions. The report did not consider the impact of case-finding and contact-tracing, but it did suggest that the biggest impact on cases and deaths would come from social distancing and the protection of vulnerable groups. And yet social distancing was not recommended then. That day, 12 March, after hearing with disbelief the government announcement that didn’t include widespread social distancing, I recommended to my team at Imperial that they should work from home for the foreseeable future. Indeed, I have not been to my office since. Neither the advice nor the science were followed that week. My colleagues, led by Neil Ferguson, published a report on 16 March estimating that without strong suppression, 250,000 people could die in the UK. The government responded that day with a recommendation for social distancing, avoiding pubs and working from home if possible. But there was still no enforcement, and it was left up to individuals and employers to decide what to do. Many people were willing but unable to comply as we showed in a report on 20 March. It was only on 23 March that a more stringent lockdown and economic support was announced. Between 12 and 23 March, tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of people will have been infected. Boris Johnson himself may well have been infected that week, and his stay in the intensive care unit may have been avoided if the government had shifted to remote working on 12 March. The current best estimate is that around 1% of those infected will die. ]]> nhs health uk politics covid-19 pandemics predictions https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:90b1914c61f5/