Wildlife, conservation, photography, science and more
Wildlife, conservation, photography, science and more
I’ve read accounts of the Spanish Flu, which was the last major pandemic, mainly in 1918 [so over and done with relatively quickly]. At times, could seem responses were odd: maybe trying to act as if there was no disease…
Here, some info on evolution of highly pathogenic bird flu variants – maybe better dubbed poultry flu; they evolve from regular, low pathogenic, bird flus; these are common but tend to be mild in wild birds otherwise they can’t spread…
On 1 February 2020, as the coronavirus yet to be named Covid was starting to spread, Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist at the University of California who studies infectious diseases, tweeted, “Duck tape your underpants. 2020 is going to be a wild…
Since early in the pandemic, I’ve been seeing scientists arguing Covid is airborne, even with hashtag #covidisairborne – including to counter notions it is spread by droplets [short range], which seem to be based on very old notions. Important if…
While deaths from Covid have proven most newsworthy, evidence is snowballing that Long Covid is also a serious issue, even affecting people in whom the disease initially appeared mild. Here, a few snippets from related articles and Twitter threads, links…
When I first read of Covid originating near a lab conducting experiments with viruses, I thought just coincidence. Since then, I’ve come to believe in lab origin – and that scientists had sought coronaviruses from bats, brought them to Wuhan…
Over two years into the Covid pandemic, and with yet more anti-pandemic measures introduced by the Hong Kong government, it surely seems like we’re in a perpetual state of déjà vu all over again (as US baseballer Yogi Berra put…
Two years into the pandemic, there’s still too much nonsense re Covid being no big deal, “just the flu”, or even a common cold. Also notions Omicron is “mild”, nothing to worry about and should let rip. Anyone cherishing such…
“HOLY MOTHER OF GOD—the new coronavirus is a 3.8!!!” tweeted Harvard-affiliated public-health researcher Eric Feigl-Ding in January 2020. “How bad is that reproductive R0 value? It is thermonuclear pandemic level bad—never seen an actual virality coefficient outside of Twitter in…
[Written January 2021] In January last year, as reports were emerging of the new coronavirus being detected outside mainland China – including in Hong Kong, I wrote a column that quietly suggested, “It can be readily transmitted by mobile people, and…
[Written July 2020] Though it’s only around six months since the Covid-19 pandemic came to light and began surging worldwide, it already seems a long time since schools were open as a matter of course, only a handful of people with coughs…
aka Well, That Escalated Quickly In July, I spent a break away from but near my home, not as a typical staycation, but in a hospital, for a case of cellulitis. No, not for “cellulite”, as many people have; but…