Tag Archives: COVID-19 pandemic
India-based neutrino oblivion
In a conversation with science journalist Nandita Jayaraj, physicist and Nobel laureate Takaaki Kajita touched on the dismal anti-parallels between the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) and the Japanese Kamioka and Super-Kamiokande observatories. The INO’s story should be familiar to readers … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged ASHA workers, Challakere science city, COVID-19 pandemic, Department of Atomic Energy, India-based Neutrino Observatory, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Kamioka, Naba K Mondal, Nandita Jayaraj, Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector, Takaaki Kajita, The Hindu
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Justice delayed but a ton of bricks await
From ‘SC declines Ramdev, Patanjali apology; expresses concern over FMCGs taking gullible consumers ‘up and down the garden path’’, The Hindu, April 10, 2024: The Supreme Court has refused to accept the unconditional apology from Patanjali co-founder Baba Ramdev and … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Op-eds, Science
Tagged Baba Ramdev, contempt of court, Coronil, COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Manmohan Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Patanjali Ayurved, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Supreme Court of India, Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority
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Hot in Ballia
More than half of the deaths reported during the heatwave in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar this week were reported from just one district in the former, called Ballia. On (or around) June 17, the medical superintendent of the Ballia district … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged Ballia, Bihar, COVID-19 pandemic, death certificate, heatwave, Indian Council of Medical Research, Joshimath, Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath
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Real heat
In the aftermath of Chicago’s infamous week-long heatwave in July 1995, the city’s residents, but including the mayor Richard Daley and his administration, couldn’t believe that so many had perished in the severe weather. They asked if the toll was … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds
Tagged climate crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, Eric Klinenberg, heatwaves, really real, Richard Daley, World Meteorological Organisation
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The omicron variant and scicomm
Somewhere between the middle of India’s second major COVID-19 outbreak in March-May this year and today, a lot of us appear to have lost sight of a fact that was central to our understanding of COVID-19 outbreaks in 2020: that … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged Anthony Fauci, COVID-19 pandemic, delta variant, omicron variant, science communication, scientism
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Panicking about omicron
The new omicron variant of the novel coronavirus has got everyone alarmed – which is darkly ironic. This variant has reportedly racked up more mutations than previous variants of concern, including the delta, with virologists and epidemiologists from South Africa … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines, delta variant, omicron variant, virus transmissibility
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On the lab-leak hypothesis
One problem with the debate over the novel coronavirus’s “lab leak” origin hypothesis is a problem I’m starting to see in quite a few other areas of pandemic-related analysis and discussion. It’s that no one will say why others are … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Scicomm, Science
Tagged absence of evidence, COVID-19 pandemic, DRASTIC, journalism, Katherine Eban, lab-leak hypothesis, Newsweek, Nicholas Wade, novel coronavirus, science communication, scientific illiberalism, The Seeker, Wuhan Institute of Virology, zoonotic-spillover hypothesis
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Broken clocks during the pandemic
Proponents of conspiracy theories during the pandemic, at least in India, appear to be like broken clocks: they are right by coincidence, without the right body of evidence to back their claims. Two of the most read articles published by … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm, Science
Tagged causality, conspiracy theories, COVID-19 pandemic, falsifiability, lab-leak hypothesis, Luc Montagnier, The Wire Science, zoonotic spillover
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The problems with one-shot Covishield
NDTV quoted unnamed sources in the Indian government saying it will be conducting a study to assess the feasibility of deploying the Covishield vaccine in a single-dose regimen instead of continuing the extant double-dose regimen. At any other time, such … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Op-eds
Tagged B.1.1.7 variant, B.1.617.2 variant, COVID-19 pandemic, Covishield, Government of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Public Health England, Serum Institute of India, vaccine effectiveness, vaccine efficacy, Vishwaguru
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On The Lancet editorial
On May 8, The Lancet published an editorial criticising the Narendra Modi government’s response to India’s second COVID-19 outbreak, which has been redefining the meaning of ‘snafu’. All hell broke loose. Of course, hell has been breaking loose for quite … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged COVID-19 epidemic, COVID-19 in India, COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Harsh Vardhan, favipiravir, hydroxychloroquine, Pankaj Chaturvedi, second wave, The Lancet, whataboutery
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