Notices by Kit Yates (kityates@mas.to)

In light of the Royal Society's continued inaction on Elon Musk, it seems appropriate to share this again.

I wrote it last March when I resigned my position as associate editor at a Royal Society Journal.

Things haven't got better since then.

https://kityates.substack.com/p/why-im-resigning-my-editorship-at

"I'm afraid there's many bad people around, but they have made scientific advances." - President of the Royal Society.

The Royal Society continues to be happy to be associated with, indeed honour Elon Musk with fellowship, despite the Grok scandal.

I will never understand this.

It’s sad to think, but maybe I’ve gone to the US for the last time.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1dz0g2ykpeo

By the end of January 2020, it should have been clear that the virus posed a "serious and immediate threat" and "urgent planning" should have started, it says. Instead, February 2020 is described as a “lost month” with life continuing almost as normal across the country.
2/3

The report on module 2 of the UK covid inquiry heavily criticises a "lack of urgency" at this time, saying that governments in all four UK nations "did not take the pandemic seriously enough until it was too late”.
1/3

Boris Johnson says at the inquiry "it was slow to dawn on government generally about the full horror of of Covid."

Why? Why was it so slow to dawn on the government what could happen?

That slowness cost lives and livelihoods at a grand scale.

“A new study shows that receiving an updated COVID vaccine reduced people’s risk of severe disease and death in all age groups, regardless of immunity from prior infection or vaccination”
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-study-finds-annual-covid-vaccines-protect-people-against-severe-disease/

Bit niche I think, but apparently this parking spot is reserved for female rock climbers.

"In a study taking data from across the USA, children and adolescents were found to have double the risk of developing long COVID after their second infection with SARS-CoV-2"

Timely study given the current #CovidInquiry module is focussed on children.

https://www.iflscience.com/long-covid-risk-in-kids-found-to-double-after-their-second-covid-19-infection-81005

First op-ed for LiveScience on my Association of British Science Writers media fellowship.
"Ultimately whether good science is swamped by an ever rising quagmire of poor quality studies or whether we are able to turn back the tide depends on the integrity of researchers and the awareness of the organizations which facilitate and fund it."
https://www.livescience.com/human-behavior/citation-cartels-ghost-writing-and-fake-peer-review-how-fraud-is-causing-a-crisis-in-science-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-opinion

If I was a tutoring company and I wanted to convince you that I could teach your kids maths, I would probably not have an advert that said “3=2” on it!

That’s just me though.

Makes you wonder how the pandemic would have panned out if it were just health journalists penning the headlines rather than political journalists.

Expect more silence from the Royal Society in the face of their most notorious fellow advocating for the overthrow of the democratically elected government of a country he is neither a citizen nor a resident of (yet he is a fellow of their most prestigious learned society).

If you’re an academic and you’re not worried by the sort of rhetoric then you’re not paying attention.
You might think you’re insulated from this in the UK, but this sort of anti-academic propaganda is travelling over here.

“A child has died at Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital after contracting measles”

An avoidable tragedy.

Please get yourself and your kids vaccinated. For yourself and for others.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j1k3k44e2o
1/2

I guess you've heard some bad jokes about Fibonacci sequences?

Well, this one is as bad as the last two you heard put together.

Live by the sword…

“The analysis, billed as the most in-depth look yet at public procurement during the crisis, warns that systemic bias, opaque accounting and uncontrolled pricing resulted in vast waste of public funds on testing and personal protective equipment (PPE).”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/sep/09/tory-covid-contracts-worth-15bn-had-corruption-red-flags-study-finds?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

"In a new study published in the Journal of Hospital Infections, researchers found simple infection control measures could save lives and reduce costs."

It's not surprising really is it? Does make you wonder why we aren't even doing the basics.

https://buff.ly/3Xihxq2

“Despite the removal of mandates around masking and other safety procedures, COVID continues to cause severe illness, disability and death”

https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/protecting-hcws-and-patients-an-impossible-fix-or-an-essential-one