COVID empowerment amidst uncertain science

Who’d have thought the events of the last week were possible just a few short weeks ago? Life for many of us will never be the same. We’ve jumped from global recognition of a climate emergency that few in high places seemed to think was particularly in need of urgent, radical action, to a health emergency, which has elicited an extraordinary, united global response. Perhaps a reflection of our species’ self-interest, one that’s driven much of our success as a species? But has Nature left its calling card in the form of the new coronavirus, and will the as yet largely unfelt but predictable massive social and economic impacts of unilateral government decisions our only options?

In our two pieces this week, we unpick some of these questions. In the first, my own blog, I call on us to all feel empowered, not paralysed, by our current predicament. The second piece picks up some of the emerging science around COVID-19, and highlights the many things we partially know or don’t know at all.

We apologise in advance if we leave in your mind more questions than you started with, but we continue to stress just how uncertain and incomplete are the data and assumptions on which governments are relying to make their decisions. Citizen choice – the long-standing bedrock of so many so-called civilised societies – has been put on hold until such time this ‘thing’ blows over.

In health, and not in proximity,