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Kit Yates

@Kit_Yates_Maths

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Math Biologist. Author. Books - "Math(s) of Life and Death" Order "How to Expect the Unexpected" now -

Oxford, England
Joined November 2011
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@Kit_Yates_Maths
Kit Yates
6 months
How to Expect the Unexpected is out in North America. It will help you to avoid making common mistakes and to make better decisions about the future. You can get it in all good bookshops and, of course online: Enjoy.
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@Kit_Yates_Maths
Kit Yates
2 years
I think about this sign almost every day.
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Kit Yates
1 year
I'm sorry, but you can't *always* be experiencing a higher volume of calls than average. That's not how averages work.
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Kit Yates
1 month
A water company released sewage into the stream that runs into the beach where we were holidaying. I didn’t like the idea of swimming in the sea after that, so I tried to sue to water company for spoiling our holiday. This is what happened… 1/21
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Kit Yates
1 year
How is it that covid cases are on the rise again? We've tried everything this year, from not talking about it to pretending it never existed.
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Kit Yates
3 years
Before you minimise the impact of covid in children by saying “very few children die of covid” remember, very few children die of any disease. Children are not supposed to die.
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Kit Yates
2 years
He missed 5 COBRA meetings. Three times he took covid action too late. Patients were sent to carehomes from hospitals without a negative test. Schools went back for a single day in Jan 2021. 195K people died. Please don't tell me he got the big calls right.
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Kit Yates
1 year
I know I'm a cynic, but this feels a lot like voter suppression.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Imagine if Omicron isn't that bad and all we end up achieving by implementing mitigations is reducing cases, taking pressure of hospitals, reducing long covid, protecting unvaccinated kids, buying time for people to be boosted and reducing the number of people dying from Covid.
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Kit Yates
3 years
If you start a point with, “But it’s only children with pre-existing conditions that will get seriously ill…”, I’m not interested in what comes next
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@Kit_Yates_Maths
Kit Yates
2 years
I for one will continue to wear a mask in enclosed public spaces. I will continue to isolate if I test positive for covid (although I am aware I am privileged to be able to do so) and I will continue to think of the impact of covid on the most vulnerable in our society. With me?
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Kit Yates
2 years
I may be the only person in the university still doing it, but while covid rates are sky high I'm going to continue to lecture in my mask in order to protect myself and my students.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Talked to my daughter (8) about the covid situation this morning. She said “It’s just like climate change. They won’t do anything because they say it’s too expensive, but it will end up costing humans.” She’s more correct than she knows, the parallel’s run deeper.
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Kit Yates
2 years
BJ: “Anyone that wants to can buy a test”. And that privileged take is exactly the problem.
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Kit Yates
3 years
This really is grotesque. Taking precautions like tucking in your tie and rolling up sleeves in a health care setting, but being so committed to your ideology that you won’t wear a mask in a pandemic. It makes me sick, and more importantly it might make vulnerable others sick.
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Kit Yates
3 years
On the Dido Harding “mutations are something we were not able to predict” front - I just chanced upon this in my daughter’s science book. She is seven.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Anti-stormers: Many of the trees that will fall were old trees anyway with pre-existing conditions.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Went into a shop on Friday. The man behind the counter said "You know you don't have to wear a mask in here right?". "Yes, I know" I said, "You know you don't have to not wear one?"
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Kit Yates
2 years
Don't let anyone tell you in mitigation that Johnson "got us through covid". Firstly, the pandemic is not over. Secondly, because of his decisions (like trying to 'save Christmas') so many of people didn't make it "through covid".
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Kit Yates
2 years
I still wear a mask when I go to indoor crowded spaces because I really believe it's still worth trying not getting covid.
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Kit Yates
2 years
If I were Prime Minister I would appoint a Health Secretary who actually knew something about healthcare.
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@Kit_Yates_Maths
Kit Yates
2 years
Wasn't there an investigation into the Prime Minister of our country by the @metpoliceuk for breaking his own rules? Anyone know what's taking them so long?
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Kit Yates
1 year
Buried in WhatsApp conversations between then-prime minister Boris Johnson, his scientific advisers and Dominic Cummings, is an exchange which is arguably even more worrying than this headline-grabbing stories. Johnson's fundamental maths mistake... 🧵1/22
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Kit Yates
3 years
I’m a bit frustrated with older, double vaccinated people telling me I have to “live with the virus”. I have had one dose of the vaccine and am sending my two unvaccinated kids to school every day in an area which has the fifth highest rates in country (nearly 600 per 100K).
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Kit Yates
2 years
If one in 30 people in your country have covid, there's no way you can describe that situation as post-pandemic. We are very much still in the midst of the pandemic.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Javid: "Covid is endemic like flu is and other viruses. Thankfully, it's no longer a pandemic and we've got the tools to fight it." Jesus. Who made this guy the health secretary? I'm sorry, but covid is very much still a pandemic.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Anyone else wondering what's happened to the @metpoliceuk 's investigation into the Downing Street parties? All gone a bit quiet on that front hasn't it?
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Kit Yates
3 years
Who suffers most when we remove masks? It’s people working in shops, hospitality and transport who will bear the brunt of the increase in risk. The same people who have already suffered disproportionately due to covid. This doesn’t seem right.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Why hasn't @nadhimzahawi come out and defended teachers against Fabricant's slurs? Why hasn't @sajidjavid come out and defended nurses?
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Kit Yates
2 years
Brexit had absolutely nothing to do with the speed of the UK vaccine roll out. The NHS had everything to do with it.
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Kit Yates
2 years
I'm going to come out and say it. I still think that it's a bad idea to let this novel virus - with potentially unknown long-term effects - spread largely uncontrolled through our schools infecting our children. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who feels like this.
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Kit Yates
2 years
I simply cannot accept this argument that it is better for children to get covid as soon as possible. It is better if children never get covid at all.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Thinking of all the vulnerable individuals out there tonight, for whom today's announcement is another kick in the teeth. 'Living with the virus' means drastically different things for different people.💔
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Kit Yates
2 years
Don't let people tell you that because you still wear a mask or take lateral flow tests before meeting up with people that you are "living in fear". To me it demonstrates that you care about your fellow humans. It's something to be admired, not scorned.
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Kit Yates
2 years
This is a picture of my best friend Nick. It was taken when he was 17. Within a few months of this photo being taken Nick had died. That was 20 years ago today and I wanted to share some thoughts with you about the enduring power of friendship.
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Kit Yates
2 years
But did thy die of climate change or just with climate change?
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Kit Yates
2 years
We haven't beaten covid, we've just stopped fighting.
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Kit Yates
3 years
But apparently this wasn’t worth resigning over?
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Kit Yates
2 years
I love this video from RIKEN in Japan. It models the flow of exhaled air in various different settings under different conditions. As well as the flow patterns being very beautiful, it also highlights the importance of good quality masks (FFP2/FFP3)
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Kit Yates
2 years
Any other parents of primary school children feel like they are living in a different world to the one portrayed in the media at the moment? Covid seems to be absolutely everywhere in primary schools at the moment.
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Kit Yates
11 months
Johnson claims he is the victim of an "establishment" stitch up. You went to Eton, and then to Oxford. You were the Prime Minister of your country. You are the establishment.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Javid and Sunak's resignation are not acts of principle. They are the actions of desperate men seeking to distance themselves from a toxic leader. If their resignations were acts of principle they would have happened long, long ago.
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Kit Yates
3 years
I’m so sick of the marginalisation of people with “pre-existing conditions” as if they are just barely managing to stave off death. Most people with pre-existing conditions live entirely fulfilling lives. It’s not ok just to write them off or to write them out of society.
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Kit Yates
1 year
Wherever I hear someone say “Vienna”, the voice inside my head say “that means nothing to me”, I try not to say it out loud, but sometimes I can’t help myself. Anyone else?
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Kit Yates
2 years
Today of all days it would be good to hear the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Officer tell us what their views on the government's proposed changes to the covid measures are.
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Kit Yates
1 year
Q. Why do mathematicians confuse Halloween and Christmas? A. Because 31 Oct = 25 Dec. Happy Christmas.
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Kit Yates
3 years
Controversial idea: instead of a minute silence, why don’t we honour the 140,000+ people who have died from covid with a public inquiry in order to learn from the catastrophic mistakes that have been made over the last year, and to ensure they don’t happen again.
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Kit Yates
1 year
"A few weeks ago, the New York Times called mask-wearers "the last holdouts". This week, the world's richest people went to great lengths to protect themselves from COVID"
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Kit Yates
2 years
“Learning to live with covid” should mean potentially accepting some level of mitigations in order to keep covid in control, not abandoning all efforts to protect our fellow citizens from what can be a very serious airborne illness.
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Kit Yates
2 years
One of the most unpleasant aspects of the pandemic has been the weaponisation of mental health issues by people who previously never gave them a second thought.
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Kit Yates
2 years
We don't get to a level of road traffic deaths where we say, OK, we've done enough, let's remove the speed limits, lets remove seat-belts. Why are we doing the same with covid?
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Kit Yates
9 months
It finally happened. After 3 and a half years of avoiding it I finally got covid for the first time... ... and it was awful. 🧵
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Kit Yates
2 years
I think it’s time for Sue Gray to file her report in full.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Laura Kunesberg's first question really hit the nail on the head: "You ask people to exercise responsibility, but how can people exercise responsibility if they can't afford a test." To which BJ had no answer but obfuscation.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Stop writing people with underlying health conditions out of the picture. They are your mum, you uncle, your grandma, your daughter, your brother, your friend. But for fortune’s sake, they are you and me, and they count just as much as everyone else.
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Kit Yates
6 months
I went outside to top up the chicken feed yesterday afternoon. We’re usually pretty careful about putting the lid on the food bin, but I figured it had been left off by accident. I was about to reach in and grab the scoop, but I looked in the bin first…
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Kit Yates
2 years
Does anyone genuinely believe the narrative that people in Downing Street worked incredibly hard compared to others across the country? Harder than doctors? Harder than nurses? Harder than teachers? I don't think so.
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Kit Yates
2 years
“This is sometimes said by people who have no understanding of health at all... and when they say it, it's usually because they want to make a political point.” Whitty on scorching form. The way to protect general health care is to control covid.
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Kit Yates
2 years
People who continue to wear masks are looking out or each other. It's not a political statement. It's not a virtue signal. It's not a sign of delusion and yes, we know it's not a legal requirement any more!
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Kit Yates
2 years
It still doesn't make sense to me that, at a time when we face record cases numbers, we are denying people the ability to test themselves for free in order to find out whether they are infectious and act appropriately.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Has anyone heard from the @metpoliceuk ? When is their investigation into the Downing Street Parties going to conclude? What is taking them so long? We haven't forgotten about it.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Zahawi: "What I have continued to do is not to put a mask on, but I wash my hands regularly – I try and sanitise them, because as you can imagine you shake hands with lots of people during the day." This is our Education Minister. No wonder covid is rife in our schools.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Why is the Health Secretary not addressing the acute pressure on hospitals due to covid? Where is he?
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Kit Yates
2 years
How long does it take to analyse the results of a few questionnaires @metpoliceuk ? Shouldn't we be hearing the decision on partygate now? Asking for a nation.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Is it normal to have four infection waves a year for a "seasonal endemic" virus?
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Kit Yates
2 years
Can you believe that closing our eyes to the pandemic and hoping it was over didn't actually work?
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Kit Yates
2 years
There are things we can do to reduce covid transmission that aren't "restrictions" Ventilating indoor spaces better is not a restriction Nor is providing the population with tests so they know when they are infected Nor is providing people with support to isolate when infected
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Kit Yates
7 months
“In a diary entry written by Patrick Vallance, who was the chief scientific adviser to the government at the time, it was revealed that the government “cherry-picked” and even re-wrote scientific advice, only enacting the parts that best suited them.”
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Kit Yates
2 years
I still don't accept this argument that it is better for children to get covid early and often. It is better if children never get covid at all.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Either I don't understand what 'over' means, or you don't understand what 'pandemic' means.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Isn’t everyone pleased that we let infections and deaths run high for four months in the autumn to avoid a winter surge?
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Kit Yates
2 years
Don't forget, it was Rishi Sunak who invited fringe scientists to Downing Street in September 2020. Their advice (and his efforts) convinced Boris Johnson to delay a second lockdown. The consequences as we now know, were catastrophic.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Wearing a mask doesn't demonstrate fear. It's almost the opposite. Wearing a mask demonstrates compassion for your neighbours.
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Kit Yates
2 years
The NHS is under extreme pressure in the middle of summer. It's not really being talked about. Certainly politicians seem to be ignoring it and hoping it goes away. Here's a thread on just what's happening. Please share far and wide. This affects all of us. 1/15
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Kit Yates
2 years
It is not illegal to cross the channel. It is not illegal to seek asylum.
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Kit Yates
2 years
I'm hearing this over and over again anecdotally. People having covid symptoms and testing negative for days on LFD before eventually testing positive. While covid levels are high, it probably makes sense to assume compatible symptoms are covid and act accordingly.
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Kit Yates
2 years
This feels sort of insane. We are averaging over 80,000 cases a day (probably more because of reduced testing). Where is the government's public health messaging? To stay silent on this is a complete abdication of responsibility.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Ventilating, filtering, vaccinating, isolating, contact-tracing and mask wearing do not constitute a lockdown. These are all sensible public health measures which would allow us to manage the pandemic better than we currently are.
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Kit Yates
3 years
I was on a train for the first time in ages last Sunday. It struck me that, in the same way we have a quiet carriage, couldn’t we have carriages for people who want to wear masks and carriages for people who don’t?
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Kit Yates
2 years
Why am I beginning to feel like an outlier for not wanting my kids to get covid. No - I am not of the opinion it's better that they get now to build up immunity for later. I am of the opinion it would be better if they'd never got it.
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Kit Yates
2 years
The greatest irony of the pandemic for me is that many of the protective measures instituted against covid were successful enough that people became convinced they weren't necessary in the first place.
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Kit Yates
2 years
The irony of telling people to exercise more personal responsibility while removing the tools that would allow them to do this.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Why not just ventilate the fucking schools?
@nadhimzahawi
Nadhim Zahawi
2 years
To drive attendance back to pre-pandemic rates and beyond, we are:   👉🏽 Consulting on new requirements for schools, trusts and LAs 👉🏽 Providing targeted support with our attendance advisors 👉🏽 Developing new national data dashboards
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Kit Yates
2 years
While the country is distracted by the charade that is the slow, drawn-out termination of Boris Johnson's premiership we are heading towards the highest covid case rates the country has seen and no-one is doing anything about it.
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Kit Yates
7 months
Not sure why these comments from John Edmunds yesterday were not more widely publicised. “We could have avoided much of the autumn wave… As it was we let it go. 20-25K people died… There was no reason for that number of people to have died - at all”
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Kit Yates
1 month
She has decided to fight South West Water in court. Both from the perspective of my holiday swimming and my regular weekly river swim, I will await the results of her battle with great interest. /Ends
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Kit Yates
2 years
Do you think people would behave differently if they knew Covid can have serious long-lasting neurological complications?
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Kit Yates
1 year
Stop me if you've heard this one before. Government ignores own scientific advisers to "approve the use of a banned bee-killing pesticide just days after the European Union’s highest court blocked its deployment on the continent."
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Kit Yates
2 years
I'm sure we'll hear much talk over the next few weeks of Johnson's legacy. For me, the length of this wall will be his enduring legacy.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Has any one seen the health secretary? Don't want to put him out, it's just that would be nice to hear what the plan is while the NHS is struggling to cope in the middle of summer!
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Kit Yates
3 years
As a reminder, please don’t get upset with the scientists for sounding the alarm. Direct your anger at the politicians who not only allowed the delta variant to enter the country, but allowed it to spread unchecked while removing mitigations and downplaying the potential risks.
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Kit Yates
2 years
Does any one else feel like - in the UK covid situation - they're watching the same movie over and over again, knowing how it is going to end and feeling powerless to prevent it.
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Kit Yates
1 year
We have high levels of an airborne disease which is known to have killed over 200K people in the last three years in he UK alone and yet peer/media pressure has convinced almost everyone not to take even the most basic precautions. An extraordinary time to be alive.
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Kit Yates
1 year
The people going on strike at the moment are not enemies of the general public. They are the general public, and they deserve to be paid enough to heat their homes as well as to put food on the table.
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Kit Yates
2 years
With so many people finding it "too much" to even wear a mask to protect their fellow citizens, I struggle to imagine how we are going to make the changes necessary to tackle to climate crisis.
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Kit Yates
1 month
…claiming it has no legal obligation to keep rivers and seawater clean of sewage and that no-one has a legal right to swim in the sea. I’m pleased to say Ms Bateman is made of sterner stuff than I am. 19/21
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Kit Yates
2 years
I'm always surprised that the enormous COVID-fraud that cost the taxpayers billions of pounds isn't a bigger news. Perhaps that's just me though.
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Kit Yates
1 year
Is anyone else seeing right-wing commentators they wouldn't follow in a million years popping up on their feed on the pretext that some people you follow also follow them? Recently I've had Rees-Mogg, Oakshott and Pearson - the unholy Trinity
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