vivweb01blog

  I first published this in summer of '22 around the time of the mini-budget and the ensuing financial crisis, when prayer was back in fashion, particularly for those with risky investments...it remains relevant at a time when our uncertainties seem to be increasing, rather than starting to resolve themselves..... Introduction As is often quoted: ‘..there are only two certainties in life – death and taxes…’.   In the UK recently we have all heard quite enough about taxes recently, so I’ll focus on the former in this article, if I may, as a diversion from our economic woes. As we age, our thoughts naturally turn to the prospect of our own deaths – and what might or might not happen to us afterwards. Although death itself is a certainty for all of us, there is a surprising reluctance on the part of society to discuss its practicalities and consequences, both physical and spiritual.  In my view, this enduring taboo makes the subject more painful than it need be,  ...

  The short answer to this question is…yes, it already has. First, some background…. World Health Organization (WHO) has been monitoring data from Chinese surveillance systems that have been showing an increase in respiratory illness in children in northern China this autumn. In mid-November, China’s National Health Commission reported a nationwide increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases, predominantly affecting children. They attributed this seasonal increase primarily to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and known circulating pathogens such as influenza,  Mycoplasma pneumoniae , respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Also relevant was the continued prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the Chinese population. Both  Mycoplasma pneumonia  and RSV are known to affect children more than adults. To follow up their report, WHO made an official request to China to provide additional epidemiologic and clinical information, as well as laboratory results from the repo...

I last published in April on the whys and wherefores of our ‘broken’ immigration system .  By that stage the government had realised that 'Stopping the Boats' was a make or break problem for them, and was just starting to get focused on more active deterrence measures. The PM is now sporting it as one of his 5 principal objectives. However, since then their increasingly fraught campaign has, perhaps predictably, come up against many obstacles and delays, mainly due to unwelcome human intervention. As the Bard might have put it, “..One barge-load does not a solution bring….”, particularly if the new 'clients' are disembarked within a week of taking up residence because of 'health concerns'.  In the absence of either of our major political parties coming up with any really effective solution, and to avoid becoming even more of a laughing stock for the people smugglers, we should perhaps consider some more off the wall suggestions. One of the more inventive one...

  As predicted, SARS-CoV-2 hasn’t finished with us yet…. After a lull in the flow of ‘Variants if Concern’, we now have another Delta to Omicron-style evolutionary jump in the form of BA.2.86. The main concern with this particular variant is that it has lots of spike protein amino-acid mutations. First, just how different is it to past and present variants ? Relative to Omicron BA.2 (its putative ancestor) the BA.2.86 Spike Protein has 34 mutations: 29 substitutions, 4 deletions, 1 insertion. Relative to Omicron XBB.1.5 (more recent strain recommended for vaccine development) it has 36 mutations: 32 substitutions, 3 deletions, 1 insertion. Relative to the early Wuhan-Hu-1, it has a whopping 58 mutations: 52 substitutions, 5 deletions, 1 insertion. The key point here is that the number of spike amino acid mutations in the BA.2.86 variant relative to BA.2 and XBB.1.5 is comparable to the number of mutations in first Omicron strains relative to Wuhan-Hu-1. Although it’s e...

I first published this mini-review in July of last year - since the employment situation has worsened significantly since then, I've recently updated it to reflect recent developments and the prospects for our economic recovery.  It's important for the sake of our economy and our children's futures that we address our poor productivity as a nation. We can only hope to do this if we make maximum use of our home-grown talent. It's important that we now include more of our older workers in our workforce, whether they have retired or not, and we can only tempt them out of their 'economic inactivity' by providing strong incentives. The following article will I hope provide some practical suggestions on how we might do this. UK Government has, somewhat belatedly, declared this as a priority - time will tell whether they (or indeed their successors!) are prepared to put their (i.e. our) money and resources where their mouths are... -------------------------------------...