PSA: what "endemic" actually means.
This concept is being used as a placeholder to indicate the point when COVID19 will stop being a problem and life will go back to normal.

Good news: yes, it might. 🥳
Bad news: it's not likely at all. 😱
🧵1/n Definition: an infectious disease is endemic when it's present at more or less constant levels.

This happens because, when other things remain equal, the relative numbers of pathogen and host tend to reach an equilibrium.
Example: Malaria is endemic in some countries.
2/n

Apparently, tomorrow is freedom day! 😱

Incredible as it is, the UK government plans to directly create unnecessary harms and deaths, for its own population and, potentially, everyone else.

This🧵 lists resources, and briefly explains why the "murderous" label is most apt.
1/n First of all, "murderous" isn't my expression (I'd go for "homicidal"), it was used by Dr. Haseltine while referring to the strategy of (natural) herd immunity at the emergency summit organised by @allthecitizens, last Friday.
Here is the direct link:
2/n

I don't think people know how incredibly dangerous the current UK policies are.
It's about vaccine resistance: policies should be optimised for reducing the risk that they will emerge, instead they are creating the perfect conditions for the selection of vaccine resistance.
🧵1/n Initially, only mutations that make the virus *better able to spread* (Alpha, Delta) did have a selective advantage and did thus spread.
But, with a partially immune pop, mutations can provide a selective advantage, by escaping immunity, even if they spread less efficiently!
2/n

Having heard *that* interview, I have the 2 usual possible explanations.
1. Dishonesty/corruption. They want to cause unnecessary suffering and deaths.
2. World beating incompetence and hubris.
Usually, it's hard to decide, this time, I think the latter is likely the case.
🧵1/x Why? Because option 1 has too many political risks. Sure, they want to please their donors, who only care for their own ability to make money, but the risks are huge, politically.
Someday, their ability to sustain their fictions will snap, only hubris may suggest otherwise.
2/x

Alright, the time is right for a little bit of 💞
I've been sitting with this thing for too long, time to spit it out, despite my resistance due to shyness or something.

There is a varied bubble of people here on Twitter that gives me small joys and earns my gratitude daily.
1/n The key reason is that, had I been exposed to their work and thinking at the right time (some 20 years ago!), I know for sure that my whole life would have taken an entirely different direction.
[Aside: this doesn't mean I'm not happy with what actually happened!]
2/n

Status - I'm semi confined to a single room, with no access to musical instruments or videogames. I might have a rare episode of hypertweeting, but I don't plan to use Caps Lock, so there is that! Seems that I was wrong, so far!

This, By @WiringTheBrain is an excellent post.
Brilliant science communication and spot on wrt to the debate that triggered it (between @GaryMarcus and Yoshua Bengio).
However, I think it doesn't go far enough and misses an important chance.
Thread. 1/n

https://twitter.com/WiringTheBrain/status/1213473329769861120

@WiringTheBrain @GaryMarcus So what's missing? That natural selection is lazy - it will never encode anything that can be reliably obtained from the outside world. Which is why "EEE" Embodied/Extended/Enactive approaches are strictly necessary, for AI as well as cognitive science.
2/n

What #ParliamentShutDown is about.
A thread on strategy and tactics.

Premises: Cummings is the decision maker, a rare beast who understands at least the most fundamental rules of strategy. His final aim is to consolidate power.

#Brexit is a tool, not the aim.
#StopTheCoup
1/n In a confrontation with multiple players, only a fool thinks it's possible to plot a precise route to victory. Smarter people know that the best way to increase the chances of success is to maximise one's own options and reduce the options available to the opposition.
2/n

What the hell is @jeremycorbyn doing?
Why is he enabling #Tory #Brexit?
Is this the final betrayal?
No, it isn't.
It's the predicted effect of decisions taken 2-3 years ago. All things considered, it's not as bad as it could have been (thanks to #StopBrexit crowd).

Thread.
1/n To understand why, I need to outline 2 important mechanisms that most people, politicians and commentators seem to ignore, dismiss or simply don't get. They have different and somewhat opposite consequences, but are both decisive in the current & foreseeable predicaments.
2/n

Yesterday @bbcnickrobinson made a disturbing mistake, while interviewing Jean-Claude Trichet about #Brexit and financial services for the Today Program (@BBCR4Today)
The mistake boils down to broadcasting demonstrably false information, I assume @BBCNews will want to rectify.
1/9 The details.
The offending claim was made shortly after 1:15:03 (running time). Full audio is here: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09…
Transcription:
@bbcnickrobinson "..it is a year to go until Britain is due to leave the EU and there is no evidence that Britain is changing her mind.."
2/9

That @carolecadwalla nails it again: what is happening is that there is a coordinated and systematic attempt to normalise Fascistic language and concepts. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
This is not about neutralising important #StopBrexit voices: 1/ The whole #Brexit charade is an exercise in:
1) The concerted use of #disinformation to manufacture consent and make people vote against their best interests (sergiograziosi.wordpress.com/2016/07/09/bre…)
2) Twisting the concept of democracy to make invoking "the Will of the People" normal.
2/