Tag: coronavirus

  • Reflections on passing 100,000: Grief and Anger

    Reflections on passing 100,000: Grief and Anger

    Recently the UK passed a pretty grim milestone: we went over 100,000 covid deaths. The UK has one of the worst death rates in the world – according to Worldometer, we are currently number five on the list (if you sort by deaths per million population). The two most common reactions I’ve seen have been…

  • Essex Covid Data: Quick update

    Essex Covid Data: Quick update

    My previous post about Essex covid data generated a bit of discussion. In particular, the key question seems to be: why do the hospital admissions seem to go up 7-14 days after the case numbers go up? It struck me yesterday that there’s a simple and straightforward answer: people who have symptoms get tested. In…

  • Analysing Essex Covid Cases (Dec 20)

    Analysing Essex Covid Cases (Dec 20)

    Over the last week or two, I’ve started tracking the covid cases in Essex. I’ve actually created a little data tracker where you can track cases and deaths across every region in Essex. (The data is taken from official ONS data and uses the most up-to-date data available). I created it because I was curious…

  • Covid and Biblical Principles:  Being Human

    Covid and Biblical Principles: Being Human

    In the third part of my short series on Covid and Biblical Principles, we are looking at what it means to be human. (If you missed them, parts one and two were on safety and truth). This is something fundamental to the discussion, and yet it is often assumed or ignored. I think this issue…

  • Thank God that Jesus did NOT maintain a safe distance

    Thank God that Jesus did NOT maintain a safe distance

    Over the last couple of weeks I have written about Biblical principles and covid (safety and truth). After Christmas I will, God-willing, continue – but for now I just wanted to share a brief thought. This is what it says in John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Jesus, the…

  • Covid and Biblical Principles: Truth

    Covid and Biblical Principles: Truth

    In my previous post I looked at the Biblical principles of safety. In this post we’re going to look at another principle which is very relevant to the current situation: truth. I want to outline a few Biblical principles for truth, and then if there’s space at the end talk a little about how we’re…

  • Covid and Biblical Principles: Safety

    Covid and Biblical Principles: Safety

    Over the last few months, I’ve seen a lot of talk about safety. It’s important to keep everybody safe. We especially need to keep those in vulnerable groups safe. But not many people have been thinking about what safety actually is, or putting it in context. I thought it might be helpful to think a…

  • Covid has given us what we (thought we) wanted

    Covid has given us what we (thought we) wanted

    Have you ever got exactly what you wanted, only to find that it wasn’t actually what you wanted? That’s a bit like how I’ve been feeling recently. It seems to me like covid has, in a funny kind of way, actually given us what we wanted. Only we found out we don’t actually want it…

  • Political truth vs Actual truth

    Political truth vs Actual truth

    I had another one of my epiphanies yesterday. As I was chatting to my wife, something became clear to me which I hadn’t really seen clearly before. That is: there are now two kinds of truth in the world – political truth and actual truth. They’re not the same thing at all. To some extent…

  • Is the risk of lockdown being ignored?

    Is the risk of lockdown being ignored?

    What I want to look at in this piece is the way politicians and the media are talking about risk in relation to the lockdown. We are constantly being told of the risk that covid poses and the need for more lockdown. What is often sidelined or ignored completely is the risk that a lockdown…