vaccination rates

Was there really a 5% measles vaccination rate in Birmingham? Has Brexit already cost 6% of the UKs economy? For how long has crime been falling? And are contestants on the reality gameshow any good at finding traitors?

Tim Harford investigates the numbers in the news.

Presenter: Tim Harford Producers: Nathan Gower and Debbie Richford Series producer: Tom Colls Production coordinator: Brenda Brown Sound mix: Rod Farquhar Editor: Richard Vadon

In this 206th in a series of live discussions with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (both PhDs in Biology), we talk about the state of the world through an evolutionary lens.

In this episode, we discuss new year’s resolutions. The Oregon Health Authority has requested, using data kind of but not really from the CDC, that we resolve to get vaccinated! Then: a short reading from Natural Selections. And: What happened to Claudine Gay, the now-resigned president of Harvard, and why is anyone surprised? In light of the largest solar flare since 2017, which, had it been angled differently, could have wreaked havoc on Earth, why don’t we have systems in place to prevent such havoc? Are any of our institutions or systems functional? What is driving the lack of functionality?

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Mentioned in this episode:

Resolve to get vaccinated: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/ORHA/bulletins/3822af9

CDC report from 12-22-23: Influenza, Updated COVID-19, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccination Coverage Among Adults — United States, Fall 2023: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7251a4.htm

Era of the False Narrative: https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/era-of-the-false-narrative
Social Justice Elevator Music: https://rumble.com/v3zxpmt-bret-and-heather-202nd-darkhorse-podcast-livestream.html

Claudine Gay’s 1997 Dissertation: https://www.proquest.com/openview/724b4099916954afb2cda76a12deb066/1

2023 ends with a massive solar storm: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2024/01/01/2023-ends-with-strongest-x-class-solar-flare-for-six-years-get-ready-for-aurora/

Friday briefing: Israel-Gaza war pauses; Joe Manchin; childhood vaccines; government shutdown deadline; Titanic auction; and more

Read today's briefing.

The UK’s Covid cases are still rising and Scotland is being hit particularly hard - so are we speeding up our vaccination programme in response?

Will many of the UK’s coastal towns, not to mention central London, be underwater in the next few years?

Do the country’s poorest households really pay more than half their income in tax?

What are the top five places with the best vaccination rates in the world? The answers may surprise you.

We speak to Tom Chivers, a science journalist who has written a book called “How to Read numbers” with his cousin the economist David Chivers.