Professor Eugene Milne

The world is now weirdly full of epidemiology. Which is both a blessing – as pretty well everyone now knows what it is and why it matters – and a curse – too much simplification and desire for categorical answers to analogue questions. As a Director of Public Health, I now get telephone calls and messages asking me for R values. Yesterday evening, Kirsty Wark was grilling Newsnight guests on their calculation and use.

I think that you’ll agree that 48,000 is a lot of people. Nearly enough to fill St James’ Park (52,405). A LOT of people, but not as many as 130,000, which would overflow the Camp Nou and could make a substantial crowd even in the interestingly named Rugrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang (150,000).

One of the great joys of the internet age (and yes, this says much about the geek in me) is that it is now possible to pick up a news story, read the scientific paper upon which it is based and check out the original data before getting out of bed. Which I did this morning on reading about Leeds, the “first UK city to lower its childhood obesity rate” according to the Guardian and many other news outlets. It is a great story.