5 reasons why the coronavirus nightmare may soon be over
Matt Ridley
From vaccine triumphs to leadership learning curves, we can finally dare to hope for a breakthrough My article for The Telegraph: Like the ancient mariner, the virus refuses to leave us alone. Resurging in Blackburn, Spain, and America, it is still going to be around here when the winter comes. As we head indoors, it […]
Forget the doom and gloom. The retreat of Covid-19 is a great cause for optimism
Matt Ridley
Provided we learn the lessons of the first wave we will have little to fear as we reopen our economy My article for the Telegraph: It is now three weeks since thousands of protesters first gathered in Trafalgar Square, and two weeks since London filled with even larger crowds, few of whom wore masks or […]
Incentives for Innovation Will Eventually Defeat COVID-19
Matt Ridley
My article for the Inside Sources network: It will be an innovation that eventually defeats the virus: a new vaccine, a new antiviral drug — or a new app to help us avoid contact with infected individuals. So the one thing the world needs more than anything else is an incentive to innovate. Here’s an […]
Has the British scientific establishment made its biggest error in history?
Matt Ridley
A strange obsession with mathematical modelling has compromised the country’s covid response My article for The Telegraph: The scientific establishment in this country has had a bad war. Its mistakes have probably made the Covid-19 epidemic, as well as the economic downturn, worse. Britain entered the pandemic late, with lots of warning, so we should […]
Could the key to Covid be found in the Russian pandemic?
Matt Ridley
From lethal pandemic to common cold: what we can learn from the events of 1889-90 My article for Spectator: The killer came from the east in winter: fever, cough, sore throat, aching muscles, headache and sometimes death. It spread quickly to all parts of the globe, from city to city, using new transport networks. In […]
So Where Did the Virus Come From?
Matt Ridley
Research into the origins of the new coronavirus raises questions about how it became so infectious in human beings My article for the Wall Street Journal: New research has deepened, rather than dispelled, the mystery surrounding the origin of the coronavirus responsible for Covid-19. Bats, wildlife markets, possibly pangolins and perhaps laboratories may all have […]
The Solution to the Current Crises
Matt Ridley
The solution to the current crises is more innovation, not less. My blog post for Human Progress: When you think about it, what has happened to human society in the last 300 years is pretty weird. After trundling along with horses and sailboats, slaves and swords, for millennia, we suddenly got steam engines and search […]
The growing evidence on vitamin D and Covid
Matt Ridley
My latest article for Spectator: The argument that vitamin D deficiency may contribute to more severe cases of Covid is gaining ground. It is now reaching the point where it is surprising that we are not hearing from leading medical officials and politicians that people should consider taking supplements to ensure they have sufficient vitamin […]
Matt Ridley
My article with MP David Davis for The Telegraph: Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College “stepped back” from the Sage group advising ministers when his lockdown-busting romantic trysts were exposed. Perhaps he should have been dropped for a more consequential misstep. Details of the model his team built to predict the epidemic are emerging and they […]
We know everything – and nothing – about Covid
Matt Ridley
It is data, not modelling, that we need now My article for The Spectator: We know everything about Sars-CoV-2 and nothing about it. We can read every one of the (on average) 29,903 letters in its genome and know exactly how its 15 genes are transcribed into instructions to make which proteins. But we cannot […]
