In 1959, Charles Lindblom wrote The Science of “Muddling Through”, advocating an incremental approach to public policy and management. “Muddling through” does not work for pandemics. The science of pandemics is dominated by epidemiology, not behavioral science. The delay between policy decisions (or indecisions) and the resultant high UK death rate needs tracing back from …
Monthly archives: March 2020
BBC Interview: Exponential Growth (COVID-19 Interview)
Interview with BBC Radio Leicester on the exponential growth phase of the pandemic in the UK (note the date of the recording is 23 March 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O1SDUeEhZ8&
Charley Says Social Distancing
Charley was a character in UK Public Information Films in the 1970s. Here he is in ‘Charley Says Social Distancing’ “Treat everyone else as if they’re about to catch fire and you’re a lit match.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YmN0iV3f0I Charley: Miaoweeaawwwoa [I can’t believe I’m writing this] Narrator: This is you. You’re a match. And these are your …
BBC Radio Interview – Social Distancing
https://youtu.be/zT7o8HEOr2Q Also appeared on LBC & Global News stations 13-14 March 2020.
I am concerned about the UK Government’s approach to social distancing
The real problem with Coronavirus Covid-19 is that when the health service becomes overloaded, the death rate goes up significantly. So, it is imperative that we keep the number of cases at any one time below or as near as possible to NHS capacity. The Government’s model relies on shifting the peak. I am not …
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Social Distancing using Play-Doh and Matches
There has been much talk about using social distancing as a response to the Coronavirus outbreak. Here’s a video of how social distancing can be used: Close Contact, where the population is infected very rapidly. This is not A Good Thing – the national health service is overwhelmed, and the death rate goes up as …
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Coronavirus: The First Big Test of Behavioral Science
The United Kingdom is at a crossroads, an ideological battle between natural science and behavioral science. Let’s hope for all our sakes we get this one right. Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister, is facing a dilemma. When do we go from the so-called containment phase for controlling Covid-19 Coronavirus, to the delay phase. In …
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