• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contribute
  • Contact

Sceptical Scot

Asking Questions. Seeking Answers.

You are here: Home / Archives for Coronavirus

Coronavirus

Vaccination: new start or emperor’s clothes?

January 10, 2021 by James Urquhart 1 Comment

‘The outcome is indeed so vital for us all that the progress of the vaccination programme is the one topic that cannot be kicked into the long grass of some future Inquiry – and this knowledge must be shared as fully and as often as possible.’

Statistical amnesia

December 6, 2020 by James Urquhart 5 Comments

‘Putting it bluntly, this kind of statistical amnesia will seem a little tawdry to anyone who invested belief and political capital in the First Minister’s approach.’ Our statistical expert ends the year of the pandemic as he began: savaging the misuse of data.

Straw man statistics

November 15, 2020 by James Urquhart 3 Comments

‘But the more fundamental objection is that the study (by Public Health Scotland into hospital discharges to care homes) tells us nothing about the real question of concern: Did the discharge of untested patients to care homes result in an increase in deaths? The truth is that we are really none the wiser.’

We need a vaccine

October 17, 2020 by Sarah Pitt Leave a Comment

‘It looks as though outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 will be a fact of life for some time to come, but “learning to live with the virus” should not mean letting it infect large numbers of people. The plan should be to make sure that very few people get infected so that new outbreaks are small and rare.’

COVID-19: scapegoating begins in earnest

September 5, 2020 by Hugh Pennington 3 Comments

In his latest piece on the pandemic, Hugh Pennington examines inter alia how cuts in labs and scientists have helped damage our response to the coronavirus

No more political games

August 16, 2020 by James Urquhart Leave a Comment

‘It’s right that we do not forget that the objective of protecting the NHS in Scotland resulted in people being denied essential care for non-COVID-19 conditions nor the mistakes made in respect of care homes…But the drawing of comparisons is not a political debating ploy.  It is essential to our safety.’

Second wave scepticism

June 28, 2020 by Hugh Pennington 1 Comment

‘The current COVID-19 events are not a “second wave”, or a “second peak”, or “second spikes”. They are continuations of the ongoing epidemic.  There was no second wave with SARS, a closely related coronavirus, and we are still waiting for one in Wuhan.’

If you didn’t laugh

June 27, 2020 by Fay Young 1 Comment

Smiley face in the sky, 'probably for Captain Tom' Photo Jaybot CC BY-SA 2.0

“I wanted to upset everybody, including myself. Half the problem with the world is that half the people take themselves too seriously. The other half don’t take themselves seriously enough.”

The Ministry of Truth

June 14, 2020 by James Urquhart Leave a Comment

In his latest piece, senior statistician James Urquhart, investigates how the UK Government uses UK data to buttress policy decisions for England and asks: manipulation or malfeasance…

Young, gifted and scarred…

June 14, 2020 by David Bell and David Blanchflower Leave a Comment

As much as a third (32%) of the Scottish workforce isn’t working in the lockdown but it’s the young who are the hardest hit and faces the bleakest future – unless we adopt New Deal-style measures to prevent a “lost generation” being scarred for life.

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

About Sceptical Scot

Welcome to Sceptical Scot, Scotland’s premier non-tribal forum for passionate, informed debate. Sceptical Scot is for all who care about Scotland’s future, regardless of how they vote: for party, independence or union, EU or Brexit. We aim to provide an arena that is both broader and deeper than current online/print offers with a rich diet of well-researched, polemical, thought-provoking writing. Read more » about About Sceptical Scot

What’s new on Sceptical Scot

  • Doses of compassion from the doctor-poet January 16, 2021
  • Pandemic and absent solidarity January 10, 2021
  • Vaccination: new start or emperor’s clothes? January 10, 2021
  • Why do we need a Year of Childhood? January 9, 2021
  • Energy transition: vital spark of national renewal or dying ember? January 9, 2021
  • Another now, another Scotland December 6, 2020
  • Statistical amnesia December 6, 2020
  • Is the BBC helping British democracy? December 6, 2020
  • Empathy for women December 6, 2020
  • Free school meals and child poverty December 6, 2020

The Sceptical Newsletter

The Sceptical Scot cartoon

A small ship, hopelessly at sea

Categories

  • Articles (575)
  • Blog (485)
  • Books & Poetry (25)
  • Brexit (199)
  • climate crisis (4)
  • climate crisis (11)
  • Covid19 (57)
  • Criminal justice (17)
  • Culture (268)
  • Devo20 (1)
  • Economics (181)
  • Economy (70)
  • Education (67)
  • Elections (162)
  • Environment (46)
  • European Union (244)
  • Featured (43)
  • federalism (13)
  • Federalism (13)
  • Health (49)
  • History (58)
  • Housing (22)
  • Humour (10)
  • identity (10)
  • Independence (240)
  • Inequality (68)
  • International (18)
  • Ireland (6)
  • Ireland (6)
  • Local government (67)
  • Longer reads (66)
  • Media (6)
  • Podcast (3)
  • Poetry (68)
  • Policy (165)
  • Politics (256)
  • Polls and quizzes (1)
  • Reviews (24)
  • Social democracy (80)
  • Trump (10)
  • UK (304)
  • Uncategorized (3)

Sceptical Scot elsewhere

Facebook
Twitter

Footer

About Sceptical Scot

Since 2014 Sceptical Scot has offered a non-tribal forum for passionate, informed debate for all who care about Scotland’s future

Recommended

  • Bella Caledonia
  • Centre on Constitutional Change
  • The UK in a Changing Europe
  • Common Space
  • Gerry Hassan
  • Scottish Review
  • Social Europe
  • Think Scotland

Archives

Copyright © 2021 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in