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Welcome to Matt Ridley's Blog

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Matt Ridley is the author of provocative books on evolution, genetics and society. His books have sold over a million copies, been translated into thirty languages, and have won several awards.

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Matt Ridley's latest book Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, co-authored with scientist Alina Chan from Harvard and MIT's Broad Institute, is now available in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

    Archive for date: June, 2020

  • Forget the doom and gloom. The retreat of Covid-19 is a great cause for optimism

    Published on: Saturday, 20 June, 2020

    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 kept two metres apart, and some of whom got involved in fights, resulting in arrests and injuries: a perfect recipe for spreading the coronavirus. Yet there has been a continuing decline in new cases of the disease and no uptick in calls to 111 or 999 about suspected Covid-19. By now, some effect should have shown up if it was going to. In June, London has seen fewer deaths from all causes than in a normal year. Why is this?

    While respiratory viruses nearly always evolve towards lower virulence, essentially because the least sick people go to the most meetings and parties, this one was never very dangerous for most people in the first place. Its ability to kill 80-year-olds in care homes stands in sharp contrast with its inability to kill younger people. Fewer than 40 people under the age of 40 with no underlying conditions have died in Britain. On board the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, 1,100 sailors tested positive, many had no symptoms and only one died.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: telegraph, coronavirus
  • Incentives for Innovation Will Eventually Defeat COVID-19

    Published on: Monday, 15 June, 2020

    My article for the Inside Sources network:

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: coronavirus, inside-sources
  • Genome-edited crops help farmers and environment

    Published on: Wednesday, 10 June, 2020

    My article for The Times:

    The agriculture bill before the House of Lords today offers a chance for plant breeders to make safer, more productive crops that need fewer chemicals. Britain has a long track record of safe and efficient plant breeding but the industry is unable to use the latest techniques because of a rogue decision by the European Union in 2018.

    A proposed amendment to the bill would allow the government to consult on whether to use the same definition of a genetically modified organism (GMO) as most of the rest of the world. Doing so would exempt 90 per cent of crops produced by the new and precise method known as genome editing.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: gmos
  • My Live YouTube Q&A with Yaron Brook

    Published on: Saturday, 06 June, 2020

    Answering Questions About Innovation, Coronavirus, and More

    In a few minutes, I will be returning to The Yaron Brook Show for another interview. A lot has happened in the 2.5 months since my last visit, so I am sure we will have a lot to discuss. We will be discussing not just innovation and the pandemic but other recent news, and anything you wish to ask about.

    If you haven't been able to get your question answered at any of my talks in recent weeks, this would be a good chance to, as Yaron hosts a Q&A-based show and we'll be taking questions on YouTube in real time!

    Please join us, and please be sure to watch it here after if you miss it.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: appearances
  • Has the British scientific establishment made its biggest error in history?

    Published on: Saturday, 06 June, 2020

    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 have done better than other countries. Instead we are one of the worst affected in Europe and one of the last to begin to recover.

    Not all the mistakes were driven by science. The decisions by Public Health England not to go out to the market for testing, protective equipment and logistics, to cease testing almost completely in March and to send people to care homes from hospitals affected by the virus – these were just bureaucratic bone-headedness. But the obsession with mathematical modelling lies behind other mistakes and continues to this day with the ridiculous fixation on a meaningless generalisation called R.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: coronavirus
  • Could the key to Covid be found in the Russian pandemic?

    Published on: Friday, 05 June, 2020

    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 many cities, the streets were empty and shops and schools deserted. A million died. The Russian influenza pandemic of 1889-90 may hold clues to what happens next — not least because the latest thinking is that it, too, may have been caused by a new coronavirus.

    In addition to the new diseases of Sars, Mers and Covid-19, there are four other coronaviruses that infect people. They all cause common colds and are responsible for about one in five such sniffles, the rest being rhinoviruses and adenoviruses. As far as we can tell from their genes, two of these coronaviruses came from African bats (one of them bizarrely via alpacas or camels), and two from Asian rodents, one of them via cattle.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: spectator, coronavirus
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