On Sunday, Labour’s Anneliese Dodds tweeted that the UK ‘had the worst recession and the worst growth of any major economy last year’, and that ‘Covid closed much of our economy, but the Conservatives crashed it’. Of course, this is just a tweet and almost all politicians try to score points in this way. Nonetheless, … Continue reading What’s behind the relatively large fall in UK GDP? (reprise…)
Category: health economics
Should teachers be prioritised for the Covid vaccine?
It’s clearly important to keep an open mind on whether educational professionals should be prioritised for the Covid vaccines, just as with other aspects of the rollout plan (such as the timing of the second jab). But for now, I’d argue against. Here's why... First, the evidence. In general, teachers have ‘slightly lower’ degrees of … Continue reading Should teachers be prioritised for the Covid vaccine?
‘Lockdown 3’ won’t be anywhere near as bad as the original
New year, new lockdown. I’m instinctively sceptical that such severe restrictions on our lives can ever be justified, but two factors have surely tipped the balance in their favour. The first, of course, is the far more rapid transmission of the new Covid variant. This has increased the benefits of locking down, as the risk … Continue reading ‘Lockdown 3’ won’t be anywhere near as bad as the original
Lockdowns fail the cost-benefit test
The Spectator has published a SAGE paper outlining a ‘reasonable worst case’ scenario leading to an additional 85,000 Covid deaths in the UK, even with some partial mitigation. It’s hard to know what to make of this figure without a better understanding of what would happen if the government did nothing. (The paper assumed that … Continue reading Lockdowns fail the cost-benefit test
Plain-speaking Economics 