Emeritus Professor of Health Psychology tweeting about behavioural science, addiction, smoking and political issues.
London
- Tweets 28,469
- Following 683
- Followers 10,886
- Likes 25,216
In the UK approx 1 in 500 of its entire population has died from Covid so far. In Japan, with similar risk factors in terms of age etc, the figure is 1 in 7,000 and UK has suffered a larger fall in GDP. The main difference is how our governments have chosen to handle the pandemic
443
5,500
17,283
Japan's PM is apparently set to resign over his poor handling of Covid: 141 deaths per million population in a crowded island and high proportion of older people. Our Covid deaths are 2004 per million with an ongoing death toll of 1000 per week.
138
3,144
8,596
It is now a near certainty that the UK will be seeing a hospitalisation rate that massively exceeds the capacity of the NHS. Many thousands of people have been condemned to death by The Conservative Government.
1,305
2,402
7,131
The media now appears to be mounting a massive “It’s all over - forget about the death and illness” onslaught. If they succeed in their propaganda campaign they will create a sicker, less productive population with reduced life expectancy.
185
1,809
5,990
Imagine if the UK airline industry had a problem leading to daily crashes killing everyone on board. Imagine if after a while the airline decided it was going to live with it and not even publish figures so that people knew what was happening. That would be corporate manslaughter
86
1,456
5,015
Speaking in a personal capacity as a human being, it is clear to me that the government is putting 10s of thousands of lives at risk for political expediency.
55
1,437
3,079
Just a reminder to people who think dying from COVID is fine because we all have to die some time, each death is an average of 10 years earlier than it would have been. And of course the deaths are the tip of a huge iceberg of illness and disability.
48
761
2,626
Yesterday I was called by a BBC morning news programme to discuss going on to talk about whether people were ready to accept the 'everything's back to normal' message. I said I would discuss the need to talk about the need to accept a new normal. I was not invited on.
92
503
2,018
It's like having a government that thinks road safety should be completely up to 'individual responsibility': no traffic lights, no highway code, no law about driving on the left, no crash barriers, ... Absolutely bonkers.
83
691
1,904
So @andrewfeinstein came from nothing in 6 weeks to 19% of the vote in the seat of the future PM with an inexperienced team with no time to prepare, an allowable budget that is a fraction of Keir Starmer's and no mainstream media coverage.
63
533
1,872
65,743
UK government: 'Let us be absolutely clear. We are still in danger. On the other hand ... the threat level is low and so no need to shield, go and shop, go to the pub and enjoy the sunshine. By the way it's not safe to open schools. Glad to have cleared that up.'
35
397
1,673
Starmer is losing ground fast in Holborn & St Pancras as people get to know him better, and Andrew is gaining ground very fast as people get to know him better. With a week and a bit to go, voters in this constituency have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make history!
Gosh. I'm quite flattered that the Labour Party is spending the most amount of all of its ad spend fighting me!
106
632
1,241
82,970
The ‘mild disease for most people’ slogan is not helpful. A 1% infection-mortality rate for the UK population with 80% infected is >500,000 deaths.
38
379
1,058
The >1400 people who are dying per week with Covid as a cause of death on their death certificate are not more mildly dead are they. We are living through a nightmare with ‘leaders’ who are using it as a smokescreen to dismantle our democracy and line the pockets of their clients
20
293
1,067
Is one still a government advisor if the government ignores the advice? Just asking as I'm updating my CV.
18
75
911
I will be posting more political stuff until July 4: 'Independents Day'. I will be the election agent for the wonderful @andrewfeinstein who is standing against @KeirStarmerPM. Andrew and I are former Labour Party members who have seen Starmer turn it into the Tory Party B Team.
56
457
1,009
24,239
According to the ONS infection survey, the UK is close to the highest ever number of daily Covid-19 cases despite more than 95% of the population having antibodies because of past infection or immunisation.
34
323
883
Come on Holborn & St Pancras!!!! Make history - kick Starmer out. Imagine the shock waves. Tell the right wingers who hijacked Labour that they can't have it all their own way.
Labour leader Starmer facing challenge in own constituency in UK election: Andrew Feinstein, former ANC MP in South Africa & anti-corruption campaigner, is challenging Labour leader, his local MP, Keir Starmer,
in his Holborn & St Pancras constituency presstv.ir/Detail/2024/06/29…
50
457
921
35,158
In Holborn & St Pancras, voters have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make their vote actually count. Every single vote for @AF4HSP @andrewfeinstein sends a stronger signal that Starmer and his ilk are not fit for office. Andrew is a superb candidate and would make a brilliant MP.
Let’s punish Starmer’s Labour Party at the ballot box for their racism, their Islamophobia & their appalling treatment of women of colour. And of course their indefensible support for genocide
5
302
522
17,077
This is mad. It does not show that. Can someone in his department give him a crash course in interpreting study findings?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Huge thanks to Tim Peto & team @UniofOxford. Their ground-breaking work shows that daily contact testing can help minimise disruption in schools and workplaces while keeping people safe.
11
100
480
Why is the UK Government so opposed to properly supporting people to self-isolate when needed? It seems utterly bizarre and self-defeating unless they are afraid it will set a precedent and lead people to expect decent sick pay in line with other OECD countries.
9
86
411
Sage has clearly and unambiguously warned the government about the impact on infection rates of its 'big bang' approach to returning children to schools. With new, more infectious and potentially vaccine-resistant variants of the virus emerging, they are risking a fourth wave.
31
168
361
Chris Whitby, Patrick Vallance and Jonathan Van Tam: Please read and understand the SPI-B SAGE advice on embedding COVID-safe behaviour and stop the false rhetoric of exclusive focus on individual responsibility. Risk management is everyone’s responsibility, including government.
4
44
268
Talking of closing schools or keeping them open is missing the point. The government urgently needs to focus on building a 'COVID-secure education strategy' ready for the start of next term and beyond. With imagination and resources we can education young people safely.
33
49
264
When the gutter press have you in their sights, it is going to be a rocky road. They are now gunning for scientists who are trying to communicate the science as best they can. Please just remember you cannot believe that you read in the papers - really, you absolutely cannot.
15
48
245
Netanyahu may well be remembered as one of the most evil men who ever lived, and the politicians who boast of standing shoulder to shoulder with him as his willing accomplices.
For each hostage Israel has rescued - just seven - it has killed more than 5,000 Palestinians.
Meanwhile, 105 have been freed through negotiation.
But Netanyahu has opposed any more ceasefire deals because saving hostages was never his goal - and his arms suppliers know it.
54
106
238
11,779
#SOSNHS2022 'If anyone tries to tell you there's no more money for the NHS, laugh in their face' The government wasted tens of billions on corrupt contracts with no health benefit - all under the smokescreen of Covid.
2
76
218
The Johnson press conference was an object lesson in calmly and confidently and with convincing but fake sincerity telling people that black is white.
7
72
199
He did it by standing up for decent human values and the herculean effort of a wonderful host of volunteers. I hope we can harness this in campaigning for better lives for people in the UK and abroad.
3
39
224
5,536
People keep getting Covid, again and again. The sooner we develop a public health response that acknowledges this the better. Failure to do so is ruining people's lives and ruining our economy.
9
50
201
The PM is 100% wrong to say that journalist questions about the impact on public trust of his refusal to sack Cummings are about politics not science. They are behavioural science questions and should be answered by scientists. Early evidence is that it has been damaging.
6
58
175
Just like with passive smoking and the indoor smoking ban which we now, except for a tiny number of people, all accept. It was to protect people who have no choice about being exposed to other people's smoke.
Boris Johnson says mask-wearing will "rely on personal responsibility". This is a reckless mistake.
Masks are for collective protection. What about the bus drivers, shop assistants & millions of key workers who will be exposed to hundreds of people without protection every day?
15
51
174
If the Tories sunk to 10% in the polls, Johnson would be gone within 24 hours. As long as people keep saying they will vote Tory they will keep destroying the country.
6
56
163
In addition, since we can only die once, excess deaths in one year always put downward pressure on excess deaths the following years and pretty soon this metric loses value. Ultimately life expectancy and healthy life expectancy are crucial markers.
Going forward excess mortality statistics from the ONS will be unreliable, as they subsume 2021 in their baseline despite thousands of excess deaths due to COVID-19 in 2021. This will massively underestimate excess deaths. Please follow @COVID19actuary for reliable data on this.
4
50
187
Newsflash: Johnson's government to abolish the Met Office because storms are endemic and we have to learn to live with them.
So... It's quite useful to have surveillance to know whether we will be affected by a storm and how bad that storm is likely to be.
A bit like Covid really.
Of course, we could stop collecting data on storms. But that would be a bit silly.
A bit like Covid really.
5
53
172
Very sorry to say but we are still in the early stages of the UK de-developing. Shitty environment (literally and figurately), poverty, lack of basic human rights, hunger, reducing life expectancy, lack of basic services and infrastructure, and growing lawlessness.
The UK faces a sterling crisis. The pound fell 4.5 per cent in August to $1.16 and almost 3 per cent against the euro.
7
83
153
I have just heard that the UK's main clinical research funding agency, NIHR, has withdrawn all funding from the Cochrane Collaboration! I can barely take this in. It seems an astonishing thing to do. We all rely on the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group's work.
17
65
179
This is the very same public that was previously being praised. The public has not changed. What has changed is confused, confusing messaging and a 'back to normal' drive by the English government without an effective test-trace-isolate system in place.
Rather than blaming the public, shouldn't the media spend more time scrutinising how the government's "back to work everyone!" drive - which inevitably means busier public transport - along with "go to the pub!" and "eat out to help out!" is chiefly to blame?
4
30
170
I support them. They are the only people holding this government to account.
If you're in a position to do so, please consider setting up a monthly donation to help us uncover the truth and hold Government to account 🙌
glplive.org/HoldGovtToAccoun…
ALT image of boris johnson with the caption: help us hold them to account
9
44
159
When the US Surgeon General gets involved in propaganda tricks, scientists need to say 'This is not right - you are destroying public trust and when a potentially disastrous epidemic strikes people will not take the necessary action you recommend'
Amazing that billions of nicotine consumers manage to get by without resorting to vaping illicit THC cartos but I guess they’re just anecdotes...oh
5
112
170
Looking forward to our discussion if you are feeling well enough, Owen. A very close friend who has been incredibly careful for the past 18 months has got it, and the children of so many of my colleagues have got it. This was all so unnecessary.
Bugger. I've come down with COVID-19.
To talk through how bad the situation is with the country, and if there's hope, I'm joined by the brilliant Prof. @robertjwest tomorrow - Sunday - at 12pm.
👇👇👇
piped.video/watch?v=BlEjNqQS…
6
25
162
This kind of propaganda fuels distrust of experts and provides a spawning ground for conspiracy theorists such as anti-vaccine movements. The damage it does goes far beyond tobacco control and e-cigarettes.
E-cigarettes are harmful to health and are not safe.
They are particularly risky when used by adolescents. Nicotine is highly addictive & young people’s brains develop up to their mid-twenties. Exposure to nicotine can have long-lasting, damaging effects.
bit.ly/2GbATpo
12
95
172
Retraction of highly influential paper claiming falsely to provide strong evidence that #ecigs cause heart attacks. @WHO have no choice but to stop using the senior author as a key advisor and there must now be an investigation into his other papers. ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/…
2
99
160
Yesterday's press conference, with the usual confused and mixed messaging from Johnson, missed a golden opportunity to get 'living with Covid' off to the right start. Here is what the Government's behavioural scientists advised. Spot the difference assets.publishing.service.go…
19
62
150
I cannot stress how important this is. The trial appears to run contrary to accepted practice. I would invite those directly involved to consider their position. In the circumstances, it seems to me that they may be personally liable in case of serious adverse events.
Our letter to @GavinWilliamson asking that DCT trials in schools be suspended immediately due to ethical concerns @HZiauddeen @SusanMichie @trishgreenhalgh @chrischirp @Kit_Yates_Maths @martinmckee @deeksj @DrZoeHyde @DGBassani @Zubhaque @ReicherStephen
blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/06/17…
3
62
128
'There's not a country in the world that has a successful herd immunity strategy. There are lots of countries that have a successful find-test-trace-isolate-support strategy. Why don't we follow that example?' @chrischirp @IndependentSage
2
37
137
Covid is not something you catch once and are then immune for life. As long as it circulates people will keep getting it. The more it circulates the more often people will get it. And repeat infections are often not 'mild'.
2
32
144
Of course they might have just got sick of us, but I sense with certain news outlets that they are vetting contributors to ensure that they are giving out what they see as the right message in this case a very dangerous one.
5
14
137
15-minutes Introduction to the Behaviour Change Wheel piped.video/itp7Qo6L5Pc via @YouTube
1
44
149
We’ve been seeing #COVID19 cases rising and now, surprise surprise, we are seeing an increase in hospital admissions. It’s like Groundhog Day with a government that never learns and only thinks in terms of political expediency. It will not change unless it is literally forced to.
6
21
138
It was predictable and was predicted. It was avoidable but was not avoided. The government continues to do too little too late and ends up needing to do more for longer.
53,135 new Covid infections confirmed today.
Susan Hopkins of PHE says this is "of extreme concern"
"Whilst the number of cases reported today include some from over the festive period, these figures are largely a reflection of a real increase."
40
136
Am I hearing the press conference right? Infections will rise, hospitalisations will rise, deaths will rise. We don't know where we will end up. We are going to open up anyway, but do it 'cautiously'. Just checking.
10
24
131
It really does look as though the negative responses to Don't Look Up are largely propagandising aimed at defusing its message, which to me seemed expertly and wittily observed. I won't be trusting any of those critics in future.
I wrote about the bizarre critical response to #DontLookUp: "If 'Don’t Look Up' is infuriating to watch, it is because it does a pitch-perfect job of channeling climate experts’ weary frustration at being ignored."
forbes.com/sites/davidrvette…
3
25
115
The trouble with the UK Government is that they are our government but we are not their people.
4
18
116
Notice that no mention is made of the highly cost effective work being done by PHE to reduce deaths from smoking (70k per year), alcohol (30k per year), inactivity, poor diet ... This government has no interest population health - to state the obvious.
4
36
121
Chris Whitty in a recent press conference called the NHS an 'emergency service'. Reducing it to an emergency-only service is the aim of this government. If you care about the destruction of the NHS which is accelerating please support Keep Our NHS Public keepournhspublic.com/
5
35
113
That answer from Javid tells you everything you need to know about the contempt this government has for the scientific advice it is receiving on a daily basis on how to reduce the toll of death, illness and misery caused by Covid-19.
7
44
120
By any reasonable definition, Johnson and his government are traitors and criminals. They have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of UK citizens while persecuting those least well off and lining the pockets of their cronies. Surely this can't be allowed to stand.
I’m so damned angry at the bastards who are destroying my country taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2022…
The quote is from my Sheffield colleague @RichardBentall , but I share the sentiment, and a thread by him
4
43
114
Thank you Daniel!! It's been a blast. Looking forward to writing lots of books, making lots of apps, and creating an AI infrastructure to support behavioural and addiction science, while playing blues guitar and reconciling general relativity and quantum mechanics.
HAPPY RETIREMENT DAY TO MY DAD @robertjwest - Very well earned & very well deserved #happyretirement ❤️
13
6
112
Want an example of an island nation with population >10m that has dealt with #COVID19? Japan at 49 deaths per 1m pop. Want another? Cuba at 21 per 1m. Want another? Taiwan at 0.4 per 1m. UK is at 1646 deaths per 1m pop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It did not have to be like this.
10
27
123
Interested in behaviour change? Just launched is Version 1 of a tool to help intervention designers choose BCTs that will target particular levers of change theoryandtechniquetool.human…
2
64
119
We need honesty and decency in politics. The chances of winning are small, but the more votes Andrew gets, the more the incoming Labour Government will be motivated to listen to the people instead of vested interests. And if Andrew even gets close to beating Starmer ... !!!
I will be posting more political stuff until July 4: 'Independents Day'. I will be the election agent for the wonderful @andrewfeinstein who is standing against @KeirStarmerPM. Andrew and I are former Labour Party members who have seen Starmer turn it into the Tory Party B Team.
8
48
111
3,450
You are absolutely right. We are taking a huge risk with the health of children and it's so unnecessary. We have been calling for a Covid-secure education strategy that includes investment in restructuring education facilities and practices to make them effective and safe.
1
44
104
Got my first dose of the vaccine today. Incredibly impressed by the efficiency, organisation and warmth of the staff. And I got a sticker for being a brave little soldier 🙂
2
97
If as PM of a country you choose to let literally 10s of thousands of citizens die for nothing while you party, what does that make you? And if you are an MP who says this is fine, what does that make you?
2
24
100
The UK government's false reassurance at the start of the pandemic led to at least 30K unnecessary deaths and its false reassurance in going from alert level 4 to level 3 before we have an effective find-test-track-isolate-support system risks leading to many thousands more.
3
45
109
Cases of COVID-19 in UK~12 million, deaths caused~120,000. People vaccinated in UK~12 million, deaths caused=0. It’s really not a difficult choice.
2
23
104
If you didn't manage to catch the live stream of the last Indie SAGE, do please check it out. It is a gripping and incredibly informative review of what happened and what should happen from an amazing team piped.video/live/k7tUwqPd6eQ… via @YouTube
2
43
101
120,412
I think I'm getting a clearer idea of what drives the Covid-deniers. Their personal 'freedom' is worth more than other people's lives.
9
15
94
People self-isolate when they have the capability, opportunity and motivation to do so. People need financial, material, practical and social support. Providing this in full costs far less and than not doing it.
Guess what?
Not everyone has a study
Not everyone has a spare room
Not everyone has WiFi
Not everyone has a garden
Not everyone lives in a warm house
Politicians- stop shaming people for leaving their homes. Instead, ask why. And then help to improve things.
It’s your job.
1
29
95
On the 214 bus in Kentish Town. Very impressed. Every passenger except one is wearing a face covering. It's a rule on London Transport. Rules make a difference.
2
12
92
This is absolutely huge and to compound the tragedy the government is doing the same thing again - acting too late. In epidemics you have to act early with proven methods to prevent even harsher measures later.
Delay in taking action in March led to a far longer lockdown than other countries, a 20% hit to second quarter GDP (£140bn) and prolonged overload of the NHS delaying cancer treatment and ops. And if we'd acted sooner, 40,000 people neednt have died.
1
27
80
This from a Palestinian health professional in Gaza, name withheld to protect him. Please spare a few minutes to read. We can all do something.
5
51
82
From @LionShahab: A friend in Germany tells me everyone's panic buying sausages and cheese. It's the Wurst Käse scenario!
9
17
91
Boris Johnson's road map represents acceptance of 20K-50K COVID deaths per year indefinitely, mainly of poorer and older people and a gamble that new variants don't emerge more quickly than the vaccine programme can cope with
9
33
85
Addiction publishes carefully conducted and reported science rather than polemics posing as science. This attempt at intimidation and defamation is not what one expects from a serious academic.
Addiction continues to be the go-to journal for e-cigarette promotion, this time attacking the ecig gateway effect tobacco.ucsf.edu/addiction-c…
9
58
89
Brilliant show by @OwenJones84 today. @DawnButlerBrent was wonderful and Owen finished by passionately calling out Giles Coren for his indescribably nasty comments on the death of Dawn Foster and the failure of the media to condemn these piped.video/BlEjNqQStg0 via @YouTube
4
16
77
This is nice example of the willingness of self-proclaimed experts to apply weaker standards of evidence to conclusions that support their views than those that conflict with them. This kind of approach does our field no credit.
E-Cigarettes Significantly Raise Risk of Chronic Lung Disease tobacco.ucsf.edu/e-cigarette…
4
42
89
Boycotting is potentially an incredibly powerful force for change. Even large companies cannot withstand major interruptions to cash flow. It's not about punishing companies it's about incentivising them to behave ethically.
People in power are *terrified* of collective action.
They want people atomised and isolated so they can be effectively exploited and controlled.
Finkelstein is right about one thing: if we want anything to change under a Starmer government, we’re going to have to fight for it.
38
78
11,581
To online gambling companies sending me ads on twitter: I will keep blocking you and urge others to do the same. You are ruining people's lives.
4
12
74
I hope the government is making contingency plans for virus mutations that defeat the current vaccines rather than just assuming that they will not emerge.
12
10
79
I can only assume neither he nor anyone close to him has read the report from SAGE's behavioural insights group on sustaining infection control behaviours following the end of legal restrictions. Shame, since it provides a blueprint for safely opening up. assets.publishing.service.go…
Boris Johnson urges Covid caution amid warnings of 1,000 hospitalisations a day theguardian.com/politics/202…
5
17
69
#fakenewsalert @TheSun made up quote from me about #ecigs. I never said they're “far more dangerous than people realise”; I am not an idiot
5
79
74
The PHE tobacco team is indeed an outlier. There are very few government departments and agencies in any country that have such a strong commitment to evidence-based policy-making rather than basing policies on knee-jerk reactions, wishful thinking and vested interests
2
43
81
I would have pointed out that we accept anti-terrorism security measures (e.g. at airports), 20 mph speed limits in cities, smoking bans in indoor areas etc. because on average they make our lives better than they would otherwise be. People will accept a new normal if required.
Yesterday I was called by a BBC morning news programme to discuss going on to talk about whether people were ready to accept the 'everything's back to normal' message. I said I would discuss the need to talk about the need to accept a new normal. I was not invited on.
14
11
69
Far-right extremist politicians are on the move attacking rational scientists -
This is now starting to seem more than a little sinister. For the record, Professor Christina Pagel is the director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit at UCL.
ucl.ac.uk/clinical-operation…
2
19
64
Plus, one of the lessons from the pandemic so far is that it may well not be now OR the winter: it could easily be now AND the winter, only worse.
Astonished to hear [some] journalists and scientists supporting Johnson govt's current "mass infection of younger people" strategy by arguing "better now than in the winter". Why is it better to take risks now when we can vaxx younger groups and use measures to bring cases down?
3
26
69
The public overwhelmingly supports government actions to tackle smoking. Coffey would be directly to blame for thousands of preventable deaths, huge damage to the economy and untold suffering theguardian.com/society/2022…
3
33
71
As an academic you can spend several years writing a book that will cost £99 and will be read by 70 people, in payment for which you will get a free copy from the publisher. Or you can spend up to 10 minutes constructing a tweet.
6
6
66
Imagine if at the next briefing Whitty and Vallance turned to Johnson and said 'This is not what your scientists are advising. What you are doing will be catastrophic. There is a SAGE plan to get people their lives back safely. Please enact it.' It would be a game changer.
5
13
69
Covid is endemic ... erm ... that's not a good thing. It means we failed to contain it and now we have to include it in our risk management plans indefinitely, not pretend it doesn't exist.
Javid: "Covid is endemic like flu is and other viruses. Thankfully, it's no longer a pandemic and we've got the tools to fight it."
Jesus. Who made this guy the health secretary?
I'm sorry, but covid is very much still a pandemic.
2
17
65
I should make it clear that the opinions expressed here are in a personal capacity. theguardian.com/politics/202…
4
25
65
The evidence indicates that it wasn't just the lock-down that was too late, it was a failure of epidemic control measures and strong guidance on social distancing in the weeks leading up to that associated with complacency about the seriousness of the disease.
Andrew Marr “You are sure locking when you did and not earlier did not cost lives”
Matt Hancock “I’m sure”
This man is totally unfit for office
3
19
70
Calling all MPs of all parties that care about parliamentary democracy: stand up in Parliament and call out Johnson's repeated lying to the House and the country. If you all do it, you can go some way to stopping the rot.
It’s dreadful that lying in the House of Commons is considered OK, but telling the truth about someone being a liar is not.
4
16
61