Fiona Conlon

Sort of dizzying to think about how many people are alive today because Patricia Hewitt (ban on smoking in enclosed spaces) was health secretary and because Norman Fowler (mandatory seatbelts) was transport secretary and health secretary (HIV/Aids).

Chart Title: Men are twice as likely as women to have most ICT skills in India Description: This chart compares ICT skills between women and men across rural and urban India in 2023, showing percentage of adults (15+) who reported having specific digital skills in the three months preceding the survey. Key Points: - In rural areas, the gender gap is significant across all skills: email (13% women vs 26% men), installing software (12% women vs 24% men), spreadsheet formulas (4% women vs 7% men), and creating presentations (2% women vs 5% men). - In urban areas, there is higher overall skill levels but maintain similar gender disparities: email (32% women vs 48% men), installing software (27% women vs 43% men), spreadsheet formulas (13% women vs 22% men), and presentations (10% women vs 16% men). Source: CAMS, Round 79, National Statistics Office 2022-23 Attribution: DataForIndia.com/ict-skills/ | CC BY

🧵 Access to mobile phones and the internet in India has expanded rapidly over the last decade. However, there is a gap in the technical skills needed to use these technologies effectively to communicate, learn and work.

#ICT #Technology #DigitalIndia #India #DataForIndia

Calculating the Damage of Vaccine Skepticism It’s clear that we’re on the precipice of a surge in preventable diseases. But how bad will it get?

“The U.S. may be doing more than simply failing to aid global vaccination efforts. The domestic stoking of anti-vaccine sentiment is itself infectious—a disease-carrying rat population on the ships exporting American culture.” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social

“There really aren’t very many ways of spending money anywhere in the world that can save a child’s life for so little money, and do it scalably so hundreds of thousands of lives, millions of lives, are saved over time”

Cuts to UK’s global vaccination funding would risk avoidable child deaths, experts warn Exclusive: Scientists also say any reduction in Foreign Office funding for vaccine alliance Gavi would harm UK’s soft power

"Gavi [is] known as one of the most cost-efficient of all aid projects, with one estimate suggesting a child’s life was saved for every £1,200 spent on it."

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Millions of children at risk as global vaccine rates fall, study finds Persistent health inequalities, disruption caused by Covid-19, and soaring levels of misinformation and hesitancy are behind fall, say study’s authors

"Vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks pose a growing global risk. Increasing numbers of wild-type polio cases have been reported in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and there is a polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea, where less than half of the population is immunised."

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

UK pledge to global vaccine effort falls £400m to £1.25bn amid raft of aid cuts Campaigners warn reduction could cost lives – even if Britain remains of the largest donors to the international Gavi alliance

"The UK’s contribution to Gavi could have saved almost 400,000 more lives if it had been maintained at the same level as before."

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

Nothing like an exhibit of iron lung machines to remind us how life was before polio vaccines

Somehow missed this 2022 UK paper exploring responses to radical right parties (RRP) and whether accommodation - i.e. "beat" them by repeating a version of their tale actually worked electorally.

Short version: Nope.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...