Author Archives: colinmathers

Australia now has one of the highest Covid new case rates in the world

Posted on December 31, 2021 by colinmathers

In the last two weeks, Australia has gone from having one of the lowest rates of new Covid cases per million population in the world to one of the highest. Most of these new cases are in NSW and according … Continue reading →

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Update on Swiss Covid-19 situation

Posted on December 18, 2021 by colinmathers

Switzerland now has the third highest daily new confirmed cases per million (averaged over last 7 days) at 1,045 per million. This is exceeded only by Denmark (1,417) and Slovakia (1,130).  The UK is not far behind Switzerland at 990. … Continue reading →

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Values and religion in 2020: an updated map

Posted on December 15, 2021 by colinmathers

In my previous post, I presented results for an updated version of the latent variable analyses I carried out last year on data from the World Values Survey and European Values Study [1-4]. I have re-estimated a latent variable for … Continue reading →

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Modern and pre-modern religious values: an update

Posted on December 9, 2021 by colinmathers

In a previous post, I developed a continuous latent variable for pre-modern/modern religious values based on data for waves 5 to 7 country surveys in the  World Values Survey (WVS) and European Values Study (EVS). I used this data to … Continue reading →

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Covid-19 booster shots and the Delta variant

Posted on November 21, 2021 by colinmathers

Switzerland is now offering a Covid-19 booster shot to to the 65+ and at-risk who has had their two Covid-19 vaccinations at least six months ago. It may soon be extended to all adults. I had my third shot last … Continue reading →

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A fourth Covid-19 wave hits Europe and Switzerland has a second referendum to end vaccine certificate requirements

Posted on November 14, 2021 by colinmathers

Covid-19 cases rose by 7% and deaths by 10% over the last week in Europe, as it enters a fourth (or fifth) wave and currently accounts for about two-thirds of infections reported globally. Belgium and the Netherlands, which have fully … Continue reading →

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Religiosity and atheism: revised estimates for 1980-2020

Posted on November 9, 2021 by colinmathers

In previous posts, I have summarized various analyses of the World Values Survey (WVS) and the European Values Study (EVS), altogether including more than 110 countries, and focusing on trends and differences religious affiliation, religious beliefs and practices, as well … Continue reading →

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Afghanistan, where the war on drugs and the war on terror meet

Posted on September 7, 2021 by colinmathers

In the last couple of weeks, watching the end of the American war in Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover, I realized that Afghanistan is at the intersection of the war on terror and the war on drugs. I have been … Continue reading →

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The current COVID Delta wave

Posted on August 20, 2021 by colinmathers

The graph below summarizes the COVID-19 situation as of yesterday (19 August 2021) for a selection of countries of interest to me. Confirmed case numbers have been rising in all these countries except the Netherlands (where case numbers have dropped … Continue reading →

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Vaccination and the COVID Delta variant

Posted on June 30, 2021 by colinmathers

The COVID Delta variant (B.1.617.2), which started spreading widely in India last October, is highly transmissible and might cause more severe illness and hence death. It has spread to many countries and is now the dominant strain in the UK. … Continue reading →

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