Author Archives: colinmathers

Are the Lancet authorship criteria adequate?

Posted on September 27, 2020 by colinmathers

In May, the Lancet published a peer-reviewed study claiming to analyse data from nearly 15,000 patients who had received the drug hydroxychloroquine for treatment of Covid-19. The study concluded that patients who received the drug were dying at a higher … Continue reading →

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Religiosity and atheism in 2020

Posted on September 5, 2020 by colinmathers

The World Values Survey (WVS) and the European Values Study (EVS) include questions on religious affiliation, religious beliefs and practices, as well as on the influence of religion on attitudes to government, politicians and science [1-4].  These questions played a … Continue reading →

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The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic

Posted on August 28, 2020 by colinmathers

Today, I took another look at the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic using data on confirmed cases downloaded from the Johns Hopkins University CCSE data repository. This post focuses mostly on western European countries, with a few others like … Continue reading →

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WHO and global health statistics

Posted on August 25, 2020 by colinmathers

My paper “History of global burden of disease assessment at the World Health Organization”  has just been published in Archives of Public Health. It reviews WHO work on Global Burden of Disease over the last 20 years and the challenges … Continue reading →

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The climate crisis has not gone away

Posted on August 23, 2020 by colinmathers

The return of the summer wildfires in California reminds us that the climate crisis has not gone away just because there is a pandemic. The USA has recently recorded the hottest ever measured temperature of 54.1 C (130 F) in … Continue reading →

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Trends in cultural values across 105 countries: 1980 to 2020

Posted on August 9, 2020 by colinmathers

In a previous post, I examined variations in cultural values across 105 countries in year 2019 using data from all 7 waves of the World Values Survey (WVS)and all 5 waves of the European Values Survey (EVS) [1-4]. I developed … Continue reading →

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An update on coronavirus in Geneva and Victoria

Posted on August 5, 2020 by colinmathers

Switzerland currently bans entry from countries with more than 60 new infections per 100,000 population in the last 14 days. Geneva passed that threshold on 27th July, and passed 100 new cases per 100,000 on 1 August. So if Geneva … Continue reading →

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Variations in cultural values across 105 countries in 2019

Posted on August 3, 2020 by colinmathers

Working for the World Health Organization over the last 20 years and dealing with national health authorities, I’ve been quite fascinated by the variations across cultures and countries in values and beliefs, and the huge influence they have on willingness … Continue reading →

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Drug overdose deaths – another exceptional US epidemic

Posted on July 18, 2020 by colinmathers

Earlier this week, CDC released provisional figures for drug overdose deaths in the USA in 2019. They estimate almost 72,000 deaths, the highest annual number yet seen. Initially driven by prescription opioid painkillers, users migrated first to heroin and then … Continue reading →

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Covid-19: which countries are succeeding and not succeeding?

Posted on July 7, 2020 by colinmathers

There is now sufficient data on social distancing, lockdown, and other measures that researchers are starting to assess the effectiveness of these measures. The July 4th edition of The Economist has an article summarizing what is becoming clear.  Extensive testing … Continue reading →

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