Author Archives: Jon Garvey

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About Jon Garvey

Training in medicine (which was my career), social psychology and theology. Interests in most things, but especially the science-faith interface. The rest of my time, though, is spent writing, playing and recording music.

Post-COVID expectations

One of the strangest things about the unfolding disaster of 2020 is the way in which so many, and especially Christians, seem to have acquired strongly rose-tinted spectacles regarding its final outcome.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | Leave a comment

Lockdown – a nationwide prospective study

Abstract The imposition of a third national UK lockdown today presents a unique opportunity for gauging the effectiveness of lockdowns in managing the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It is unique because both the previous lockdowns began after deaths had already peaked, meaning that cases had reached their maximum perhaps 3 weeks before that.

Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | 6 Comments

2021 – still the year of the lie

This is just to keep you aware that the “new COVID strain crisis” in the UK, or another country near you, is still just more of the same spin, and still has the same underlying agenda.

Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | 1 Comment

Bird Flu update

I haven’t kept many of my computer files connected with the old life as a GP, but I did recently come across a poster I did for the surgery notice-board in October 2005, on the Big Health Scare of the time, Avian Flu.

Posted in History, Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | 1 Comment

We have always been at war…

…with Eastasia I think the most sinister image I have seen during the whole of this debacle over SARS-CoV-2 during 2020 is this one:

Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | 5 Comments

Music in Babel

It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old, From angels bending near the earth, To touch their harps of gold: “Peace on the earth, goodwill to men, From heaven’s all-gracious King.” The world in solemn stillness lay, To hear the angels sing.

Posted in History, Music, Theology | 2 Comments

Asymptomatic transmission

An expert on BBC news this morning was decrying the high false negative rate of “lateral flow” COVID tests, in the light of a study which re-tested negative asymptomatic students with PCR tests, and found half a dozen positives. This suggested that statistically 60 students in the group were in fact infected, rather than the three (if I remember rightly) revealed by the original test.

Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Science | 1 Comment

Le Carré on Covid

With the death of John le Carré this last week, I felt it was about time I read some of his work, as opposed to seeing the film versions on TV. So I picked his December 2000 book The Constant Gardener, since in dealing with the rapacity and unscrupulousness of Big Pharma, it seemed somehow topical.

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What the Bible should have said #19

1 Chronicles 21: Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, ‘Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.’

Posted in Medicine, Politics and sociology, Theology | 1 Comment

Delegitimation: a force for anarchy and liberation

Peter Boghossian is a US philosopher who has recently drawn attention to the post-modern phenomenon of “delegitimation.” Boghossian is a militant atheist, and no friend of Christianity, having worked on rather crass ways to “deprogram” believers in casual conversations, on the mistaken belief that we are captive to irrationality imposed by authority. But in these strange times, the champions of Enlightenment rationalism can sometimes be co-belligerents, simply because the Enlightenment grew out of Christianity’s commitment to truth, and we are now, without hyperbole, rushing into a post-truth society.

Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | Leave a comment