Bhaskaran Raman
These are long-running projects which happen to have increased interest in times of online teaching
Public Review of TIFR’s Mumbai Simulation Writeup (08 Sep 2020): http://bit.ly/review-tifr-mumbai
Original presentation: https://bit.ly/levitt-india
Levitt's Metric for Indian Data: Updates & Comments: https://bit.ly/levitt-india-updates
Non-Covid Hospitals: an initiative of Project Mumbai
This initiative was active until 24 Aug 2020
(09 Apr 2021) Lockdown deaths among 15-19 year olds in the US in 2020
(02 Apr 2021) An Approximate Breakup of India's Population in 2020
How much damage did Covid-19 cause in India? Who is paying the cost of our panic/unscientific response in terms of school shutdown? The above picture should give some perspective.
(13 Mar 2021) Analysis of average age of death in US
In image form (for sharing)
Average age of Covid death = 74.1 years
Average age of non-Covid death = 71.0 years
Average age of all cause death = 71.4 years
(19 Jan 2021) Covid Threat: Actual vs Perceived
(05 Jan 2021) One can present various numbers from Europe, US, elsewhere to show that the world has a Covid over-reaction problem. But nothing underscores the scale of over-reaction in India, like the comparison with deaths caused by air pollution: graph.
Thus the ongoing Covid risk aversion is newfound in India, and also elitist. Risk aversion is all fine, nothing wrong with it as such. But there has to be some balance and fairness. We need to have a stronger connect with Dharavi and Mumbai local than with London or New York. The cost of continued missing of education for the millions of children of India will be too high. We need to allow those whose lives have been torn apart, to mend it as best as they can, without imposing an elitist view of risk aversion on them. Govt is still playing fast and loose with those who depend on Mumbai local for their livelihood.
(18 Dec 2020) Sweden's anti-lockdown policy is blamed for a large second wave. See if you can spot it: https://bit.ly/panspotwin2
(02 Nov 2020) WHO guidelines on NPIs for influenza pandemics (2019)
Not recommended in any circumstances includes: contact tracing, quarantine of exposed individuals, entry and exit screening, border closure.
A short writeup: link
(13 Oct 2020) Pandemic Peek-a-Boo: Spot the Window
The question of "herd immunity" is so crucial and important to understand
And in the context of herd immunity, two cases are crucial to understand: Sweden and Dharavi
Sweden suffered a lot of Covid-19 casualties, much higher DPM than its Scandinavian neighbours
See if you can spot Sweden's pandemic time window from this graph: https://bit.ly/panspotwin
(12 Oct 2020) Deconstructing Doom Data [Poster]
Understanding the Three Scare Tactics
Keeping your Sanity in the Flood of Doom "News"
Scare Tactic 1: PCR+ve / Case-Count, Scare Tactic 2: Perspective-free Data, Scare Tactic 3: Projection (exponential)
(12 Oct 2020) Call for Campus debate on "The Great Barrington Declaration" https://gbdeclaration.org/
I'm quite keen on a debate; I'm doubly ready on the "for" side.
Possible format:
2 min opening statements from each side, 10 min detailed statements, 10 min follow-up/counter statements, audience Q&A
No winners/losers, just overall learning
Rules: (a) time dimension: stick to time, (b) social dimension: no personal attacks
As a side (main?) benefit, we can potentially remind ourselves of what a debate is supposed to look like, which many may have forgotten after years of MSM hijacking the term.
(05 Oct 2020) "The Case Against Covid Case-Counts (with some disclaimers)"
A short video: https://youtu.be/asXxFVIJRkE
Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YABvLVAfVwhU_dZHRYU51hM-HrSrgcnvkKx1WkhPMYE/edit?usp=sharing
(25 Sep 2020) "The Case Against Personal Fear of Covid (with some disclaimers)"
Video: https://youtu.be/91eud3JCJVc
Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1T8eOZpYbeHOBQ8AwPSWu3Nc9e_PNxiFdccmKLcQYpzE/edit?usp=sharing
Understand, Unclog, Unpanic, Unscare, Unlock: https://bit.ly/u5india
Quiz series for Corona times: link
Riddles for Corona times, inspired by Gollum: link
Lockdown Lunatic vs X : link
Fear of a Thousand Deaths: link
SMALLBAG e-token system: Shopping Management App for LocaL Buyers And Grocers
APRICOT: A PRIvacy preserving COntact Tracing system (taken up when Covid-19 containment seemed a possibility)
