by Raywat Deonandan, PhD
Epidemiologist & Associate Professor
University of Ottawa
(I add my credentials to these COVID-19 blog posts in case they get shared. I want readers to know that my opinion is supposedly an educated and informed one)

I know, I know. These “filler” posts aren’t what you came here for. But I do need a place to archive the responses I’ve been giving to journalists who’ve asked for written comments. So I keep them here.

Thus, today you get a quick summary of some of the nuggets of supposed insight I’ve been arrogantly sharing with those who foolishly think I have something useful to offer. (more…)

by Raywat Deonandan, PhD
Epidemiologist & Associate Professor
University of Ottawa
(I add my credentials to these COVID-19 blog posts in case they get shared. I want readers to know that my opinion is supposedly an educated and informed one)

It’s been a while since I updated this blog. That’s what happens when you have a newborn at home: time just sort of slips away. That’s my official excuse. But the real reason is that I kept waffling on a topic. I was going write about what a second COVID-19 wave would look like, or an update on vaccine research, or a response to one of those endless streams of pseudo-science that keeps erupting from this emergency, or a response to that special set of contrarians who make interesting non-mainstream COVID points, or that long awaited analysis of the Swedish experiment. I just couldn’t choose.

But a question that I thought had been well settled and well understood kept being brought up in media interviews. So that’s what I will talk about today: why we should be embracing masks. (more…)

by Raywat Deonandan, PhD
Epidemiologist & Associate Professor
University of Ottawa
(I add my credentials to these COVID-19 blog posts in case they get shared. I want readers to know that my opinion is supposedly an educated and informed one)

This is a bit of a rushed “emergency” post, brought about because of a poorly worded statement by the World Health Organization that was then amplified by the media. To wit, “Asymptomatic spread of coronavirus is ‘very rare.’” (more…)

by Raywat Deonandan, PhD
Epidemiologist & Associate Professor
University of Ottawa
(I add my credentials to these COVID-19 blog posts in case they get shared. I want readers to know that my opinion is supposedly an educated and informed one)

I have so neglected this blog of late. I had promised to add some thoughts about Sweden’s COVID-19 experiment, the science behind mask-wearing, and even strategies for re-opening schools. I still hope to get to those things. But new fatherhood has been a tad more taxing than I’d expected.

I have, though, still been doing many (too many) media engagements, talking about the latest developments in COVID-19 research. I now list those contributions in this site’s News section. Today, my significant other (known here as “The Blonde Girl”) commanded me to say no to all media requests for 24 hours. One journalist so denied commented that I was demonstrating good “husbandry”. I choose to believe it was an intentional misuse of the word, thus representing a most delicious burn that I am proud to wear openly.

So while I try to manufacture the time to craft a more thoughtful post, today you get another summary, however brief, of some of the recent questions posed to me by journalists, and the responses I offered.

Let us begin…

(more…)