Archive for the Covid-19 Category

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The Cause of Academic Anomie

Posted in Covid-19, Education, Maynooth with tags , , , on July 22, 2024 by telescoper

I thought I’d share a paper entitled Academic anomie: implications of the ‘great resignation’ for leadership in post-COVID higher education, which presents a new study of 167 academics who quit UK academia, finding they often blame the declining quality of academic management. The abstract is here:

The full paper can be found here (Open Access). In case you weren’t aware the word anomie according to Durkheim, being a state of “normlessness”, in general means the lack of social cohesion and solidarity that often accompanies rapid social change. I’d say there’s a lot of that about these days.

The study relates directly to UK universities, many of which are struggling and some of which are on the verge of collapse as a result of several factors, not just those stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the surprising (and depressing) things about Ireland is that the people in charge of third level education here seem to be determined to repeat here the terrible decisions being taken across the Irish sea despite all the evidence of the damage they have done in the UK. Many of the comments made by individuals mentioned in the paper will definitely resonate with colleagues in Maynooth.

This bit particularly caught my eye:

All too often dangerous managers simply skip from one university to the next causing havoc wherever they go. (RS2 – Male, former Senior Lecturer, pre-1992 institution)

Tell me about it!

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Exit Nolan

Posted in Covid-19, Harassment Bullying etc, Maynooth, Politics, Science Politics with tags , , , , on May 28, 2024 by telescoper
Simon Harris and Philip Nolan at the launch of Research Ireland

I just saw the news that Prof. Philip Nolan has left his post as Director General of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) after allegations of misconduct (including bullying). Prof. Nolan was the previous President of Maynooth University, a post he left at the end of September 2021; for 18 months while still President he was also chair of the the Epidemiological Modelling as part of National Public Health Emergency Team dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. He moved to SFI in January 2022 when Simon Harris, who is now Taoiseach, was Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Prof. Nolan was due to take charge of a new entity (Taighde Éireann– Research Ireland) formed by the merger of SFI with the Irish Research Council when the legislation required to create it it passes through the Oireachtas.

It seems there were no fewer than five serious complaints about Prof. Nolan’s conduct made under protected disclosure legislation, and an investigation found that he had displayed “inappropriate behaviour” towards the staff concerned, which was at the “upper level” in respect of two senior staff.

As an outsider I have no idea what has been going on at SFI, so have no dirt to dish, but it must have been rather serious for Prof. Nolan to have been forced out so quickly. I suppose it is reassuring in a way that SFI – unlike many organizations – takes bullying allegations seriously, but it is not at all good for the science ecosystem in Ireland for its main funding agency to be rocked by a scandal of these dimensions. I hope whoever takes over can steady the ship. It’s not an auspicious situation for the embryonic Research Ireland either. The first question that needs to be answered is whether Prof. Nolan will lead it despite being removed from SFI and, if not, who will?

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Third Covid Booster

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19 with tags , , on December 30, 2023 by telescoper

Back in October, not long after I arrived in Barcelona, I got an email from the HSE saying that sixty-somethings such as myself should get a seasonal Covid-19 booster shot (and possibly a flu jab too). It is over a year since I had my last booster. The procedural difference this time is that, unlike the mass vaccinations of previous years, the injections are being given at local pharmacies with limited capacity rather than large vaccination centres, so I had to book well ahead to find a time and a place. It wasn’t easy to find a slot, actually, even at two months’ notice, but with a bit of help from a nice lady at the HSE I managed.

And so it came to pass that yesterday I had my third booster shot (Pfizer), which means I’ve had five injections in all. Apart from the usual slight numbness in my left arm, I had no after side affects. I’m glad I managed to get the booster, as a large number of people I know have either got Covid-19 or have had it recently, many of them having picked it up at conferences and work events where face coverings are no longer worn by most people. Some people I know have had Covid-19 four or five times now but, as far as I’m aware I still haven’t had it. I may of course have had a mild infection, without significant symptoms, but I’ve certainly never tested positive for it.

There has been a rapid increase in Covid and ‘flu cases in Ireland recently, but the severity of the situation with respect to the coronavirus is hard to gauge, as there is no longer any routine testing. Take -up of booster vaccines in Ireland has been slow, but I don’t know whether that is increased reluctance or just that it’s difficult to get an appointment. In any case the seasonal booster is generally only available for people over the age of 50 (unless there are other medical reasons).

Finally, let me take this opportunity to wish everyone who has come down with Covid-19 recently a speedy recovery and a healthy New Year!

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R.I.P. Alexei Starobinsky (1948-2023)

Posted in Covid-19, R.I.P., The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , on December 22, 2023 by telescoper
Alexei Starobinsky, pictured in 2013.

I’m very sorry, especially just before Christmas, to pass on the news of the death of Russian physicist and cosmologist Alexei Starobinsky who died yesterday (21st December 2023) of complications resulting from Covid-19. I heard this morning, but have been travelling all day and only just found time to write something in appreciation.

Starobinsky was one of the many academic descendants of the great Zeldovich; he did particularly important work on the physics of the early Universe in which field his ideas prefigured the theory that came to be known as cosmic inflation. Although Starobinsky’s seminal (1979) work on this topic was not well known outside the Soviet Union at the time Alan Guth wrote his paper on inflation (1981), it did later gained wider appreciation, and led to numerous awards, including the Gruber Prize in 2013 and the Kavli Prize in 2014 (together with Guth and Andrei Linde). 

I do have one rather fond personal memory of Starobinsky, from when we were coincidentally both visiting IUCAA in Pune at the same time back in the Nineties. We ended up going on a shopping trip together during which he revealed himself to be hopeless at the kind of light-hearted haggling that was the norm in the places we visited. He ended up paying way over the odds for everything he bought. He didn’t seem to mind though, and apparently found it all quite amusing. I only met him a few times and didn’t get to know him well at all, but he struck me as a very nice man as well as a fine physicist of the old-school Russian type.

Rest in peace, Alexei Alexandrovich Starobinsky (1948-2023).

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Covid-19 at NAM

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19 with tags , , on July 9, 2023 by telescoper

Public Service Announcement!

Last week’s UK National Astronomy Meeting in Cardiff was the biggest ever, and it was noticeable that very few people (less than 5%) were wearing face coverings at any point. It’s not surprising therefore that there have been reports of people testing positive for Covid-19. I don’t know how many cases have developed overall, but two people with whom I was in reasonably close contact during the conference have tested positive so, although I have no symptoms, I decided to test myself as a precaution.

Doing a test was more difficult than I thought as antigen test kits are in short supply in Maynooth these days. I tried two supermarkets and a pharmacist to no avail, and then someone in the pharmacist said she’d seen them in Aldi so I bought some there.

The result was negative:

I’ll do another one tomorrow morning just in case.

If you happened to be at NAM I’d encourage you also to get a test. If you have done one already and tested positive I’d encourage you to contact the Local Organizing Committee, who are monitoring the situation, either by email (contact details here) or via the anonymous reporting form here.

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Covid-19 in Ireland – The Last Post

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19 with tags , , , on March 1, 2023 by telescoper

On February 29th 2020, Ireland identified its first case of the novel coronavirus, SARS CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic on March 11th. On March 12th 2020 Schools and Colleges in Ireland were closed.

Since then, I have posted regular updates of the number of cases of COVID-19, initially daily and more recently weekly as the frequency of official announcements on the data hub decreased. The plotting the latest figures actually became a sort of ritual for me over this time and I even found mildly therapeutic.

Now, however, three full years have passed- can it really be three full years? – have since the (official) arrival of the pandemic in Ireland and, with the situation looking stable, I think it’s time to stop posting these updates. I made the decision to stop at the end of February 2023 unless something drastic happened to change my mind. Ironically, I just heard this morning that one of my colleagues has a new case of Covid-19 but that hasn’t changed my mind.  I hope this makes it clear that I don’t think the pandemic is over: there are many people still suffering from new infections and the effects of “Long Covid”. I just don’t see the need to continue my updates here.

I will leave the data online here in case anyone is interested in the numbers, but I won’t be posting any further updates.

So here are the final graphs from me.  The present 7-day moving average of new cases is just 89.6 per week, down from 103.0 last week and 36 deaths were recorded in the same period.

 

On a linear scale the cases look like this

The numbers for deaths on a linear scale look like this

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Post-Christmas Post

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19, Maynooth with tags , on December 29, 2022 by telescoper

Today is (apparently) 29th December and this morning I actually got some post. Most of it was sent in the first week of December but has taken about three weeks to get here. Among other things I got: the pension statement I was waiting for (dated 2nd December), a cheque for 40 quid for winning the Times Literary Supplement Crossword Prize (posted 8th December), and a royalty statement from OUP dated, somewhat surprisingly, December 23rd. I still haven’t received the Christmas edition of Private Eye though.

I took a walk this afternoon and was quite surprised on the way to see the Maynooth Airport Hopper bus. This has been suspended since the onset of the pandemic way back in 2020 but now I find it has recently resumed. That will make it much easier to get to and from Dublin Airport if I ever have to do that. I used this service very frequently when I had to commute between Cardiff and Maynooth and don’t know how I would have coped without it. It’s good to see things gradually returning.

The bug I picked up before Christmas is still present but more of an inconvenience than anything more serious. I’ve done no fewer than ten antigen tests and never got a positive result so I’m pretty confident it’s not Covid-19. I haven’t posted anything on this blog for a few days but interestingly I’ve still been getting over 500 reads a day over the Christmas period.

I usually update my Covid-19 figures every week but no data have been recently since 20th December. Testing numbers will be pretty much meaningless because of the Christmas holiday but I’d expect to see a rise in infection levels as we head into the New Year. There are signs that Covid-19 cases are rising steeply once more – there are currently over 700 people in hospital in Ireland with Covid-19 – but I doubt we’re going to see any further lockdown measures heading into the new term.

That reminds me that I foolishly offered to do a couple of revision lectures ahead of my 2nd year Vector Calculus examination (which takes place on January 7th). The first of these will be on 3rd January which doesn’t give me much time to think about what to do. In view of my continuing low-level lurgy I think to minimize the chances of infecting anyone I think I’ll just go in, do my lectures, and come home again.

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Pre-Christmas Lurgy

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19 on December 17, 2022 by telescoper

Well, this is just great. No sooner does term end than I come down with some sort of bug. It started yesterday, but today I’ve been in bed nearly all day with a nasty cough, fever, fatigue, and my joints aching (more than usual, I mean).

I’ve done an antigen test, which was negative, but I’ve heard it can take several days for Covid-19 to manifest itself that way. I’ll do another tomorrow.

I hope whatever it is subsides by Christmas as I have some serious culinary self-indulgence planned. At the moment, I’ve got no appetite for food at all.

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1000 Days of Pandemic

Posted in Covid-19 on November 30, 2022 by telescoper

I was updating my Covid-19 page just now when I realized that I have now accumulated 1000 days of data. Nowadays, figures aren’t announced daily but once a week so the ritual of updating the numbers is less frequent now than it was last year, and testing is done less intensively than earlier in the pandemic, but I’ve nevertheless continued plotting the graphs.

The latest summary graphs are here.

On a linear scale the cases look like this:

The numbers for deaths on a linear scale look like this:

The current 7-day average number of new cases per day is 246.1, which is reasonably high despite the relatively low levels of PCR testing being done, but the thing I feared most at the start of this Semester – a big surge in cases – just hasn’t happened. Cases have been roughly stable and even slightly declining since September. More importantly the number of Covid-19 related deaths has remained low.

I think I’ll keep updating my page until the end of the year but if nothing dramatic happens over Christmas I’ll stop. Covid-19 hasn’t gone anyway, but it seems to have entered a phase in which it is no longer a large-scale public health emergency.

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The Final Third

Posted in Biographical, Covid-19, Maynooth on November 20, 2022 by telescoper

There are now precisely four weeks to go until the end of teaching term at Maynooth University. Since the FIFA World Cup starts today it seems apt to borrow a sporting cliché and describe this as the final third. Miraculously, given that I’m having to fit 12 weeks of teaching into 11 week term for the first years, I’m almost on schedule with both my modules but I have this weekend come down with something which may affect the rest of term. I don’t think it’s Covid-19 – at least the antigen test I did yesterday was negative – but whatever it is I hope it doesn’t get worse. All the teaching staff in the Department of Theoretical Physics already have very heavy teaching loads already so we simply don’t have any spare staff to cover my lectures if I can’t deliver them. I don’t know what I’ll do in that case. I suppose I could recycle some of last year’s videos, or record some new ones from my sick bed. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. It may be just a cold.

Anyway, what was until last week an unusually mild autumn has turned into something much more wintry. The sudden cold snap has set off my arthritis, which is an additional complication on top of whatever bug I’ve got.

Evidence of the Berry Phase

Outside temperatures have plummeted so I have mobilized my bird feeders to take care of the feathered friends in the garden. Fortunately there is ready-made food at this time of the year in the form of berries on the Cotoneaster bushes. I watched a song thrush for about ten minutes tucking in yesterday. Pigeons like them too. The birds usually don’t strip all the berries so there’ll be food of that form for a while but some of the smaller birds can’t eat them so I’ve put out seed and peanuts too.

UPDATE: Monday 21st November. It appears it was just a cold, or something else very mild, as I felt much better this morning and went to work as normal.

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