Sun, May 10, 2026 | UPDATED 17:47 PM IST
Voices from author
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Milk won the battle against measles long before antibiotics and vaccines – Part 2
February 16, 2025, 4:00 PM IST
Clean milk supply skyrocketed from around 1910 The impact of milk on general life expectancy was perhaps first studied by John Christian Curwen (1756 – 1828). A 1825 book by J. Harding reports Curwen’s studies…
February 16, 2025, 4:00 PM IST
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Milk won the battle against measles long before antibiotics and vaccines – Part 1
February 9, 2025, 2:56 PM IST
Measles was one of the deadliest infectious diseases for children prior to 1915. But in just two decades from 1915 in the UK, measles mortality fell by 90-95 per cent, well before antibiotics in the…
February 9, 2025, 2:56 PM IST
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School closures fail to stop disease but cause great harm
January 11, 2025, 3:13 PM IST
On 7 May 2023 I showed why quarantine of healthy people is a fool’s errand and on 29 June 2024 I called for a global conference on the abolition of quarantine. School closures are a…
January 11, 2025, 3:13 PM IST
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Non-pharmaceutical interventions should be approved by the drugs regulator – Part 2
December 24, 2024, 4:51 PM IST
Let FDA approve NPIs While I have grave concerns about regulatory capture during the drugs approvals process at the Federal Drugs Authority (FDA), I believe that the drug regulator is best placed to bring together…
December 24, 2024, 4:51 PM IST
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Non-pharmaceutical interventions should be approved by the drugs regulator – Part 1
December 24, 2024, 4:47 PM IST
Unlike with drugs and vaccines, there is no formal approval requirement for non-pharmaceutical interventions (known as NPIs) such as quarantine of healthy people, mass testing, or contact tracing. The area is a free-for-all, with every…
December 24, 2024, 4:47 PM IST
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No, Mr Elon Musk. Population size is not a problem: Part 3
November 25, 2024, 12:16 PM IST
We care for innovation and productivity, not just a head count In the end, we care for productivity and innovation, which generates a higher quality of life. For society, one innovation-producing worker like Elon Musk…
November 25, 2024, 12:16 PM IST
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No, Mr Elon Musk. Population size is not a problem: Part 2
November 25, 2024, 12:10 PM IST
Why do we want more or fewer people, anyway? This brings us to the question: Why should anyone care about the number of children others are having? Why is this anyone’s business? The argument of…
November 25, 2024, 12:10 PM IST
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No, Mr Elon Musk. Population size is not a problem: Part 1
November 25, 2024, 12:06 PM IST
I recently subscribed to Elon Musk’s Twitter feed but find that every few days he bombards the world with his concerns about declining birth rates. One could ignore a random billionaire’s misconceptions but he’s soon…
November 25, 2024, 12:06 PM IST
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For the welfare of humanity, the Great Barrington Declaration should be abandoned
November 14, 2024, 4:03 PM IST
The authors of the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) were among the few public health academics worldwide who opposed totalitarian covid lockdowns. Unfortunately, their recommendation of focused protection is also a form of scientism and should…
November 14, 2024, 4:03 PM IST
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A global conference for abolition of quarantine
July 29, 2024, 10:42 PM IST
Quarantine was intended to have been abolished over 170 years ago. The first major government report on quarantine was produced by the British General Board of Health in 1849, led by Edwin Chadwick RA Lewis…
July 29, 2024, 10:42 PM IST
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The livestock model of public health
June 9, 2024, 4:28 PM IST
There was a time when people were responsible for their own health. As John Stuart Mill wrote in his 1859 book, On Liberty, “Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or…
June 9, 2024, 4:28 PM IST
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Ethics must be expunged from public health
May 19, 2024, 12:24 AM IST
Ethics is a devious concept that has often been deployed since antiquity by elites to justify their misdemeanours. It is mainly religions that preach ethics and morality but religions themselves don’t always act ethically. For…
May 19, 2024, 12:24 AM IST
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A need to re-think human rationality
February 1, 2024, 6:48 PM IST
For thousands of years, philosophers have made claims about the uniqueness of human rationality. As Yong et al noted in 2020, “For sizable portions of humanity’s intellectual history, it has been assumed that humans are…
February 1, 2024, 6:48 PM IST
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India is producing less than 200 times its potential gold output
December 27, 2023, 3:14 PM IST
It often seems to me that the sole purpose of India’s government is to stop the country from becoming rich and prosperous. The mining sector is a classic case. Well over 95% of India’s mineral…
December 27, 2023, 3:14 PM IST
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The tea board of India needs to be dismantled
December 24, 2023, 3:07 PM IST
Started in the first flush of socialist power by Nehru in 1953, the objective of the Tea Board of India was to “promote” tea production in India. Always chaired by officers from the IAS who…
December 24, 2023, 3:07 PM IST
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Modi must reposition India to align with the West
November 30, 2023, 10:20 PM IST
The world has changed over the last few years in many ways that are favourable to India, but India continues its former trajectory of non-alignment and confused foreign policy, missing out the greatest opportunity it…
November 30, 2023, 10:20 PM IST
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Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: A time to take stock – Part 2
August 16, 2023, 3:57 PM IST
Compromised law & order and justice The law & order situation has significantly deteriorated. Murders and rapes occur in broad daylight. Women do not feel safe. To get an FIR registered can require the Supreme…
August 16, 2023, 3:57 PM IST
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Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: A time to take stock – Part 1
August 16, 2023, 3:48 PM IST
Anil Ghanwat, President of Swatantra Bharat Party, recently explained how the life of the common man is getting from bad to worse, even as attempts are being made once again to fool the nation with…
August 16, 2023, 3:48 PM IST
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Recognising Dr Charles Maclean’s path-breaking work
May 29, 2023, 12:04 AM IST
Eight centuries since the quarantine system was introduced, few have asked, “do quarantines work?” There is no shortage of data to answer this, since quarantine has been used on innumerable occasions. One would therefore expect…
May 29, 2023, 12:04 AM IST
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Quarantine is a fool’s errand – Part 2
May 7, 2023, 6:12 PM IST
Huge collateral harm Quarantine, whether at an inter-country or household level, doesn’t stop disease but does cause devastating collateral harm. In a pamphlet published in 1817, Dr Charles Maclean conducted what is perhaps the first…
May 7, 2023, 6:12 PM IST
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