Ewan Birney, Discover and Read the Best of Twitter Threads by @ewanbirney

Ewan Birney

ewanbirney

Yet again Ethnicity != Genetics. (evergreen tweet). Despite the fact that skin colour is predominantly genetic, ethnicity classification, which often uses skin colour as part of the gestalt assessment of

A view of COVID from here: April has started pretty cold and drab in London, but there is a real sense of anticipation as pub gardens, gyms and shops open

There are some good and bad hot takes about the Oxford/AZ vaccine going around - I'd like to add my view which I hope is more light than heat. Context:

More musings on human genetics and race, but this time from a personal level to explain I think the different ways people "think about" racism and their role in it.

Another evergreen reminder - ethnicity (or "race") is a process of self identification, often ticking a set of boxes, or gestalt assessment using visible characteristics of people (skin colour, hair

An explainer thread (often I feel I am pitching these to journalists as much as anyone else) on COVID this month. Context: I am an expert in one area (human

There are a variety of ultimately “don’t worry about the trajectory of COVID in the UK arguments” from mainly right wing commentators that are either plain wrong or missing the

Taking stock of COVID in October - for followers, in particular journalists. My scope is broadly across Europe, with a particular focus in the UK. Context: I am an expert

Some COVID perspective. A reminder - I am an expert in one area (human genetics/genomics); I know many experts in other areas (infections epi, viral genomics, wastewater, clinical trials) worldwide

A primer (journalists, part written for you) on false positives and why you should (a) know about them but (b) feel confident the system does the right thing for them

Dear UK Journalists. I suspect some of you are going to be rightly asked to write up the striking jump in SARS-CoV-2 cases registered today by PHE, and quite rightly.

Like I suspect a number of scientists I've been quizzed by a variety of friends and family on COVID, and its gone up recently because (a) school is back and