Jennifer Lang (Page 5)

On:
In: Covid19, Statistics

I wanted to do some interesting analysis of who is getting vaccinated in Australia, in the different categories, now that more than 4 million doses have been delivered. But I can’t. Why not? Because unlike every other rich country I have randomly googled, very little data is publicly available. So instead, I’ve looked at what data other countries have been tracking, and why it would help our rollout.Continue Reading

On:
In: Covid19, Feature, Statistics

How do we balance the risks of vaccines and the benefits of our population being vaccinated? How do we balance the individual risks and benefits and the collective risks and benefits?

My view is that we should be asking people to take remote individual risks (such as vaccination complications) for the collective benefit (ultimately population immunity against Covid19). And we need to have this conversation as a society as population immunity becomes closer.Continue Reading

On:
In: Feature, Feminism

Sobering statistics on sexual harassment in Australia. Of the 20 million people in Australia over the age of 15, in the last 12 months approximately 1.6 million women and 840,000 men – nearly 2.5 million people – have experienced sexual harassment of any kind. Included in this are 148,000 women and 57,000 men who were sexually assaulted  – 201,000 people.Continue Reading

On:
In: Covid19, Statistics

Just how effective is the Astra Zeneca vaccine? Better than a flu vaccine, but not as good as Pfizer or Moderna. The Australian government is quoting efficacy of 82%, which is the results of a subset of the clinical trial results – what happens with two standard doses, at least 12 weeks apart. Because it’s only a subset of the full clinical trial, the range of possible outcomes around that 82% is quite wide – 63% to  92%.  I would take it if it was offered to me.Continue Reading

On:
In: Covid19, Statistics

Should we worry about recent post vaccination deaths in Norway? Almost certainly not. When elderly people are vaccinated, sadly some of them die quite soon afterwards, probably coincidentally. This has happened at the beginning of the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine in Norway, and there will probably be more reportsContinue Reading

On:
In: Climate Change, Feature, Risk management

How should actuaries advise their companies on climate change? Increasingly all financial institutions need to consider the impact of the risks associated with climate change on their core businesses. Even if they aren’t exposed to the physical risks of climate change (as general insurers are), other risks are increasing and need to be managed.Continue Reading

On:
In: Book Reviews

I’ve just published my annual round-up of my non fiction reading for last year here. Do go and read the whole list, but here I’ll just mention my absolute favourites for the year (or at least the ones I keep telling people to go and read). A variety of topics, so I hope you’ll find one you like. They’re not in any particular order.Continue Reading