On the train to York for presentation on COVID. Been raining for weeks and York has been badly affected. Today bright and sunny and miss Kylie and Joanie and the heat. Met Sanjoy and he is very nice indeed. Taxi driver was certain that York, not Leeds, was the capital of Yorkshire. Chatted with Sanjoy about global health and neoliberalism as a virus book project, all over an egg sandwich. Strange to be lecturing on COVID and I find out most of audience is streamed especially to WHO staff! Whoops! I stuck the boot into them cosying up to China. Talked about Africa fears and really put it out there that big fear was the USA, perfect storm of uninsured, administrative incompetence (a vaccine denier as POTUS) and health systems structure and access. Sanjoy was a bit white faced after presentation, but kind of ah well. I guess WHO people would have been what a load of shit. The woman from Brown was very good. She had been an overseas student in China during SARS. Fab take on the highly compartmentalised and regionalised nature of Chinese political and economic system, how loss of face and fear of exposure would have supressed information and so on. Very good – much better than me. Claire, Kelley and company tweeting on paper of effects of COVID on women. Gostin still going for human rights (good luck with that). Iran seems really out of control with the deputy health minister literally going positive live on TV.

Trump yesterday mocks Congress offer of finance for COVID-19: “If Congress wants to give us the money so easy—it wasn’t very easy for the wall, but we got that one done. If they want to give us the money, we’ll take the money.”