I have decided to keep notes about double discoveries whenever I come across them, because so far I seem to have managed to forget them as fast as I find them.

Calculus provides the standard example for this. Today I listened to a podcast about Alan Turing and I learned that the universal Turing machine also got invented twice. Or almost.

In the coming months we get a vaccine or vaccines that halt the pandemic. Even the most ambitious voices suggest that, presuming they work, they will not be widely available until spring or summer 2021 and that even in wealthy countries a limited rollout could take months.

In an interview in The Sunday Times, Devi Sridhar, one of the UK’s foremost experts on global health, was asked when the pandemic would ease with all of the above to hand: “I’m looking ahead to 2024, maybe 2023 … we’re in this for the long haul.”

I did not write this essay. David Rovics wrote it. I subscribe to his newsletter, which is always informative and sometimes amusing, and this arrived this morning. For those who don’t know, David Rovics is “an American indie singer/songwriter”.

The essay does exactly what the title suggests. It provides a clear and detailed historical background that explains how and why the current situation arose.