Kieren Lythgow is a Senior Bioinformatics Scientist specialising in virology, phylogenetics, genomics and outbreaks. Kieren’s selfless hard work and dedication to this field over the years has earned him numerous accreditations, the likes of which include a degree in Biology, a Masters in Genetics and a PhD in Genetics. He has worked in disease research for 20 years, with the last 10 of those years in viral genomics and public health.

With everything going on in the world at the moment with Covid-19, I felt it was absolutely necessary and important to bring on my friend Kieren for this next episode. As someone who I only knew on social media at first from working in the music industry, I noticed that after the pandemic broke out and with the constant ongoing developments - Kieren was and still is consistently putting his platform on social media to good use by educating others by breaking down the science as simply as he possibly can.

To be clear, this instalment of the Creative Minds podcast is not about forcing anyone to do anything, or trying to push an agenda about mandatory vaccines or masks. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, to educate themselves, and if you wish to challenge the status quo then that is your choice and have the right to do so. I wanted to do this to try and reassure people and educate others about the importance of getting their information from reliable sources, because we live in an age now where social media is a breeding ground for misinformation and this can be dangerous at times, especially of course during a global pandemic.

I’m sure most of us have questioned the shambolic way in which this government has dealt with the situation and the fact they haven’t held themselves accountable when they’ve made mistakes. I am certainly not taking the moral high ground as I’ve had my own doubts at times, but this is about the science behind the virus.

We discuss the origins of the virus, why we are still in the position we’re in now in the UK, the governments handling of the pandemic, the dangers of social media & the wider media during a pandemic, pros and cons of vaccines, progressive medicine, when we’re likely to return to normal & we round things off on a lighter note by sharing our passion & love for house music.

Reliable media sources recommended by Kieren: https://www.theatlantic.com/world/ & https://www.ft.com

Facebook (regular updates from Kieren as ongoing developments relating to Covid-19) unfold: https://www.facebook.com/kieren.lythgow