1/ Let’s talk about vaccine misinformation, @cdcgov style. On Friday the CDC ran a report titled “Reduction in COVID-19 Patients Requiring Mechanical Ventilation Following Implementation of a National COVID-19 Vaccination Program.”

The headline is a lie. No other word will do...

This will be my first and possibly last tweet (thread) as I am mostly here to learn. It is prompted by a recent study questioning lockdown efficacy that is getting a lot of attention. It appears people believe it to be the first of its kind, but I have been collecting similar

studies since March 2020. Below are 30 published papers finding that lockdowns had little or no efficacy (despite unconscionable harms) along with a key quote or two from each:

1.https://t.co/VseXe862AX

“there is no evidence that more restrictive nonpharmaceutical interventions (“lockdowns”) contributed substantially to bending the curve of new cases in England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, or the United States in early 2020”

2.https://t.co/EzTSzeZyue

“Inferences on effects of NPIs are non-robust and highly sensitive to model specification. Claimed benefits of lockdown appear grossly exaggerated.”

3.https://t.co/4c4LqeQ5bz

“government actions such as border closures, full lockdowns, and a high rate of COVID-19 testing were not associated with statistically significant reductions in the number of critical cases or overall mortality”

—TAKEAWAY LESSONS FROM PANDEMIC 2020-21: A THREAD—

Below, a few basic lessons I have drawn, as a political philosopher and informed citizen who has made it my business to closely follow political, social, economic, clinical, & epidemiological aspects of the pandemic:

1/ Most mainstream journalists cannot be relied upon to critically uncover, & impartially convey, the facts surrounding a complex & unfolding crisis. If you watch RTE, BBC, or CNN, you are fed naively one-sided stories laced with fear-mongering, misleading use of statistics, etc.

2/ If you wish to inform yourself about a public crisis like this pandemic, you must find commentators who have limited access to mainstream media, good credentials, & arguments that consider a wide range of available evidence. You need to be pro-active about diversifying sources

3/ Reliance by govts upon advisory committees with a clearly one-sided take on the pandemic (eg suppression at all cost) has led to catastrophic outcomes. Govts must diversify their scientific sources & encourage ROBUST scientific debate among their advisors.

4/ Hyper-centralised management of public health is ineffective. Decision-making power must be decentralised so that it can adapt quickly to local conditions. Care homes were badly hurt by top-down mandates that were sluggishly responsive to evolving conditions on the ground.

Last week, Dr. Theresa Tam @CPHO_Canada & the Ontario Scientology table released their latest model that garnered criticism, ridicule, & shame at an international level. The now famous Covid Erection had risen 🍆📈

#Canada #Ontario #cdnpoli #onpoli #COVID19

The Covid Erection model predicted ~5000 cases by the end of February. Well, now that we’re at February’s end, Ontario recorded ~1250 cases. It would seem that the Covid Erection encountered some...ahem, erectile dysfunction 📉

#Canada #Ontario #cdnpoli #onpoli

Since the Covid Erection model had become flaccid, Dr. Tam @CPHO_Canada needed another story to continue the propaganda of fear; public health by dread & distress. So she came out today to say that Canada was experiencing 75X more cases than the spring peak

#Canada #cdnpoli

The spring peak in Canada had ~2000 cases. Today, Canada reported ~3000 cases. That would be 1.5X more cases, not 75X. Dr. Tam @CPHO_Canada just inflated the case counts by only 50X, or what we call here in Canada, by a Fisman

#Canada #cdnpoli #Ontario #onpoli #COVID19

Canada (& Ontario’s) public health officials & politicians have thoroughly embarrassed the discipline of public health & made mockery of the field of medicine. From the MDs fake crying in the news to the high school teachers pretending to be biostatisticians. We’ve become a joke.