—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.

5/ The trust-based model of public health was ditched in 2020. Govts have turned to a “command & coerce” approach, unleashing widespread distrust & resentment toward public authorities. More coercive health policies have not been shown to be more effective than less coercive ones

6/ Locking down healthy populations has had catastrophic repercussions on health & well-being with very small returns if any as a method of disease control. We must NEVER repeat this reckless experiment ever again.

https://t.co/bzsdKI3kae

7/ Future public health crises must be handled with efficient, targeted policies driven by detailed risk assessment. We knew from March 2020 which populations were most & least at risk, but most govts foolishly chose to treat EVERY social interaction as a high risk scenario.

8/ Public fear has been fed daily by media & politicians focusing on remote possibilities rather than probable outcomes. Public officials & journalists need to inform the public with facts & evidence, not feed their fears with IDLE SPECULATION about potential disasters.

9/ Many Western nations are now prepared to jettison basic civil liberties like freedom of movement & patient consent in the pursuit of an unrealistic “zero Covid” utopia. Widespread civil disobedience & protests may be the only effective antidote to these totalitarian tendencies

10/ This pandemic has offered us a poignant illustration of the dangers of highly centralised States. In a highly decentralised State local & municipal authorities could push back against civil rights violations & destructive stay-at-home orders imposed by national govts.

More from Category c19

$Milhouse Van Houten \U0001f600$

Milhouse Van Houten 😀...
@Milhouse_Van_Ho

Super thread on the gospel of Covidicus, who was sent down from covid heaven, Covidia, to make us more virtuous people.

Updated regularly.

"If a man is wearing a mask in the woods and there's no one around to see it, is he still virtuous?"

- Covidicus 4:35

"Tell a child to wear a mask and you deny him fresh air for a day.

Have a teacher force him to wear a mask and you deny him fresh air all day every day."

- Covidicus 6:57

"The path to righteousness is paved with double masks."

- Covidicus 3:14

"Two masks always make a right."

- Covidicus 7:12

$Robin Monotti FRSA \u2b50$

Robin Monotti FRSA ⭐...
@robinmonotti

PROBIOTICS & VIT D: "The vitamin D receptor is highly expressed in the gastrointestinal tract where it transacts gene expression..These results support the underlying hypothesis that the human gut microbiome and vitamin D metabolism are integrally related"
https://t.co/15rVFa1fkk

"Men with higher levels of 1,25(OH)2D and higher activation ratios, but not 25(OH)D itself, are more likely to possess butyrate producing bacteria that are associated with better gut microbial health."

"Several studies suggest that gut microbiota alter intestinal vitamin D metabolism (VDM), and probiotic supplements can affect circulating vitamin D levels."

"Because the serum 25(OH)D correlates with overall vitamin D storage, it is the preferred clinical measure to assess vitamin D sufficiency."

"Clinically, serum 25(OH)D levels ≥20 ng/ml are considered adequate while 25(OH)D levels <20 ng/ml are defined as vitamin D deficiency."

David Thunder
@davidjthunder

—SOME QUESTIONS A GOOD JOURNALIST MIGHT ASK POLITICIANS & PUBLIC HEALTH AUTHORITIES: A THREAD—

1/ Why has the government NEVER undertaken a comprehensive impact assessment before approving & re-approving highly intrusive & costly lockdowns?

2/ Why has the govt not been fast-tracking safe, inexpensive, & effective drugs like #Ivermectin for early intervention, when Ivermectin has shown excellent results in clinical trials & would likely substantially reduce the rate of Covid hospitalisation & death?

3/ Why are you toying with the idea of a vaccine passport when we know that the vast majority of travelers run minimal risk from Covid-19, most serious cases occur among elderly & ill patients, & therefore it is sufficient if at risk patients take the vaccine?

4/ Are you familiar with the Nuremberg Code (1947) on permissible medical experiments & its protection of the right of patients to give informed consent to medical experiments? How is penalizing those who refuse a novel vaccine compatible with this

5/ So far, regions with harsh lockdowns & universal mask mandates are NOT avoiding spikes in infections, hospitalisation, & deaths, & performing comparably to non-lockdown, non-mask regimes. Why have you made no change in your policies in light of their demonstrable futility?

$Abir Ballan \U0001f60a$

Abir Ballan 😊
@abirballan

A brief tutorial in health education to show you how sound health education models have been used for manipulation instead of creating health awareness during the COVID 19 pandemic. We'll uses masks as an example of a health behavior.
Are you ready to explore? 1/n

The Health Belief Model (HBM) consists of 5 components: perceived threat (lethality + Susceptibility),
perceived benefits,
perceived barriers and
cues to action.

Familiarise yourself with the definition of each concept in this table. 2/n
https://t.co/1tOz1cJFvc

Study this diagram to understand how the components are interrelated. 3/n
https://t.co/iUoaqNkgyP

Now let’s apply this to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Review this diagram to see how the HBM applies to the behaviour of mask-wearing.
“perceived susceptibility appeared to be the most signiﬁcant factor determining compliance” 4/n
https://t.co/xF6uwUx12N

Part I: The HBM
Increase the perceived threat of a disease
1) increase perceived severity: Confusing the general public with CFR & IFR- 2 indicators that are an order of magnitude apart.
People understood wrongly that the fatality rate of C19 is

"Globally, about 3.4% of reported #COVID19 cases have died. By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected"-@DrTedros #coronavirus
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 3, 2020

$Abir Ballan \U0001f60a$

Abir Ballan 😊
@abirballan

All you need to know about COVID19
FACTS NOT FEAR

Covid 19 is a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. SARS-CoV-2 is one of 7 coronaviruses known to man. 1/n

The pandemic is real. Excess deaths were observed in many countries. Not all countries were affected in the same way due to pre-existing immunity, the health status of the population and demographics (the proportion of elderly in the population) 2/n
https://t.co/65elPq3gp5

COVID 19 presents a high risk for the very few and negligible risk for the many.

The infection fatality rate in different age groups:
<19 y, IFR= 0.003%
20-49 y: IFR= 0.02%
50-69 y: 0.5%
>70y, IFR=

Not everybody is susceptible to the virus. If reinfected, pre-existing immunity from related viruses gives protection from developing the disease or from developing serious symptoms.
4/n

“The evidence that a subset of people has a cross-reactive T cell repertoire through exposure to related coronaviruses is