—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/: Scientific integrity is a valuable commodity. What happens when external funders take influence on both scientific™ findings and media coverage can be seen in the current global crisis. It is time to return to the fundamental principles of science: ⬇️A thread⬇️

2/: In this thread, I will roughly explain why #empiricism and #repeatability are important factors for science and why model approaches should be interpreted with caution (and that is what I am saying as a modeller).

3/: I am aware that the principle of science is far more profound than explained in this thread, but this thread is written for laymen on @twitter and not for the lecture room. Also, within the scientific community, there is no clear consensus about this topic either.

4/: In recent years, I have been working on complex food production systems that increase food production and show high nutrient and water use efficiencies. I have thus been involved in plant growth experiments and holistic system modelling activities (@MATLAB, @AnyLogicCo).

5/: The plant growth experiments included environmental factors, #metagenomics (i.e. microbial genome sequencing), flow regulations etc. and the modelling covered the prediction on non-existing systems based on experimental and literature data.

1/ Thread – LOCKDOWNS – WHAT WE'VE DONE

My work is sometimes criticized for not discussing the merits of lockdown—perhaps even exculpating western leaders by blaming the CCP. Others know better. This thread is for the victims of lockdown, the greatest crime of the 21st century.

2/ Over 60% of business closures from lockdown are now permanent—over 97,000 businesses lost in the U.S. That “leaders” across the world transformed into tyrants, believing they had a right to bankrupt their subjects, is the core evil of

3/ Nearly half of black-owned small businesses have been wiped

4/ Unemployment in the U.S. reached as high as 14.7% and highways have jammed with thousands of vehicles awaiting their turn at food

5/ Nearly 5% of the population of the U.K. went hungry during the first three weeks of lockdown.

1/ An excellent new paper from Denmark that tracks every vaccination given to nursing home residents there shows an 40% RISE in infections immediately after the first @pfizer dose and no efficacy at any point. Protection in this population after “full” vaccination is 64%...

2/ The researchers also tracked health-care workers, the other group in Denmark to receive the vaccine first. They actually had an even LARGER rise in infections immediately following dose 1, but overall higher protection at “full” vaccination (a week after dose 2) - 90%...

3/ This paper is the best yet (because it’s the least political). It is also in line with the Israeli and English data show once you wade through their spin. The takeaways are: The vaccine is much less effective in the people who need it most and DON’T DELAY THE SECOND SHOT...

4/ By the way, i#depending on how long the vaccine provides protection, its OVERALL effectiveness will be below whatever the peak figure is, maybe well below - you need a lot of good weeks to make up for that bolus at the beginning - but I don’t even want to go there.

5/ This paper also shows why the raw Israeli numbers are trash - if infections are declining overall (as they were in Israel and Denmark in February) looking at infections in the vaccinated population without adjusting for that trend markedly overestimates the vaccine effect.

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.

—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?