"The advice was stay home if youโre sick, wash your hands, protect the vulnerable, most people will have a mild illness, wearing face masks is โusually quite a bad ideaโ, & โbig gatherings donโt have a big effect so we donโt want to disrupt peopleโs lives.โ 2/n
"If you then discovered that the majority of the committee members had financial interests in the drug being developed, how would you feel?" 1/n
@zoeharcombe @RosemaryFreiTO @simondolan @Francis_Hoar @BreesAnna @toadmeister @NeilClark66 @allisonpearson
"The advice was stay home if youโre sick, wash your hands, protect the vulnerable, most people will have a mild illness, wearing face masks is โusually quite a bad ideaโ, & โbig gatherings donโt have a big effect so we donโt want to disrupt peopleโs lives.โ 2/n
"...4 more are modellers/statisticians, 2 are experts in how to manipulate human behaviour... 3 hold senior roles in the 2 universities leading the vaccine race ... no immunologists ...two virologists" 8/n
"The paper has sections on coercion, compulsion and how to harness โsocial disapprovalโ to coerce people into doing what government wants them to do." 10/n
https://t.co/NsZ75VIRFR
More from Abir Ballan ๐
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
โThe evidence that a subset of people has a cross-reactive T cell repertoire through exposure to related coronaviruses is
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
โThe evidence that a subset of people has a cross-reactive T cell repertoire through exposure to related coronaviruses is
The corrupt Lebanese government put the country in lockdown to flatten the โrevolutionโ. As a result of the worsening economic situation, many healthcare workers were laid off and now the Lebanese people are paying for it by being denied access to care. 1/n
Hereโs what would reduce mortality in #Lebanon:
1) protecting the vulnerable
2) increasing healthcare capacity
3) supporting healthcare workers
All impossible to do in a country that is gasping for dear life. 2/n
And yet the #Lebanese people are being blamed for not following guidelines and not following the rules.
The Lebanese people are not to blame. Wearing masks, social distancing, lockdowns and stupid curfews donโt do anything. 3/n
It is those politicians who transferred their money to Swiss accounts, while #Lebanese citizens can no longer transfer university fees for their children studying abroad, who are to blame.
Stop shifting the blame to the people. 4/n
Public health practitioners like @firassabiad and @petra who have bought blindly into the narrative are reinforcing this displaced scapegoating.
Please be aware of the harm of supporting the governmentโs narrative. 5/n
In ten days, the case fatality rate from #Covid19 in Lebanon has increased from 0.75% to 0.84%. This rise was expected as patients continue to face delayed access to care. pic.twitter.com/MV5YUTBie5
— Firass Abiad (@firassabiad) January 24, 2021
Hereโs what would reduce mortality in #Lebanon:
1) protecting the vulnerable
2) increasing healthcare capacity
3) supporting healthcare workers
All impossible to do in a country that is gasping for dear life. 2/n
And yet the #Lebanese people are being blamed for not following guidelines and not following the rules.
The Lebanese people are not to blame. Wearing masks, social distancing, lockdowns and stupid curfews donโt do anything. 3/n
It is those politicians who transferred their money to Swiss accounts, while #Lebanese citizens can no longer transfer university fees for their children studying abroad, who are to blame.
Stop shifting the blame to the people. 4/n
Public health practitioners like @firassabiad and @petra who have bought blindly into the narrative are reinforcing this displaced scapegoating.
Please be aware of the harm of supporting the governmentโs narrative. 5/n
I disagree with you, Alastair. I believe @PanData19 is filling in the gaps that governments have failed to fill. I encourage you to have an open mind and listen intently to what we have to say. 1/n
Hereโs how @PanData19 is approaching this crisis differently from governments:
We believe that "health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."- @WHO 2/n
To tackle the problem holistically, we have formed a multidisciplinary team made up of immunologist, microbiologist, geneticists, data scientists, physicians, economist, psychologists, educators, public health professionals and business owners. 3/n
We have also backed ourselves with a scientific advisory board made up of prominent experts in their fields.
@MartinKulldorff
@SunetraGupta
@MLevitt_NP2013
@MichaelYeadon3
#JayBhattacharya
#SucharitBhakdi
They are supporting us every step of the way. 4/n
We believe that "the right to health is one of a set of internationally agreed human rights standards, and is inseparable or โindivisibleโ from these other rights.โ @WHO 5/n
It\u2019s disappointing that you would join an organization comprised of non-experts, spreading harmful misinformation about a pandemic.
— Alastair \u2018Wear a Mask\u2019 McAlpine (@AlastairMcA30) December 11, 2020
I would urge you to reconsider.
Hereโs how @PanData19 is approaching this crisis differently from governments:
We believe that "health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."- @WHO 2/n
To tackle the problem holistically, we have formed a multidisciplinary team made up of immunologist, microbiologist, geneticists, data scientists, physicians, economist, psychologists, educators, public health professionals and business owners. 3/n
We have also backed ourselves with a scientific advisory board made up of prominent experts in their fields.
@MartinKulldorff
@SunetraGupta
@MLevitt_NP2013
@MichaelYeadon3
#JayBhattacharya
#SucharitBhakdi
They are supporting us every step of the way. 4/n
We believe that "the right to health is one of a set of internationally agreed human rights standards, and is inseparable or โindivisibleโ from these other rights.โ @WHO 5/n
More from Society
Krugman is, of course, right about this. BUT, note that universities can do a lot to revitalize declining and rural regions.
See this thing that @lymanstoneky wrote:
And see this thing that I wrote:
And see this book that @JamesFallows wrote:
And see this other thing that I wrote:
One thing I've been noticing about responses to today's column is that many people still don't get how strong the forces behind regional divergence are, and how hard to reverse 1/ https://t.co/Ft2aH1NcQt
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) November 20, 2018
See this thing that @lymanstoneky wrote:
And see this thing that I wrote:
And see this book that @JamesFallows wrote:
And see this other thing that I wrote:
1/OK, data mystery time.
This New York Times feature shows China with a Gini Index of less than 30, which would make it more equal than Canada, France, or the Netherlands. https://t.co/g3Sv6DZTDE
That's weird. Income inequality in China is legendary.
Let's check this number.
2/The New York Times cites the World Bank's recent report, "Fair Progress? Economic Mobility across Generations Around the World".
The report is available here:
3/The World Bank report has a graph in which it appears to show the same value for China's Gini - under 0.3.
The graph cites the World Development Indicators as its source for the income inequality data.
4/The World Development Indicators are available at the World Bank's website.
Here's the Gini index: https://t.co/MvylQzpX6A
It looks as if the latest estimate for China's Gini is 42.2.
That estimate is from 2012.
5/A Gini of 42.2 would put China in the same neighborhood as the U.S., whose Gini was estimated at 41 in 2013.
I can't find the <30 number anywhere. The only other estimate in the tables for China is from 2008, when it was estimated at 42.8.
This New York Times feature shows China with a Gini Index of less than 30, which would make it more equal than Canada, France, or the Netherlands. https://t.co/g3Sv6DZTDE
That's weird. Income inequality in China is legendary.
Let's check this number.
2/The New York Times cites the World Bank's recent report, "Fair Progress? Economic Mobility across Generations Around the World".
The report is available here:
3/The World Bank report has a graph in which it appears to show the same value for China's Gini - under 0.3.
The graph cites the World Development Indicators as its source for the income inequality data.
4/The World Development Indicators are available at the World Bank's website.
Here's the Gini index: https://t.co/MvylQzpX6A
It looks as if the latest estimate for China's Gini is 42.2.
That estimate is from 2012.
5/A Gini of 42.2 would put China in the same neighborhood as the U.S., whose Gini was estimated at 41 in 2013.
I can't find the <30 number anywhere. The only other estimate in the tables for China is from 2008, when it was estimated at 42.8.
