Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #behaviouralfatigue

Most recents (10)

#RishiSunak was at the heart of the #HerdImmunityScandal

Every epidemiologist, virologist & scientist made clear that - without a vaccine - #HerdImmunity was an “outcome” never a “strategy”

On 21/9/20, Sunak & Johnson skipped a crucial SAGE meeting to meet two lockdown sceptics
At the Sept meeting that Sunak skipped, SAGE had advised a circuit-breaker lockdown

Scientists had also warned against #Sunak's Eat Out to Help Out scheme which is closely linked to rise in #COViD19 cases & likely helped trigger a rise in deaths among ethnic minority populations
After #Sunak & Johnson were briefed by the anti-lockdown sceptics, they ignored SAGE’s advice to:

1. introduce a circuit-breaker lockdown

2. close pubs, restaurants & gyms

3. stop households mixing in each other’s homes

4. stop face-to-face teaching at universities & colleges
Read 5 tweets
1/. More than a year ago, I flagged this Dutch modelling for how the #COVID19 pandemic might impact with its final peak in early 2022

The Dutch were also following a #HerdImmunuity ‘strategy’

Today, the @DailyMailUK is talking about a 4th wave even before the 3rd wave as peaked
2/. All epidemiologists & virologists will tell you, #HereImmunity is an ‘outcome’ NEVER a ‘strategy’

The Dutch #COVID19 strategy mirrored that being used in the UK & was described as “a masterclass in framing & gaslighting”

So why did they go down this non-scientific path?👇
3/. We know the govt did NOT “stick to the science like glue”

#HerdImmunity - wasn’t science

#BehaviouralFatigue wasn’t science

They knew about asymptomatic spread in Jan

These were not “mistakes”

So why DID they do it?

Why are they STILL doing it?

Some answers below👇
Read 6 tweets
1/. On Wednesday, @MattHancock claimed that GPs having exclusive access patient data was "undemocratic"(!)

This is bonkers

There are 7.5k trusted data controllers in the NHS at the moment

How will it work with 60m?!

He ALSO broke #COVID rules & lost his voice👇
#BreakingNews
#MattHancock often seems to have problems when asked simple questions

When FINALLY asked who issued the instruction to send people from hospitals to care homes without testing & if it was approved by a Minister &, if so, which one? - he lost his hearing!
When asked about the failure of the App & @didoharding’s “cherry on the cake” (the £37b Test & Trace fiasco) @MattHancock faked hysteria

“I think many of my viewers will think this isn’t a laughing matter,” said @KayBurley

The death toll had hit 65,000
Read 4 tweets
“We were guided by the science. We didn't always follow the science" @MattHancock

So @BorisJohnson was lying when he said “we stuck to the science like glue”

Were they following the cod behavioural science of Halpern’s Nudge Unit & the ‘data science’ of #Palantir & #FacultyAI?
2/. On 13/5/20, I broke the #CareHomeScandal

On 2/4/20 the govt had INSTRUCTED hospitals to send people “who may have #COVID19” to care homes WITHOUT TESTING

The govt KNEW about asymptomatic transmission in Jan/Feb 2020

The question is which Minister signed off this directive.
3/. Hancock claims that no one knew about ASYMPTOMATIC SPREAD

This is not true

The govt knew asymptomatic transmission of #COVID19 was likely in Jan & had this confirmed in Feb

SAGE minutes on 28 January 2020 state that early indications suggest there was asymptomatic spread.
Read 17 tweets
Tweet from 8 months ago👇on how the govt was sharing our private NHS health data for “life science research” (genomics) with private companies

Now, NHS Digital is “refusing to rule out #Palantir being involved in the datastore from the GP data grab"

I call it the #PalantirPlan. Image
2/. The NHS is the most trusted brand in UK

#CambridgeAnalytica is the least trusted

Yet #Palantir - who rptdly taught Cambridge Analytica how to scrape data - run the NHS #COVID data store along with #FacultyAI, a company that worked for LeaveEU/Cummings & also has links to CA
3/. A year ago, Blair’s ex-Chief of staff – someone who knows about political skulduggery – wrote:

“This looks like the beginning of a rolling coup. It starts with the civil service then moves on to the judiciary & the media”

A coup for health data?

A coup for genomic data?
Read 5 tweets
@Dominic2306 FACT: I acknowledge that in the next tweet, Dom (Tweet 10)

FACT: There was a SPI-B meeting on 12/3/20 (attendees not listed)

FACT: There was a SAGE meeting on 13/3 & some of the docs are marked 12/3

FACT: The redacted ‘minutes’ were only released in May gov.uk/government/pub…
@Dominic2306 FACT: The claim in the Sunday Times was that you changed your mind on #HerdImmunity in mid-March

This tallies with your own claim: “we stared to figure out plan B”

FACT: @ShippersUnbound says the “if pensioners die too bad” comment was “at a private meeting” at the end of Feb.
@Dominic2306 @ShippersUnbound @BylineTimes @BBCNewsnight @maitlis @jonsnowC4 @cathynewman @TanDhesi @justinmadders @mrjamesob @DawnButlerBrent @Keir_Starmer FACT: On the day the PM was telling @Schofe that “one of the theories was we could take it on the chin”, you were attending the SAGE meeting that - bizarrely - concluded social distancing wasn’t necessary

On the same day, a 70yr old woman became the first Briton to die of COVID
Read 10 tweets
1/. The PM claims that the govt “stuck to the science like glue”

But this is not true

At crucial times they ignored the science or concocted pseudo-scientific justifications for their actions & inaction

This thread, & the embedded threads, set them out
2/. “BEHAVIOURAL FATIGUE”

A key justification for delaying lockdown was that “if we do it too early people will get bored”

The paper-thin reasoning of this claim was apparent at the time

But it was repeated by the PM, Ministers, @uksciencechief & Whitty
3/. The concept of "lockdown fatigue" had no basis in behavioural science

On 14 March, 700 behavioural scientists published an open letter stating this

So where had the idea come from?

How had it been allowed to shape govt policy at this crucial time?
Read 3 tweets
1/. It’s widely thought that the unscientific concept of #LockdownFatigue, used to delay lockdown for 2 weeks, came from #DavidHalpern & his Nudge Unit.

When asked if #BehaviouralFatigue came from him he said:

“It did not, in my memory, come from SPI-B or us", his eyes darting.
2/. With #DavidHalpern suffering memory loss, we asked SPI-B (the govt's behavioural scientific group). #LockdownFatigue did NOT come from them!

So we wrote to the Nudge Unit to see if any of their staff remember.

"It absolutely 100% was not from us" their press office replied. ImageImage
3/. Ultimately - due to memory loss & lack of proper minutes - we will never find out where the concept of #BehaviouralFatigue originated.

But it doesn't matter.

What matters is the process by which it became govt policy. It was assessed, approved & sent to the media, MPs & PM.
Read 4 tweets
1) On 19 March, with the UK still not locked down, I noted that the role of #DavidHalpern & his Nudge Unit is key to
the ever-growing #HerdImmunityScandal

It was widely assumed the Unit had come up with the idea of #LockdownFatigue / #BehaviouralFatigue
2) Ignoring the horrific evidence from Italy & advice of @WHO & their own behavioural scientist group (SPI-B), the govt - supported by Vallance & Whitty - pushed out this absurd idea that if we locked down in early/mid March, people would get bored.

The media didn't question it.
3) On 14 March, 700 behavioural scientists published an open letter calling out #LockdownFatigue as cod science

It would later emerge that earlier in March, Spi-B & SAGE had said there was limited evidence for the idea of #BehaviouralFatigue

Clearly the govt ignored the science
Read 9 tweets
Unseen footage from 10 March, shows #DavidHalpern talking about the idea of lockdown fatigue: "You don't want to cry wolf - you want to start asking people to do these things...when they're likely to be effective.”

This was the non-scientific grounds govt used to delay lockdown.
On 14 March, 700 behavioural scientists signed an open letter calling out the non-sensical use of #BehaviouralFatigue to justify delaying social distancing.

But the scientific guidance against #LockdownFatigue was entirely ignored by the govt & the media.
sites.google.com/view/covidopen…
The crucial questions we have been asking since early March are:

1) Where did this idea of lockdown/behavioural fatigue come?

2) How did it gain such prominence in govt strategy & in the media narrative?
#COVID19 #HerdImmunityScandal #coronavirus #COVID
Read 7 tweets

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