Thread by @JeffDean

"It was full of... misinformation about the virus & the US response. That’s particularly painful coming from inside the CDC, a longtime powerhouse in global public health now reduced to being a backdrop for grubby politics."

Having worked @CDCgov & @WHO, it pains me to see this.

https://twitter.com/nxthompson/status/1236431830242508800

When I worked at @WHO, I was part of the Global Programme on AIDS (now @UNAIDS), created to help the world tackle the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The staff there were dedicated doctors and scientists intensely focused on helping address that crisis.

In times of crisis, clear and accurate information is vital to helping everyone make proper and informed decisions about how to respond (country, state, and local governments, companies, NGOs, schools, families, and individuals).

With the right information and policies in place for listening to the best medical and scientific experts, we will all come through challenges like the ones presented by HIV/AIDS or by COVID-19.

With disinformation driven by political interests, there's a real risk of making things way, way worse by not acting quickly and decisively in the face of a growing pandemic, and by actively encouraging behaviors that will actually spread the disease more quickly.

This whole situation is incredibly painful to watch unfold.