Atomsk's Sanakan Profile picture
Sep 27, 2020 8 tweets 7 min read Read on X
1/C

The infection fatality rate (IFR) states what proportion of people infected with the virus SARS-CoV-2 die of the disease COVID-19.

Many COVID-19 contrarians abuse IFR estimates from the USA's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So let's discuss those estimates. Image
2/C

For context:

Seasonal flu's IFR is <0.1%:


If 100 million people (less than 1/3 of the USA's pop.) get infected at an average IFR of 1%, that means 1 million COVID-19 deaths.

medrxiv.org/content/10.110…


medrxiv.org/content/10.110… Image
3/C

Round 1:

The CDC initially gave an IFR of 0.26%.

They gave no evidence for this, and their estimate was below that of published research.

So experts were annoyed:




usatoday.com/story/news/fac…

npr.org/sections/healt… Image
4/C

Round 2:

The CDC updates their IFR from 0.26% to 0.65%.

That makes a bit more sense, but is still an under-estimate, as noted by the source the CDC relied on.
The actual value was closer to 1%:




archive.is/w2xC7#selectio… Image
5/C

Round 3:

The CDC now gives IFRs for specific age-ranges.

This implies a higher IFR of ~0.72%:


But the CDC again under-estimates IFR, since they leave out those aged 80 and above:


archive.is/UWGms#selectio… Image
6/C

Some take-home lessons so far, on the CDC and IFR:

1) They persistently under-estimate IFR.
2) Their IFR estimate increased, undermining COVID-19 contrarians who cited the CDC.
3) COVID-19 is dangerous, even on the CDC's under-estimated IFR.

sciencedirect.com/science/articl… Image
7/C

And for those who want IFRs for regions of the USA to compare to the CDC's (under-estimated) implied value of ~0.72%:






USA values circled in red:
medrxiv.org/content/10.110… Image
8/C

The CDC's age-specific IFR from part 5/C is similar to the age-specific IFR used in March by Neil Ferguson's Imperial College team.

So in citing the CDC, COVID-19 contrarians implicitly affirm Ferguson was right. 🙂



spiral.imperial.ac.uk:8443/bitstream/1004… Image

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More from @AtomsksSanakan

Sep 14
@curryja If it's anything like Steven Koonin's 2014 op-ed in WSJ, then it's filled with ideologically-motivated misinformation and denialism.

archive.is/FTvi1

realclimate.org/index.php/arch…
realclimate.org/index.php/arch…

web.archive.org/web/2014121322…
[archive.is/v03kY] Image
@curryja About 30% more warming occurred during the first quarter of the 21st century than during the last quarter of the 20th century.

Models did fine.

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/20…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
realclimate.org/index.php/clim…
x.com/hausfath/statu…

web.archive.org/web/2014121322… Image
Read 8 tweets
May 19
@grok @19joho @WSJopinion @mattwridley x.com/curryja/status…
x.com/curryja/status…

Ryan Maue:
"Use ERA5 or JRA-55"
archive.is/tAbpF#selectio…

archive.is/zsZIh#selectio…

"[...] according to ERA5 [...].
The increase for the last thirty years, from 1995 to 2024, is 0.26 ± 0.05°C per decade."
climate.copernicus.eu/climate-indica… Image
@grok @19joho @WSJopinion @mattwridley @grok Ridley predicted less than 0.5°C of warming.

"Matt Ridley's 2014 prediction that global warming from 1995 to 2025 would be about 0.5°C"
x.com/grok/status/19…

wsj.com/articles/matt-…
[archive.is/32FiP#selectio…] Image
@grok @19joho @WSJopinion @mattwridley Re: "The increase for the last thirty years, from 1995 to 2024, is 0.26 ± 0.05°C per decade"
climate.copernicus.eu/climate-indica…

Matches the ~0.3°C/decade projection Ridley attributed to climate models

"Whatever Happened to Global Warming?"
mattridley.co.uk/blog/whatever-…
[wsj.com/articles/matt-…] Image
Read 4 tweets
Dec 9, 2024
@luckytran Bhattacharya' NIH nomination for 2025 is reminiscent of Scott Pruitt's EPA nomination for 2017:

Position a contrarian ideologue whose views contradict published evidence + expert assessments.

x.com/_johnbye/statu…
x.com/pjavidan/statu…

cnbc.com/2017/03/09/sco… Image
@luckytran In which Bhattacharya does the intellectual equivalent of claiming vaccine denialists are being unfairly persecuted because Andrew Wakefield's blog told him so

🤢

x.com/AlastairMcA30/…

x.com/AliNeitzelMD/s…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan… Image
@luckytran x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan…

Bhattacharya, November 2020:

"What they're doing is focused protection, and you can see the result. The infection rates are going up in Sweden, but the death rates are not."
edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/vi…

ourworldindata.org/explorers/covi… Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 18, 2024
@luckytran No, 'focused protection' did not lead to herd immunity within 6 months in Florida.

"Florida, which adopted a focused-protection approach"
spiked-online.com/2021/08/02/the…

x.com/GidMK/status/1…

x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan…

gbdeclaration.org/frequently-ask… Image
@luckytran When your main non-lockdown example... has a lockdown.

"announced a ban on public events of more than eight people"
web.archive.org/web/2020120111…

"upper secondary schools are again closing"
thelocal.se/20201203/swede…

x.com/DrKatrin_Rabie…

Bhattacharya:
gbdeclaration.org/frequently-ask… Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 17, 2024
@luckytran Re: "Bhattacharya has spread disinformation on COVID"

You may want to support this claim, if you haven't already.

There are plenty of examples of him spreading misinformation.

For instance: on masking

x.com/AtomsksSanakan…
x.com/RobertoCast212…

jamanetwork.com/journals/jamap… Image
@luckytran Promoting obvious disinformation about China's COVID-19 policy.

x.com/ResidingCynic/…
x.com/doritmi/status…

web.archive.org/web/2022010218… Image
@luckytran Saying a majority of Indians had "natural immunity" when the real number was ~25%, weeks before India suffered a large COVID-19 wave

x.com/GYamey/status/…
x.com/AtomsksSanakan… Image
Read 28 tweets

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