Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Jeremy Konyndyk Profile picture
@JeremyKonyndyk
Sep 30, 2020 • 13 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
Going to try to fact-check what Trump says on COVID.

Wish me luck.
"It is what it is because you are who you are."

Fact-check: Yup, as I told Vox back in March.

vox.com/2020/3/5/21166…
Trump says if the country had listened to Biden, the country "would have been left wide open."

False. Biden didn't speak against the China ban, and when Trump banned EU travel, Biden rightly pointed out that the ban was not a substitute for a plan:
Trump also claims that China is to blame for the virus. As I've written at length, China's bad behavior doesn't explain the US outbreak:
Trump says the bleach comments were made sarcastically. You be the judge.

As for the vaccine timeline, Fauci knows better than Trump.
(Hard to keep up)
Pelosi is not the obstacle to the next round of COVID aid. The House has moved; the Senate hasn't. bizjournals.com/washington/new…
Trump claims that the states that shut down have done poorly.

False. The states that reopened prematurely across the Sun Belt experienced huge surges over the summer. States like NY, NJ, CT that clamped down after early surges have been the best performers. Image
Trump rallies are *not* all outside. ImageImage
Trump claims Biden will close down the whole country.

False. Economic disruption is driven by the virus. What keeps communities closed is the failure to beat the virus. Curtailing the virus - what Trump has utterly failed to do for 9 months - is what will get the country open.
I'm tallying 8 big lies so far on this topic; sure I've missed some.
OK, they're off COVID. Whew.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Jeremy Konyndyk

Jeremy Konyndyk Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @JeremyKonyndyk

Jeremy Konyndyk Profile picture
Sep 10
When is an "aid project" not actually an aid project?

Well, recruiting staff through an anti-Islam biker gang is usually a pretty clear tell.

Beyond the outright insanity of this, it also reveals something important about the agenda behind the GHF. 🧵
At first blush this story almost seems too outlandish to be real. Full disclosure - I was skeptical when I first hear these rumblings a few months ago.

But BBC brings the receipts. And the receipts are flat-out nuts (this nugget about gang leader Johnny Mulford is priceless). Image
Who is Mulford, the lead GHF security subcontractor?

He's a biker gang leader who was formerly debarred by the Pentagon for "bribery, larceny, and making false official statements" related to contract kickbacks.

Not who you'd want near an aid project.
jagcnet.army.mil/Sites/Procurem…Image
Read 16 tweets
Jeremy Konyndyk Profile picture
Aug 30
All week the Israeli govt has mounted a major PR push against @theIPCinfo's Gaza famine declaration.

The @IsraelMFA pushback reveals a basic ignorance (perhaps willful?) of how famines work and how the IPC declares them.

Today the IPC responded. Let's take a look. 🧵
The GoI has a thin slide deck of bold-font attacks with no links to supporting data.

The IPC reply has 6 pages of explanatory text plus a new table of additional malnutrition analysis (on top of their original 56-page report).
ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user…
ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user… Image
Image
Image
The GoI's claim on mortality analysis completely ignores actual IPC guidance & analysis.

IDF restrictions prevent a comprehensive mortality survey in Gaza.

So the IPC was very up-front that it used an inference approach, and thus declared famine "with reasonable evidence." Image
Image
Read 15 tweets
Jeremy Konyndyk Profile picture
Aug 26
Thread incoming on famines & and mortality data.

tl;dr: the Gaza declaration rests on inferred mortality b/c it's impossible to collect good mortality data.

*just like all 3 other famine declarations since 2011*

Meaning no "lowering the bar" for Gaza.

Let’s get into it…
A famine declaration assesses food deprivation, malnutrition, and mortality.

In Gaza the food deprivation metric has been clearly met for quite a while.

The malnutrition assessment is solid too (per my earlier threads).

But there is limited data on deaths. So, what to do? Image
Famine analyses OFTEN encounter incomplete mortality & other data.

Almost invariably, famine risk arises in context where conflict and political obstacles prevent comprehensive data collection.

In Gaza, mortality data is very poor outside of trauma deaths.
Read 16 tweets
Jeremy Konyndyk Profile picture
Aug 22
I'm getting a lot of questions about this (false) claim, so let's do a wonky deep dive on how willfully wrong @Israel is on this.

Right off the top: this is the EXACT SAME THRESHOLD that was used in the Sudan famine declaration last year.

Not any lowering of the bar for Gaza.
The MUAC threshold is used in cases like Sudan or Gaza where access is limited and full weight-for-height studies are not feasible.

Here is the relevant portion of the Dec 2024 famine analysis for Sudan, using the same MUAC >15% threshold. ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user…Image
IPC guidance very explicitly allows for these two approaches to assessing Global Acute Malnutrition in a population:

- weight-for-height analysis
and
- mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) screening

MUAC is used when access constraints prevent a full weight-for-height survey. Image
Image
Read 13 tweets
Jeremy Konyndyk Profile picture
Aug 22
Starvation in Gaza has been building for months.

The Famine Review Committee conclusion on famine is compelling (more on that below).

Principal responsibility lies with Israeli aid obstruction - but failure of US & Europe to use *any* real leverage on this is also stunning.
🧵
The evidence for a declaration is persuasive.

There has been evidence of severe food deprivation going back to last year, mainly due to Israeli restrictions.

It got exponentially worse from March '25 onward, after Israel instituted an aid blockade that it has yet to fully lift. Image
Image
Image
Image
Malnutrition evidence is also solid, notwithstanding the armchair experts who misread the IPC thresholds.

Say it with me: a MUAC level over 15% is IPC famine territory.

Moreover the rate is continuing to rise to even grimmer levels. Image
Image
Image
Read 15 tweets
Jeremy Konyndyk Profile picture
Aug 22
For months, folks on this website have pushed a set of "gotcha" tropes to debunk the existence of famine in Gaza.

In fact they are mostly debunking their own credibility on famine dynamics.

As we await tomorrow's IPC report, here is a pre-buttal 🧵of some of those tropes.
Most of this denialism comes from armchair experts who have never worked on hunger emergencies.

FWIW, I directed USG famine prevention efforts for:

- South Sudan 2013-14
- Yemen 2015-16
- Ethiopia 2016
- Nigeria 2016

Plus a lot of smaller ones.

On to the gotchas...
Gotcha 1: This starving kid is next to a parent who isn't starving! Clearly a ruse!

Why it’s BS: The nutritional needs of growing children make them far more vulnerable to starvation than adults. They invariably starve earlier.

Good overview here: telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…Image
Read 15 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(