Thread by @AbraarKaran

Don’t let @SWAtlasHoover fool you— the reason we have had to “lockdown” is because the administration has *no damn plan*; now they’re trying to push a “plan” where they *do nothing* but want to say it’s ok for you to get sick in the process. This is pure lunacy.

https://twitter.com/swatlashoover/status/1317199337320054789

2/ Ask them why when they lost control of this epidemic months ago, they failed to implement working public health systems so that we could get our country up and running safely?

3/ Ask them why when we have 200k+ dead and numerous others *of all ages* suffering from long term effects, when the first surges pushed our hospitals to the limit, they are saying it’s a good idea to allow even more infections with fewer/no protections?

4/ Ask them why, when they are supposedly hard at work to get a safe vaccine out soon by which we work toward *vaccinating people toward herd immunity*, they are suddenly reframing it as “herd immunity through getting the actual infection”? Convenient timing and re-framing...

5/ Ask them why when other countries, both wealthy & impoverished, have successfully controlled their epidemics through implementation of actual public health principles, our administration *chose* to muzzle the CDC and its scientists?

6/ Ask them, when they say “herd immunity” and “age-based protections” if they have ever seen an actual patient or interacted w/ families— hiding grandma in a bunker for months doesn’t work. If the administration actually listened to experts, no one would have to “lockdown”.

7/ This administration wants to sell you snake-oil “cures”, & at the same time reframe the illness as “Democrats want to lock you down”— no one wants lockdowns, on either side of the political aisle. What we want is actual infectious disease experts leading our epidemic response.

8/ When I debated Dr. Kulldorff, I made the point that their team is also making — the vulnerable have been hit the hardest & are suffering the most. But my answer is not to send them (including young/healthy) back to the workforce without protections.

democracynow.org/2020/10/15/her…

9/ If you truly care about protecting the poor and vulnerable, the answer is you *protect them*— paid leave until safer working conditions, access to PPE, staggering work schedules, access to regular testing, access to safer isolation options if they can’t isolate at home.

10/ You don’t argue to send them back to work while hiding grandma & grandpa away for months until millions upon millions get sick; remember that “not dying” doesn’t mean you won’t need a hospital bed, or that you’ll be healthy enough to go back to work. That’s a false dichotomy

11/ Also remember— we don’t know if those infected will have robust long-lasting immunity; we are seeing some re-infections but may be undercounting these- even if those second ones are mild, if you can still transmit on to more vulnerable people, you run into the same issue.

12/ It’s unbelievably frustrating hearing a “plan” being pushed out by people who aren’t going to be treating the patients who will be getting sick from it.

It’s easy to suggest hypotheticals when the consequences of them going wrong don’t actually fall upon you directly.

Cc thread @ReganHMarsh @drdavidwalton @drlouiseivers @JoiaMukherjee @sri_srikrishna @KatherineJWu @elizabarclay @nermeendn @cmyeaton @JenniferNuzzo