Thread by @jeremyrhammond

Here is how the #COVID19 #lockdown regime in my home state of #Michigan is engaging in institutionalized scientific fraud, justifying authoritarian measures on the basis of nonsensical anti-science policies resulting in uninterpretable data. (1/9)

Here is the #Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) "COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures" dated September 2020: (2/9)
michigan.gov/documents/mdhh…

First, it shows plainly that state health officials are equating any positive PCR test with a "COVID-19" case, even though the detection of viral RNA by itself does not tell you whether the person is infectious or has (or has ever had) the disease caused by #SARSCoV2. (3/9)

According to the CDC's medical textbook Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice, "infection" and "disease" are not synonymous: one may be infected with a virus and yet NOT have the disease, i.e., not have symptoms. (4/9)
cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss…

Yet the MDHHS cites as the basis for its policy this document from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologist (CSTE) Executive Board, which states explicitly that a positive PCR test ALONE is "SUFFICIENT" to report a "case" of #COVID19. (5/9)
cdn.ymaws.com/www.cste.org/r…

Thus, people with "positive" PCR tests but no symptoms, i.e., people who do not have the disease, are being counted as "COVID-19 cases", the numbers of which are being used by the #lockdown regime to justify authoritarian measures.(6/9)

Second, #COVID19 "cases" based on positive PCR tests are being used to determine COVID-19 "deaths" REGARDLESS OF THE CAUSE OF DEATH. This is obviously nonsensical, but here are the stated criteria (you can't make this stuff up, and you have to see it to believe it): (7/9)

Thus, deceased individuals who may never have even had #COVID19 but who'd had a positive PCR test are being counted as "COVID-19 deaths" due to the policies adopted by the MDHHS. This biases the numbers upward and makes the data practically uninterpretable. (8/9)

The upward-biased numbers are then, of course, cited to justify the authoritarian measures implemented by the #lockdown regime. How many "COVID-19 deaths" were actually due to another underlying COD? How many never even had COVID-19? Serious Qs requiring serious As. (9/9)