Thread by @DrMattMcCarthy

Here's one of the points I made in this #COVID19 lecture: When I see a politician taking drastic action that is not supported by data, I ask myself, "How did this person respond to warnings in March?"
An example: 1/

https://twitter.com/SophieBalzoraMD/status/1339992789694726144

While most of the world was focused on mitigation in mid-March, the United Kingdom implemented “delay.” As many experts noted at the time, this was a mistake. The UK inadvertently served as the placebo-controlled arm of a global study aimed at limiting death and disease. 2/

Delay has been widely criticized. Coronavirus moved unchecked throughout England until the prime minister was forced to reverse course and implement harsh restrictions. We're still feeling the repercussions today. 3/
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

Leaders who were inactive in March try to be proactive today. (We saw this with the arbitrary closing of NYC public schools). The result: Severe restrictions are implemented based on weak data. There is no experimental evidence that the new variant is 70% more transmissible. 4/

I discussed one of the unusual lessons of the pandemic: Swift & decisive action is not always the answer. Sometimes nuance is necessary. It's okay to ask for more evidence before making sweeping decisions. That is true leadership. But some are haunted by their decisions in March.