Thread by @PanData19

Out damn spot! 1/12

The President of South Africa appeared on national TV to tell some lies in support of perpetuating destructive Covid malarkey. Out came the old chestnut that data support the effectiveness of past measures. Where is this magic data? 2/12
frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

Similarly, that masks we are supposedly not wearing (though no data supports that allegation) have this magical property of preventing infection, again based on “data” that we are not privy to. Maskology. 3/12
acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M2…

He took the borked theory of asymptomatic transmission to a new level with the phrase “asymptomatic super-spreader events”. 4/12
bmj.com/content/371/bm…

The dodginess of the asymptomatic transmission theory is now common currency, for all with open eyes. 5/12

https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1342866211315466245?s=20

He cited every +ve PCR test as an instance of someone who’d contracted COVID-19, which is not even claimed by test manufacturers, & implying he still does not understand the basic difference between the virus, SARS CoV-2, & the disease, COVID-19. 6/12

https://twitter.com/10ickHudsonCT/status/1340253282825097216?s=20

This follows hot on the heels of his Minister of Health saying the new variant meant young people were at equal risk, implying a 1,000-fold increase in fatality. He had to walk back his claim, based on “anecdotes”, less than 48 hours later. 7/12
ewn.co.za/2020/12/19/mkh…

This is the same Minister of Health who speaks of people testing +ve for COVID-19 & who has formulated regulations referring to the rt-PCR test as a COVID-19 test, again failing to grasp the difference between the virus & the disease. 8/12
gov.za/speeches/minis…

These are the same regulations that were implemented as part of "21 days to flatten the curve" some 277 days ago and had no flattening effect whatsoever. 9/12

9 months into the crisis, Government still hasn't produced a lockdown impact assessment. Why? The tyrannical regulations bear a cost in lives massively exceeding lives lost to COVID-19 via millions of lost jobs, health interventions & educations. 10/12
collateralglobal.org

The President's lockdown is the greatest threat to SA lives. Not for billionaires & politicians who get paid through the crisis, but for the poor whose jobs are cut, who lack medical aid & whose kids don't have Zoom. 11/12

Ordinary people with an ounce of spine see through the absurdity of shutting down the whole country to protect a wealthy vulnerable minority. Be one of them. 12/12

https://twitter.com/JoshLekach/status/1343257477127708675?s=20