"All mortality models turned out to be wrong."
Let's just accept that we can't predict how the virus will behave, how much pre-existing immunity there is, when will new waves come and go and when will herd immunity be achieved. 1/n pandata.org/panda-first-pr…
Lockdowns harm and should be unlawful regardless of the disease.
"Even if government had been correct that 89,000 – 351,000 people would die of COVID in the first wave, PANDA’s analysis showed that more damage would be done through lockdowns." 2/n
"PANDA predicted that the second wave would not kick off until winter. We were clearly wrong."
When we make mistakes @PanData19, we own them and correct them. Governments make mistakes and persist on the same course. 3/n
"PANDA’s message remains unchanged. In order to ensure that we abide by tried & tested principles of public health, we must first do no harm. We must not focus on one virus alone and we cannot implement measures until we understand the collateral damage such measures will cause."
"Rather than simply criticising the response, we have come up with a practical and pragmatic set of policy recommendations that we hope will encourage debate and find a solution to the current predicament that the world finds itself in." 5/n pandata.org/about/protocol…
A little less hubris. A lot more humility. Let's stop the predictions and just deal with the situation on the ground 1) protect the vulnerable 2) support healthcare workers 3) allocate resources based on need 4) improve prevention and treatment
6/n
@PanData19
"We will continue to call out what we see as bad science and ill-conceived policy. We will continue to ask the difficult questions." 7/n
@PanData19 "is a group of passionate people wanting the right decisions to be made for the sake of the people of our country – particularly the poor, on whom the current measures impact the most." 8/n
"This does not mean that we have all the answers and won’t make mistakes. Only open science, debate, and policy transparency allow us to understand the problem better and make wiser policy choices." 9/n @PanData19
What is Health?
Is the current situation conducive to health?
Do you feel healthy now?
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” - @WHO
1/n
Health is not an endpoint in itself, rather a state of existence that facilitates a full and meaningful life.
By being healthy, one can self-actualise and play one's role in society. Life is not about being alive, it's about living and enjoying a good quality of life. 2/n
Physical health involves 1) genetics 2) lifestyle (nutrition and physical activity) 3) access to quality healthcare 4) avoiding hazardous environments 5) avoiding high-risk behaviours (drinking and driving, drugs, unprotected sex) 3/n medicalnewstoday.com/articles/15099…
“Many who were angered by our original points about lockdown, now own up to agreeing with them, but have dug up other reasons for carrying on being angry with us.” @PanData19 citizen.co.za
“We would encourage our critics to see each of the individual members of @PanData19 as real people, exercising a basic democratic right, and we believe that if they do those things, they will start to see some of the problems with the current approach to dealing with this virus.”
“Like you, we were struggling with the stresses of an uncertain professional environment and having to learn to become teachers to our children. We burned the candle at both ends and as @PanData19 grew so did the reputational risk of being involved.”
The best analysis of the C19 pandemic mass hysteria.
"[H]ow different political institutions and the state affect the development and extension of mass hysteria[?]"
"the size of the state exacerbates the negative consequences of mass hysteria" 1/n mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4…
"mass hysteria can lead to policy mistakes that have tragic public health consequences."
"the welfare state of the 21st century combined with a sensationalist mass media is likely to increase the havoc created by mass hysteria" 2/n
"In a mass hysteria, people of a group start to believe that they might be exposed to something dangerous, such as a virus...They believe a threat to be real because someone says so ...Due to the threatening delusion, a large group of people gets collectively very upset" 3/n
#KBF
"The advice was stay home if you’re sick, wash your hands, protect the vulnerable, most people will have a mild illness, wearing face masks is “usually quite a bad idea“, & “big gatherings don’t have a big effect so we don’t want to disrupt people’s lives.” 2/n
"1) Organisations invested in vaccines make money from vaccines. If people acquire natural immunity, they have reduced or no need for a vaccine and thus the potential gain for the vaccine company is reduced." 3/n
Step 2: End Homosapienphobia
Fear not your fellow humans. They are innocent until proven guilty.
If you don’t feel sick, you are not sick unless you are delusional.
3/4
Rules are made to be broken and structures are made to be bent. When rules and structures are no longer serving the best interests of people they must be placed under evolutionary pressure until they mutate into a better variant of themselves. 1/n
Rotten institutions and corrupt governments are causing horrendous harm.
So rise up and put pressure on that evolution to speed up a novel variant of governance that respects human dignity, personal freedoms, human agency and free will. 2/n
It is not by bowing to the interests of the few at the top that we reach the greater good of society. It is by meeting the interests of individuals like you and me that we reach the greater good of society. 3/n