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Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture
@DrEricDing
Feb 20, 2021 • 21 tweets • 8 min read • Read on X
Sweden 🇸🇪 strategy success??? Compared to its Scandinavian neighbors...

...No! Sweden has a 12% excess mortality above past years, while all its neighbors have none.

Sweden’s unscientific natural infection herd strategy has been an epic fail. #COVID19

github.com/dkobak/excess-… Image
2) Just how bad is Sweden’s excess mortality last year? An epic 100 year excess mortality high! See thread 🧵 on the data...
3) Chasing natural infection herd was part of Sweden’s strategy from the beginning. And they told themselves sweet little lies from the beginning. Here it is a little annotated history timeline...
4) It tools Swedish leaders almost a whole year before they partially admitted failure. Too little too late sometimes. But Anders Tegnell, despite his downplaying, still remains their state epidemiologist.
5) 25 leading Swedish scientists:

➡️”🇸🇪 hoped herd immunity would curb #COVID19. Don't do what we did.”

➡️ “🇸🇪 approach to COVID has led to death, grief and suffering. The only example we're setting is how not to deal with a deadly infectious disease” amp.usatoday.com/amp/5472100002
6) So did the Swedish state epidemiologist Tegnell follow the science? No he didn’t. He ignored countless Swedish experts.

Just because someone is a scientist doesn’t mean all their decisions are scientifically supported by all the evidence or by majority agreement. That’s key.
7) aside from political pressures, Sometimes some scientists are slow to uptake data, some are slow to believe the data, some are slow to take action on data, some are in denial / refuse to accept opposing data that contradict their own viewpoints. These all can happen.
8) We should all trust the science, but sometimes science evolves, and sometimes some scientists evolve slowly. This is why replication in science is key. And why big randomized trials or big systematic reviews are key. Small studies can sometimes differ. Verification is key.
9) But there are many who lack understanding on critical nature of the precautionary principle... they refuse to acknowledge or accept the truth of asymptomatic transmission, Reinfection, airborne virus transmission, or dangers of natural herd—until too late & pandemic worsened.
10) but during that intervening time of “debate”, this pandemic has magnified a lot of bullying, pulling rank, cancel culture targeted harassment against the opposite side, and spreading misinformation on someone in efforts to discredit or silence their opponents. All very sad.
11) and sometimes there is even gaslighting that people who send DMs to debate privately are “harassing” whenever it’s fair scientific debate. It’s all be very frustrating to watch. And I’ve seen many who emphasized airborne transmission get attacked by other non-aerosol experts.
12) But most of all, lack of focus on precautionary principle (I.e. “what if this is true & worsens pandemic if we don’t act now”) during debates have cost lives.

"Be fast, have no regrets."

"the greatest error is not to move"

"speed trumps perfection"
13) That’s why @DrMikeRyan’s speech above is so excellent:

“Be fast. Have no regrets. You must be the first mover. The virus will always get you if you don’t move quickly.... If you need to be right before you make a move, you will never win”.
14) Those who failed to heed the precautionary principle & dismissed risks shoulder some blame. Lay public, when they see scientists argue and unprofessionally behave towards one another, they gets confused—and then critical airborne precaution message is lost.
15) This is why it’s so critical to be not only professional & not resort to mudslinging, but also engage to heed the *precautionary principle* in times of uncertainty during a pandemic. Take the precaution, assume the extra risk, remove if disproven—but try save lives first! 🙏
16) p.s. for all the talk about trade off vs economic gain some push, did Sweden 🇸🇪 gain more economically than its neighbors? No! Image
17) Also, the exodus of ICU nursing staff in Sweden due to the crushing epidemic there was not seen by its neighbors. Sweden 🇸🇪 suffered a lot because of its own irresponsible leaders.
18) P.s. I’m no “CCP puppet” as pro-Swedish herd advocates call me. The top Scandinavian figure by @VanGennepD, while data by @hippopedoid & @ArielKarlinsky. Their full excess death methods are published online and available for free download on GitHub.

But sure, I’m a “puppet”
19) Here is another colorful way to visualize excess deaths in Europe and other countries. Sweden stands above all its Scandinavian neighbors again.
20) For those who solely rely on natural infection herd, like Scott Atlas or Swedish infection herd approach, let 🇧🇷’s Manaus outbreak be a lesson. They thought Manaus had to be at herd—but then #P1 escape variant showed up. This is why we need #ZeroCovid. bmj.com/content/372/bm… Image
21) I’m just going to leave this here. Video by @TJRyan_77

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More from @DrEricDing

Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture
Apr 3
Now economists know how scientists felt back when he pushed “hydroxychloroquine”
2) HCQ preventing COVID deaths has been debunked— and it’s now been linked with deaths.

@JoshuaPCohen1
forbes.com/sites/joshuaco…Image
@JoshuaPCohen1 3) JPMorgan on Trump Tariffs: “The largest tax increase since 1968” Image
Read 6 tweets
Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture
Mar 28
My god—Earthquake (a Richter ~7.7) causes a skyscraper to collapse in Bangkok. Hope all the construction workers made it out.
2) this skyscraper collapse was captured from a distant car’s dashcam while on a highway

3) another view of the collapse. For those who lived through 9/11, this collapse is a bit triggering.
Read 5 tweets
Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture
Mar 27
Welp—kiss public health & medical research infrastructure in America goodbye for the next 4 years. RFK Jr plans to cut 10,000 jobs from Trump HHS. Image
2) this will not make America healthy again… not by a long shot. So dangerous and irresponsible.
3) “Kennedy is set to announce Thursday the planned changes, which include axing 10,000 full-time employees spread across departments tasked with responding to disease outbreaks, approving new drugs, providing insurance for the poorest Americans and more”.
Read 5 tweets
Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture
Mar 15
SICKENING—Trump’s DHS just deported a surgeon from Brown University Medical School—who is here legally on an H1B visa that doesn’t expire until 2027, and has committed no crimes. Trained in the U.S. at Ohio State, University of Washington, and Yale as a **transplant surgeon** (one of the most difficult surgical fields in all of medicine!!!), she is a highly trained doctor on kidney transplants, which cannot be easily replaced. Her phone was seized at the border. A federal judge handed down an injunction against her deportation—but she was already deported on a plane en route to Paris. Brown’s kidney transplant clinic is now strained by her deportation.Image
Image
2) Full text:

PROVIDENCE — A Rhode Island doctor who had traveled to Lebanon to see her parents was prevented from re-entering the United States at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Thursday evening, her lawyer and a colleague said.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, who lives in Providence, has been working at Brown Medicine’s Division of Kidney Disease & Hypertension since last July, and she [has] been part of the transplant service at Rhode Island Hospital, according to Dr. George Bayliss, the organ transplant division’s medical director. She has been studying and working in the United States for about six years, he said Friday.

The US consulate in Lebanon had issued her an H-1B visa, which is given to people in specialty occupations requiring expertise. The visa was valid through mid-2027, said Thomas S. Brown, an attorney representing her and Brown Medicine.

Alawieh was detained when she returned to Logan airport, and family members are afraid that she is about to be deported to Lebanon, he said.

“We are at a loss as to why this happened,” Brown said. “I don’t know if it’s a byproduct of the Trump crackdown on immigration. I don’t know if it’s a travel ban or some other issue.”

He said her phone has been seized and he has not been able to contact Alawieh.

Bayliss said a lawyer filed a petition with the US District Court in Massachusetts, and Judge Leo T. Sorokin issued an order saying Alawieh should not be moved outside of Massachusetts without 48 hours notice. But he said that message apparently did not reach immigration officials in time, and a plane carrying Alawieh left for Paris.

“This is outrageous,” Bayliss said in an interview. “This is a person who is legally entitled to be in the U.S., who is stopped from re-entering the country for reasons no one knows. It’s depriving her patients of a good physician.”

A US Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson, Ryan Brissette, was not able to immediately answer questions about Alawieh on Friday evening.

Bayliss said Alawieh graduated from the American University of Beirut medical school and came to the United States for a nephrology fellowship at Ohio State University. She then landed a transplant fellowship at University of Washington and had a residency in the Yale hospital system before starting at Brown Medicine last July, he said.

“She’s really a very humble and able person,” Bayliss said. “She takes care of her patients. She is talented and thoughtful and a great addition to our division.”

Bayliss said Alawieh went to Lebanon to visit parents and planned to be gone for two weeks. He said she texted a colleague at 6:30 p.m. Thursday saying she was back in Boston, but then her family heard from immigration officials.

Dr. Paul Morrissey, surgical director of the organ transplant division at Brown University Health, said Alawieh works on getting people in Rhode Island on the list for a kidney transplants, and that’s a crucial job at a time when there has been a lot of focus on the need for kidneys and their equitable distribution.

He said Alawieh should not have had any problem traveling out of the country with an H-1B visa.

“It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances,” Morrissey said. “It’s putting a strain on our office. Her work has been exceptional.”

bostonglobe.com/2025/03/14/met…Image
3) There is a new Trump ban against many countries, including tourist visa bans against all countries in the red and orange lists. This list is still tentative. And it shouldn’t have affected people with existing visas, such and the Brown kidney transplant surgeon Image
Read 8 tweets
Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture
Mar 14
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… once upon a time, liberals did have our own “Leftist Joe Rogan”… his name was Joe Rogan…

Here he is advocating for socialized medicine, healthcare for all, and supporting labor unions to protect workers.
2) Recall, Rogan was once pro Obama and pro Bernie Sanders, and pro Yang Gang, and anti Trump. It’s sad he has since failed to the dark side. But like Vader… maybe he can be redeemed someday and come back to the light.
3) *Fallen, not failed (above).

Joe Rogan was also pro gay rights and pro DACA and pro helping inner city communities that suffer economic and social injustices. It’s sad what he has become. I feel we should try to pull & welcome him back someday. Everyone can be redeemed.
Read 4 tweets
Eric Feigl-Ding Profile picture
Feb 26
BREAKING—FDA suddenly cancels meeting to update next season’s flu vaccines, with zero explanations. Any delays will jeopardize next year’s vaccine supply chain. Image
2) Folks who follow me know that I’m no bullshitter. I criticized past pandemic response right and left, and have called balls and strikes without bias. And I often say things that doctors & epidemiologists are whispering among themselves but don’t say publicly. (Cough cough) ⬇️
3) While I don’t recommend hoarding… I think stocking up on flu antivirals, which you can obtain prophylactically (preventively) from doctors if you ask nicely why you’re high risk, can be a good idea. I know many doctors, epidemiologists and virologists who do for their family.
Read 6 tweets

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