Thread by @maya_chavez_

This video is a window into the truly deranged thinking that guided much of US COVID response & the unsafe reopening of schools 🧵

'The making of' the Great Barrington Declaration @gbdeclaration @aier

This is how we accepted mass death

1/ The making of the @gbdeclaration stars 4 doctors
#JayBhattacharya
@sunetragupta
@MartinKulldorff
@sdbaral
+ 1 journalist @davidzweig (whose questions are so incoherent & meandering they draw visible eye-rolls from others in the room)
aier.org/article/reachi…

2/ Many of their statements are shocking.
➡️Note this is pre-vaccine, so Dr. @SunetraGupta is talking about just letting kids get COVID so they develop immunity.
@rweingarten @AFTunion

3/ What about teachers? @AFTunion @rweingarten @PTU958
#JayBhattacharya explains it's fine if teachers get COVID because most of them won't die.
.@SunetraGupta wonders aloud why teachers wouldn't accept the risk of death in order to serve students

4/ This is key - @sdbaral presents a twisted, Orwellian, redefinition of "equity"
This distorted redefinition of equity has become an essential feature of the argument advanced by the re-open-at-all-costs crowd.
#discussequity

5/ @sdbaral "had no idea that a declaration was being developed"
Anyway, here he is talking about some examples of public health experts writing public letters to influence government COVID response policy 😆

6/ #JayBhattacharya: "This idea that scientists should tell us politically what to do is a mistake." 🤔

7/ None of the doctors present wear masks.
This is a statement of anti-science solidarity.
#JayBhattacharya explains he doesn't think "the science" is in on masks yet, suggests they might make COVID *worse* & calls them a "talisman" for distinguishing between good/bad ppl

8/ (YouTube struggled with the auto subtitles here but the point is) @MartinKulldorff is literally saying getting COVID is a way of helping others -- as if there isn't a risk of passing it to a vulnerable person who dies 🤯

9/ You can watch these 2 hours of nightmare fuel yourself ⬇️💀💀

10/ Lots of other people who know >> about this have written & spoken about the #GreatBarringtonDeclaration & the astroturfing behind it. Google it & learn.

Writing this thread helped me to emotionally process the late-stage capitalist nightmare I just watched 😩😩😪

☮️

Where else have I seen masks called “talismans?” 🤔

By the Florida Republicans who harass me on Twitter 😆

11/ @SunetraGupta followed me after I posted this thread...

Hi there 👋
Let’s talk about how you contributed to my students attending school in unsafe conditions.

#kidsandcovid

12/ “Artificial promotion of the #GreatBarringtonDeclaration suggests that sponsors of the herd immunity strategy are seeking to foster non-expert support over the support of scientists, doctors, and public health officials.”

#astroturfing

fas.org/blogs/fas/2020…

13/ “The 45% artificiality rate for the Great Barrington is high compared to the 9-15% rate of bots broadly on Twitter.”

#astroturfing

fas.org/blogs/fas/2020…

14/ “The former lead psychologist of #CambridgeAnalytica – the notorious digital analytics firm which disseminated fake news on behalf of Brexit & Trump...is advising some of the leading pandemic disinformation platforms in Britain”

🤯

#astroturfing

bylinetimes.com/2021/02/02/cam…

15/
Natural #HerdImmunity was the plan here too

After signing the #GreatBarringtonDeclaration

@SunetraGupta @MartinKulldorff & #JayBhattacharya

"traveled to Washington D.C. by special invitation from #ScottAtlas and the White House."

🔗

16/
@SunetraGupta states she was especially opposed to #lockdowns in India, Brazil and South Africa.

17/
A social media / #astroturfing campaign targeted Brazil:

"'Brazil Can’t Stop' was launched by the president’s communications unit. Urging ppl not to change their routines, the campaign claimed that 'COVID deaths among adults & young ppl are rare.'"

nytimes.com/2021/05/27/opi…

18/
How did @SunetraGupta's natural #herdimmunity plan work out for Brazil?

"In Manaus, where 76% of the population had been infected by October, the result was not herd immunity: It was a new variant."

🔗nytimes.com/2021/05/27/opi…

19/ #VanessaBarbara's @nytopinion concludes:

"It seems ever more clear that #herdimmunity, through obstruction, disinformation and negligence, was always the aim"

💯

Straight truth, Vanessa 🔥🔥🔥

The #BrazilCantStop #OBrasilNãoPodeParar social media campaign was banned by a federal judge

But you can watch some of see some of this sick, manipulative propaganda promoting #herdimmunity #imunidadederebanho on YouTube

🇧🇷❤️

🔗

20/
Supporters of the #GreatBarringtonDeclaration are still working to influence public opinion & policy ⚠️

Meet @jeffreyatucker 👋

Here's Jeffrey asking #JayBhattacharya about the "social contract as it relates to infectious disease"

🔗

....

21/
Why should we care literally at all about @jeffreyatucker?

Bc he is a key contributor to the organized, intentional media campaign that still seeks to promote #herdimmunity

Interestingly,@amazon lists Tucker's #antilockdown book as a "medical book" !!

22/
Recently @jeffreyatucker promoted a piece by #ScottAtlas, the radiologist who was Trump's COVID advisor & who has been widely denounced for promoting "a view of COVID-19 that contradicts medical science"

23/
#ScottAtlas & the #GreatBarringtonDeclaration team are still working to influence public opinion & policy ⚠️🦠

3/2021 Atlas, #JayBhattacharya @SunetraGupta & @MartinKulldorff met w FL Gov & FL agriculture comm

h/t @DavidFleshler

#herdimmunity

🔗 sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl…

24/ article in @BylineTimes - essential reading on WHO’s handling of COVID-19.

“A top WHO advisor & grant recipient researching COVID-19 transmission...is on the payroll of a successor organisation to the #GreatBarringtonDeclaration”

🔗 bylinetimes.com/2021/05/07/top…

25/ In January, economist Emily Oster teamed up w Jay Bhattacharya, one of the creators of the Great Barrington Declaration, to argue for reopening schools
Oster claimed schools are "not a high risk environment" & closures may lead to students mixing more

26/ Great Barrington Declaration supporter Jay Bhattacharya is still hard at work making the world less safe

In May, NYTimes reported COVID was "spreading faster in Manitoba than in any other province or state in Canada, the United States or Mexico"

🔗 nytimes.com/2021/05/26/wor…

27/ The same month NYTimes reported Manitoba was one of the places hardest hit by COVID in North America, Stanford prof & Great Barrington Declaration co-author Jay Bhattacharya testified as an expert witness against Manitoba's public health orders.

🔗winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/vocal-critic-o…

28/ Great Barrington Declaration co-author and Stanford University professor Jay Bhattacharya is also collaborating with the anti-science organization PANDA / PANDATA which claims masks are harmful and opposes lockdowns, vaccinations for kids & COVID testing.

29/ Under the guise of 'protecting the children,' this dangerous, anti-science organization wants to make it illegal to close schools for extended periods.

30/ Now let's circle back to look at how the AIER uses social media / online #astroturfing to promote its agenda of mass death.

The AIER has paid millions to the Koch-funded PR / media agency Emergent Order. (See below 🤮)

🔗 bylinetimes.com/2020/10/13/koc…

31/ I think few people realize how pervasive #astroturfing is & how hard wealthy private interests are working to use it to shape public opinion (& therefore policy.)

Here's an example of AIER / Emergent Order #astroturfing you might recognize ⬇️

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1399496591669608449?s=20

32/ What a surprise! The Republican senator who has been screeching 'lab leak' since February 2020 is funded by the Kochs 🙄

🔗

🔗 washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
citizensforethics.org/reports-invest…

33/ It's not just the AIER using social media to advance its problematic ideas.

Emily Oster's school reopening work has been promoted on social media by Timos Papagatsias who works for LucidQuest Ventures, a pharma / biotech consulting company.

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1400016237120339968?s=20

34/ LucidQuest Ventures, which has been promoting Emily Oster's school reopening work, states on their website:

"we actively monitor popular social media platforms, identifying online 'leading voices' (also known as 'digital opinion leaders')"

#astroturfing

35/ Here's an example of some of the "social media listening" that LucidQuest Ventures does.
(Again, LQV is the consultancy that has promoted Emily Oster's school reopening work on social media.)

🔗 lqventures.com/analyzing-comp…

36/ Here's where LucidQuest Ventures' connection to Emily Oster gets even more interesting & may have major implications.

One service LQV offers involves leveraging "swarm intelligence" to promote ideas on social media

🔗 lqventures.com/intelhunter/

37/ But what is swarm intelligence & what does it have to do with #astroturfing?
🐜🐜🐜
Swarm intelligence is based on "the study of self-organized behaviors in social insects"

It has been used to make "control algorithms for groups of autonomous robots"

klab.tch.harvard.edu/academia/class…

38/ Companies use "swarm intelligence" to promote their brands
🐜 🤖
"marketing experts relied on human knowledge...in collecting data from the general public...'the big push' recently has been in removing the ppl factor & using big data"
#astroturfing

🔗 prweb.com/releases/ai_sw…

39/ So why does it matter that LucidQuest Ventures may have used swarm intelligence to promote Emily Oster's school reopening work on social media platforms, such as Twitter?

🐜🐜🐜🐜🤖🤖🤖🤖

#astroturfing
#swarmintelligence

40/ Emily Oster's claims about kids, COVID and schools have been heavily criticized by people who actually study and understand these things (i.e. actual epidemiologists)

https://twitter.com/proteanmag/status/1376576513110237185?s=20

41/ Nonetheless, Brown University economist Emily Oster presents her opinions as advice to parents about the health choices they should make for their families.

https://twitter.com/SethMagaziner/status/1265682418809307137?s=20

42/ The Brookings Institution "found that informing adults about Emily Oster’s work leads to a significant increase in support for re-opening schools."

🔗 brookings.edu/research/how-m…

43/ If LucidQuest Ventures did indeed use swarm intelligence to promote Emily Oster's school reopening claims on social media, they may have played a significant role in shaping public opinion & ultimately therefore, public health policy.

#astroturfing
#swarmintelligence

44/ Now, as many people have noted, the funding for Emily Oster's work raises some questions. Funders include the Walton Foundation, the Templeton Foundation and Chiefs for Change.
#defundemilyoster

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1396525955011776513?s=20

45/ But LucidQuest Ventures' promotion of Emily Oster's work raises even more serious questions given the relationships that LucidQuest Ventures has with pharma...
👀

46/ More public health experts are urgently warning:
"It has been clear for months that children: It has been clear for months that schools & children contribute to SARS-CoV-2 transmission."

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1401844154435522561?s=20

47/ These public health experts sharply REFUTE 2 widely promoted ideas about kids & COVID:

"1. that school closures do not reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission & 2. that the overall risk to children & young people from COVID-19 is very small"

#CrushCovid

bmj.com/content/372/bm…

48/ Emily Oster's COVID-19 School Data Hub is funded by Emergent Ventures and was launched with a $1 million grant from the Thiel Foundation - founded by right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel.

@StefSimanowitz

49/ @StefSimanowitz has done some incredible investigative journalism looking into the involvement of Peter Thiel's #Palantir which won US & UK contracts to store public health / COVID data.

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1392356344766898176?s=20

50/ Peter Thiel’s funding of Brown University professor Emily Oster's COVID-19 School Data Hub is deeply concerning given Thiel’s connection to the alt-right & white supremacy.

#defundemilyoster

🔗 dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…

51/ “Four years ago, billionaire venture capitalist and Facebook board member Peter Thiel made one of his biggest bets: He went all in on Donald Trump.”

🔗 buzzfeednews.com/article/rosieg…

52/ Emily Oster's COVID-19 School Data Hub is tied to white supremacists.

“Thiel hosted a dinner with one of the most influential and vocal white nationalists in modern-day America — a man who has called for the creation of a white ethnostate”

🔗 buzzfeednews.com/article/rosieg…

53/ Peter Thiel also founded #Palantir

In 2020, “the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) paid a shadowy Silicon Valley company with ties to the Trump administration to build something new. That company is called Palantir Technologies”

🔗 vox.com/recode/2020/7/…

54/ Peter Thiel’s company Palantir is also tied to Cambridge Analyitca “the company that obtained the Facebook data of 50 million US voters”

🔗 theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/m…

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1330492852267327491

55/ “billionaire Robert Mercer acquired our project. His investment was used to fund an offshoot of SCL, which Steve Bannon named Cambridge Analytica”

🔗 nymag.com/intelligencer/…

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1330491530117853184

56/ “By Aug 2014…Cambridge Analytica had collected the complete Facebook accounts of more than 87m users…They soon exhausted the list of MTurk users & had to engage another company, Qualtrics, a survey platform based in Utah”

Emily Oster’s dashboard is also tied to #Qualtrics

57/ Back to Peter Thiel who provided funding for Emily Oster's COVID-19 School Data Hub via Emergent Order…

Peter Thiel also funds a start-up belonging to Curtis Yarvin aka Mencius Moldbug known for his neoreactionary / “Dark Enlightenment” writing.

🔗 nymag.com/intelligencer/…

58/ Peter Thiel and Blake Masters published a book called Zero to One which Derek Thompson at The Atlantic said “might be the best business book I’ve ever read.”

🔗

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1354981012388904967?s=21

59/ Peter Thiel’s Palantir also taught data scraping to Cambridge Analytica.
🧵⬇️👀

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1402996862676717574

60/ Here’s Cambridge Analytica’s Alexander Nix discussing using data to manipulate elections.
👀 👀
🔗

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1401523220453511172?s=21

61/ “If there is anything we should learn from the Cambridge Analytica revelations it is…we can expect the spread of disinformation & the systemic manipulation of voters to happen all over again not only in US nat’l elections but throughout the world”

🔗 time.com/5197255/facebo…

62/ Both Palantir and Cambridge Analytica are playing key roles in the US & UK COVID response.
🧐👀⬇️

https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1330489040387366914?s=21

63/ Former Palantir employees took on key roles in government.

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1330495742079885315

64/ Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health of the UK announced Genome UK, a new “genomic strategy”
🦠🧬

65/ Palantir and Cambridge Analytica won no-bid contracts to manage the Genome UK data.
🧬🦠📊👀

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1313220967867600896

66/ Palantir also received a contract from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
🦠📊👀

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1313230560542760961

67/ There are major privacy concerns related to the handling of massive amounts of public health data.

https://twitter.com/dawnbutlerbrent/status/1397625261986918408?s=21

68/ “Bio-invasive surveillance capitalism" 🧬📊🦠💲

“The gov’t granted access to millions of UK health data records to Amazon, Microsoft, Google & Palantir – to build a Covid19 Datastore, aggregating data from multiple sources, including testing data”

🔗

https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1310618298594340866?s=21

69/ Eric Garland’s 🧵 about the involvement of foreign governments in propping up big tech companies is a must-read.
👀💲⌨️🤑

https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/1403190438618714126

70/ Now let’s look at genomics, the ultra rich and immortality.

🧬📊💲

🔗 townandcountrymag.com/society/money-…

71/ Thiel “and the tech titans who founded Google, Facebook, eBay, Napster, and Netscape are using their billions to rewrite the nation's science agenda and transform biomedical research”

🧬🔬💲

🔗 theweek.com/articles/55260…

72/ *Quick interruption to this 🧵*

It seems I may have upset someone by Tweeting about swarm intelligence and online astroturfing.

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1403211778314715143?s=21

73/ @TheWeek: “Google's Sergey Brin, 41, has proposed a new kind of science that starts with masses of DNA and a community of people with certain genes… He has donated $150 million to the effort.”
👀💲🔬📊🧬

74/ It turns out immortality is a major focus of a certain set of ultra rich people in Silicon Valley including Peter Thiel, the founder of Palantir.

https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1310605419694493697?s=21

75/ Amnesty International has repeatedly raised human rights concerns about Palantir.

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1310615344776699904

76/ @DawnButlerBrent told Matt Hancock, the UK’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

“You’re putting at risk everybody’s data in the country in giving it to an organization such as Palantir”

🔗

🔗 cnbc.com/2020/06/08/pal…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1402981026884816896

77/ Given Palantir’s record on human rights, people are rightly concerned about its access to public health data & its involvement in Genome UK.

https://twitter.com/foxglovelegal/status/1400475144603197451?s=21

78/ Boris Johnson’s handling of COVID-19 response has been utterly horrifying.

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1399097068514336770

79/ Palantir’s role in Boris Johnson’s COVID response is deeply concerning.

Palantir worked w Faculty, a British AI startup, “to build predictive computer models around the Covid-19 outbreak”

🔗 theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

80/ Did Palantir and Faculty help the UK model herd immunity by natural infection (i.e. mass infection mass death)?
📊🦠🦠🦠💀💀💀💀💀

”Faculty considered running a computer simulation to assess the impact of a policy of ‘targeted herd immunity’” 👀

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1282464683321110528

81/ “The tale begins w Britain’s security services – & ends w Dominic Cummings. It uncovers the extent to which democracy & public health are now under threat from a series of gov’t failures rooted in a bankrupt ideology, influenced by scientific racism”

https://twitter.com/bylinetimes/status/1260954281601097729?s=21

82/ “The obsession with genetics can be traced directly back to the Prime Minister’s chief advisor, Dominic Cummings…His vision for what a genomics-focused NHS would look like bears startling resemblance to the core ideas of eugenics”

https://twitter.com/NafeezAhmed/status/1261054849287929856

83/ The Prime Minister’s chief advisor Dominic Cummings “claimed that a combination of AI-driven machine learning with very large genetic sampling could enable the precise prediction of complex traits such as ‘general intelligence’ & ‘most diseases’”

https://twitter.com/nafeezahmed/status/1261054849287929856?s=21

84/ “there has been concern from the Care Quality Commission that DNR notices have led to potentially avoidable deaths”

https://twitter.com/openDemocracy/status/1403389988847370244

85/ “Cummings is an enthusiast for big tech, AI, so-called ‘evolutionary economists’ & some of the more extreme genetic determinists associated w the ‘Bay Area Rationalists’ – a group of right-wing ‘techno libertarian’ thinkers associated with Peter Thiel & Silicon Valley”

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1283296813953540096

86/ Dominic Cummings was reportedly the main proponent of herd immunity by natural infection - an anti-scientific approach to the pandemic that is better described as mass death by mass infection.
👀👀👀⬇️

https://twitter.com/peterjukes/status/1246052649130168320

87/ @peterjukes “finds more evidence that the origin of the disastrous concept can be traced back to the Prime Minister’s chief advisor Dominic Cummings and his US links”

https://twitter.com/peterjukes/status/1267047175483199488?s=21

88/ Here’s some content from Boris Johnson Chief Advisor Dominic Cummings’ actual blog.

Note that it is tagged Thiel

🧐🧬📊🤔

89/ “A private company owned & controlled by Dominic Cummings paid more than a quarter of a million pounds” to Faculty AI the firm that worked with Peter Thiel’s Palantir & reportedly planned to model herd immunity by natural infection (mass death by mass infection.)

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1282288536016871426

90/ Peter Thiel: “Ours is an age in which classic wisdom has failed. Those investors who limit themselves to what seems normal and reasonable in light of human history are unprepared for the age of miracle and wonder in which they now find themselves”

🔗 hoover.org/research/optim…

91/ In summer 2020, both the US & UK made sudden, drastic shifts in their COVID response.

In the UK, the Joint Biosecurity Centre took over control from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE)

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1287003467287072771

92/ “Six days later, on 14 July, the Trump admin ordered hospitals to bypass the CDC & send all coronavirus data to a Washington database run by the company, Teletracking, & to ‘HHS Protect,’ run by Palantir”

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1287014768377823232

93/ These major shifts in US & UK COVID response were made furtively.

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1287295930878898176

94/ Briefly back to the topic of #astroturfing

What are some clues that online responses are astroturfing? 🧵⬇️

https://twitter.com/VickeryGill/status/1355353533017587716

95/ #Astroturfing including the use of paid individuals at troll farms is much more pervasive, coordinated, deceptive & effective than many people realize…
👁

theguardian.com/technology/202…

96/ #Astroturfing is playing a major role in shaping public opinion about COVID.

It’s even targeting kids.

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1398499786203058176

97/ Back to summer 2020 when the CDC COVID data moved to the HHS’s Palantir platform.

Immediately @COVID19Tracking reported issues with the data 👀🧵⬇️

https://twitter.com/COVID19Tracking/status/1287878486145695744

98/ Secretary of State for Health & Social Care Matt Hancock “unwilling or unable to offer an intelligible reason” for problems with UK COVID data 🤔

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1287304904562954241

99/ Boris Johnson’s administration suppressed data on variant spread in schools. 🧵⬇️

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1403348896504504323

100th Tweet in🧵: Connecting the dots

In late Jan. 2020, Jay Bhattacharya & Peter Thiel participated in the Silicon Valley Precision Medicine World Conference.

Did planning for the Great Barrington Declaration begin in Silicon Valley? 🤔

Is Thiel an architect of mass death?

101/ This 🧵 about actual things Palantir founder Peter Thiel believes…

https://twitter.com/jeffhauser/status/951090062854447104

102/ Is it possible that Peter Thiel & Jay Bhattacharya worked behind the scenes with the ***mp admin to influence COVID response?

Thiel had secretly met with ***mp before…🤔

🔗 democracynow.org/2019/11/22/hea…

103/ Former Palantir employees got top-level positions in the ***mp administration.

@just_security: “Two in particular signify the emerging and disruptive influence Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel could have on U.S. national security”

justsecurity.org/37466/disrupti…

104/ Long before COVID, people were raising concerns about Peter Thiel and Palantir’s role in influencing ***mp administration policy.

It is not at all far-fetched to consider that Peter Thiel and Palantir may have played an essential role in shaping ***mp’s COVID response…

https://twitter.com/K8brannen/status/874096565866172416

105/ Thiel & #socmed

Jeff Gisea “is 1 of the minds behind…a meme-happy social media organization that describes itself on Twitter as ‘a citizen grassroots movement that helped elect Trump’”

Gisea prev worked for Peter Thiel & the Koch brothers 🤔

🔗 buzzfeednews.com/article/joseph…

106/ The hateful harassment of public health experts & others on Twitter is a *feature* not a bug of the social media strategy Jeff Gisea has employed in the past.

🔗 buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/joseph…

https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1401187924654366720

107/ Jeff Gisea: “Warfare through trolling & memes is a necessary, inexpensive, & easy way to help destroy the appeal & morale of our common enemies…Trolling…is the social media equivalent of guerrilla warfare, & memes are its currency of propaganda.”

buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/joseph…

108/ *Giesea

109/ 👀

110/ Did Boris Johnson’s Former Chief Advisor Dominic Cummings use the pandemic as an opportunity to pursue a eugenics project on a massive scale?

🔗 bylinetimes.com/2020/05/14/whi…

https://twitter.com/NafeezAhmed/status/1261055547513671682

111/ The NHS & Genomics England, partnered w US biotech giant Illumina which sold “genetic sequencing systems marketed to police agencies in China to facilitate its genetic profiling of the minority Uyghur population in Xinjang”

🔗 bylinetimes.com/2020/05/14/whi…

112/ Interesting UK-US connection:

Dominic Cummings, who campaigned for Brexit, worked with AggregateIQ which had ties to Cambridge Analytica. AIQ used data scraping & targeted voters w social media ads.

AggregateIQ also developed apps for Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott 🤔

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/861282395756134401

113/ Another layer in the data-driven disinformation campaign 🧐⬇️

(AIQ = AggregateIQ, the firm with ties to Cummings, Cruz & Abbott)

https://twitter.com/VickeryGill/status/1005285142686982145

114/ Dominic Cummings used a shady company with ties to Cambridge Analytica & far-right media to influence public opinion on Brexit.

So it should come as no surprise that pushing misinformation & disinformation has been a key strategy of the COVID response he helped manage.

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1401311297367650309

115/ It seems the British government invested heavily in misleading the public about kids, schools & COVID. t.co/WDDfcV9Scm

116/ Very informative 🧵 on British government’s disinformation campaign about COVID & schools.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1401304990329696258

117/ An analysis of Twitter propaganda:
How Boris Johnson seems to have relied on paid online trolls to promote his agenda on social media 🧵

#astroturfing

https://twitter.com/marcowenjones/status/1167176709092892673

118/ Disinformation is a deliberate strategy of Boris Johnson’s administration.

Johnson’s media team comes largely from the Vote Leave campaign which was directed by Dominic Cummings & which coordinated w AggregateIQ, Cambridge Analytica & far-right media.

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1329345317788119040

119/ British journalists have been sounding the alarm about Boris Johnson’s disturbingly antidemocratic tactics in controlling the media narrative around COVID 👀🧵⬇️

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1389282094900289540

120/ In 91 of this 🧵I mentioned the Joint Biosecurity Centre took over control of COVID response from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE)

As it turns out, the Joint Biosecurity Centre has operated in secret & without releasing minutes. 👀🧵⬇️

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1320651921846345728

121/ There are continuing efforts to discredit and/or intimidate scientists who question the official narrative & challenge disinformation.

(Again, this is a 🔑 part of the disinformation strategy.)

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1404085441335369733

122/ “Public Health England is no longer functioning as an independent scientific agency”

https://twitter.com/NafeezAhmed/status/1403015087565250564

123/ Matt Hancock must truly detest the British people because he lies to them like they’re stupid.

https://twitter.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1401535278028820484

124/ Once again a scientist who has challenged misinformation is being targeted online.

https://twitter.com/tylerblack32/status/1403800062082260992

125/ What a surprise: buying all those dangerously inaccurate lateral flow tests was Dominic Cummings’ idea too.

The Innova LFTs aren’t approved in US. FDA says, and I quote, “destroy the tests”

🔗

https://twitter.com/writesbright/status/1403332292643328005?s=21

126/ Dr. Michael J. Mina has also been pushing lateral flow tests.

Mina: Rapid Antigen Tests Like BinaxNow and Innova work perfectly well in Asymptomatic people!” ✨☀️💕🤩

FDA: “Destroy the tests by placing them in the trash.”

127/ I paid a lot of attention to these BinaxNow tests bc they’re used in our schools in place of PCR tests for asymptomatic testing (which is done on a very very limited basis.)

I have a lot of questions about Dr. Michael J. Mina’s enthusiastic support for BinaxNow…
🧵

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1397896199898796037

128/ Doctors are raising serious concerns about the use of lateral flow tests in trials in British schools.

https://twitter.com/Zubhaque/status/1402521387890323460

129/ Lateral flow tests are used in PPSD schools in place of PCR testing.

But when these tests were first administered to our students, they hadn’t been FDA approved for asymptomatic testing.

Was the pilot testing done in schools actually a trial to assess BinaxNow? 🤔

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1404428784967761921

130/ “this does NOT constitute informed consent”

https://twitter.com/DataDrivenMD/status/1404443140157702147

131/ How. Interesting. Rhode Island was one of 5 states selected by HHS to pilot Abbott’s BinaxNow rapid tests for symptomatic & asymptomatic use w aim of supporting school reopening.

BinaxNow was not approved for asymptomatic testing at the time.

🔗 rockefellerfoundation.org/news/new-guida…

132/ Back to the alt-right.

“An alleged insurrectionist… who was indicted in connection w the 6 Jan riot..is also actively involved in organising anti-lockdown protests as founder of a group boosted by the billionaire Mercer family.”

🧵🔥⬇️

https://twitter.com/rvawonk/status/1404494695795990539?s=21

133/ More alt-right connections⚡️

Nigel Farage led the Brexit Party. Boris Johnson’s former chief advisor Dominic Cummings directed Vote Leave which coordinated w AggregateIQ, Cambridge Analytica AND Breit****

Farage worried when Cummings left No. 10…

https://twitter.com/stefsimanowitz/status/1125022414860095490?s=21

134/ “Peter Thiel’s Palantir…got an early jump on the coronavirus, recalling staff from abroad ahead of most companies…it parlayed that knowledge into a growing role helping governments around the world track the pandemic”

An early start?

Y tho?

🔗 wsj.com/articles/peter…

135/ Is there any room for doubt that Britain’s COVID response has literally been a eugenics project?
🧬
Back in 2014, after returning from a science conference in Silicon Valley, Dominic Cummings wrote in his blog about his interest in eugenics…🤔

136/ Nothing to see here, folks - just job openings for data scientists posted on Dominic Cummings’ personal blog on Jan. 2, 2020!

Interesting reading list! 🧐👀🤔

dominiccummings.com/category/decis…

137/ Another interesting piece in the Dominic Cummings disinformation puzzle…

🧩 🤔

138/ The sheer extent & complexity of COVID disinformation efforts (from various entities) is staggering.

Again, I think there’s often an assumption that disinformation campaigns target the right - it’s essential to remember they target the left too…

reuters.com/article/us-usa…

139/ "The mysterious...PR agency sent its pitch simultaneously to social media influencers in France & Germany: [Falsely] Claim that Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is deadly...and earn thousands of euros in easy money in exchange"

https://twitter.com/dirtybiology/status/1396719090321010688?s=20

140/ Public health experts such as Dr. Yamey have been targeted with shady requests that are strikingly similar to the ones reported on by NYTimes in May.

🔗 nytimes.com/2021/05/26/bus…

https://twitter.com/GYamey/status/1400781964140027913

141/ Part of the disinformation campaign is the attempt to stop threaten, harass & intimidate critical voices. R J had to get a protective order against a FL state gov’t employee due to stalking & online harassment.

cc @StefSimanowitz

🔗 geojones2.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/pushaw…

142/ @RVAwonk brilliantly reported on some of the ties between the far-right and anti-lockdown + COVID disinformation and #astroturfing campaigns 🔥🔥👀

https://twitter.com/peterjukes/status/1404039420773343233

143/ @DeFede reported on far-right disinformation campaigns that targeted people via Spanish-language news sources in Florida

+ the firing of Raul Martinez, one of the few voices who challenged the far-right conspiracy theories

miami.cbslocal.com/?p=775763

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1397037026642378753

144/ Back to Boris Johnson’s former Chief Advisor Dominic Cummings whose unhinged ramblings about eugenics are available for all to see on his personal blog.

Cummings oversaw Britain’s COVID response.

145/ So, Dominic Cummings loves eugenics & big tech & has ties to companies that got government contracts related to COVID.

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1282288536016871426

146/ Palantir reportedly got an early start responding to COVID. But just how early did Palantir & Cummings have info? WHO’s COVID timeline begins 12/31 but already on 1/2 Cummings was hiring data scientists to apply physics to understanding “areas from finance to epidemics” 🤔

147/ That Cummings would turn to physicists & Silicon Valley to manage COVID response is consistent with his earlier writing - he believes, for ex, that only experts in physics & machine learning truly can “do proper data science”

148/

https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/1404816893693812741

149/ Recently, as I was reading this article by @samfbiddle, I noticed something that sounded familiar
🤔
So, I looked back at Dominic Cummings’ blog from Jan 2, 2020.
🧐
Here’s what I noticed
🤷🏻‍♀️

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1282640398515671041

150/ The disinfo by someone who was chief advisor to Boris Johnson…

Cummings edited his blog by inserting a reference to coronavirus to make it seem as if he predicted the COVID pandemic. Cummings also retroactively added a reference to Chinese labs.

🔗 bbc.com/news/business-…

151/ Lol - this account Tweeted a response to something I wrote a week ago and got 100 likes in 8 hours. Seems totally legit 😆😭

Anyway here are some of the accounts I blocked 🤷🏻‍♀️

152/ Here is a sample of a few of the accounts that liked the Tweet I referred to above…

COVID disinformation, insurrection & anti-CRT ahistoricism, oh my…

153/ Far-right extremists continue threatening scientists.

https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1405154495315709953

154/ “I’ve been asked often: what is it like to be the subject of an alt-right conspiracy and misinformation campaign?”

rebekahjones.substack.com/p/unmasking-th…

155/ Trump ignored COVID for months.

“As far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population”

abcnews.go.com/Politics/intel…

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1404953491811061762

156/ “something else happened during the course of Liz’s reporting on vaccine misinformation peddlers that she & Public Integrity have quietly been dealing with over the past month: a coordinated campaign of harassment and threats”

https://twitter.com/publicintegrity/status/1405201001326407684?s=21

157/ Another disturbing similarity between UK & US COVID response:

"people with 'severe mental retardation … may be poor candidates' for a ventilator if hospitals run short during this pandemic, according to a state policy"

🔗

🔗 publicintegrity.org/health/coronav…

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1403457989424594948?s=20

158/ Back to Palantir.

Palantir has previously received no-bid contracts to for shady tech, such as a “predictive policing” system that was implemented in New Orleans without city council even knowing.

theverge.com/2018/2/27/1705…

159/ So what role has Palantir’s tech played in US COVID response?

For some insight, here is a statement of work btw Palantir & the Coast Guard. 👀

This document is publicly available on the DHS website.

🔗 dhs.gov/sites/default/…

160/ @Twitter @TwitterSafety SPEAKING OF BEING TARGETED ONLINE

@diggernautcom is once again falsely claiming that I am involved with their work and/or company.

I have had absolutely nothing to do with them and their work.

🔗

🔗

https://twitter.com/diggernautcom/status/1405568862087782400?s=20

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1403211778314715143?s=20

161/ Anyway - back to Palantir - a big focus of their statement of work w the Coast Guard is mgmt of PPE supply & anticipation of need.

❓How did Palantir anticipate need?
❓What kind of experts were consulted to develop the system?
❓What evidence/research informed their work?

162/ This person trolling me brings up a great point - so what if private entities are using bots to influence social media? Duh! Who cares?!

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1402715156329738245?s=20

163/ ⬆️ As it turns out, the government cares!

If LQV used bots to promote Maven it seems (to me as someone who's not a lawyer!) that they may have violated the law...

🔗

🔗

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1402693126347759620?s=20

leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billText…

164/ Dark money is funding anti-lockdown politicians in the UK 👀

“Harass the enemy” is the explicit strategy of the COVID Recovery Group (CRG)

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1404930936366682124?s=21

https://twitter.com/openDemocracy/status/1404468942643531780

165/ Is this a joke? The Koch-funded AIER brought us the Great Barrington Declaration. Now Charles Koch is funding a COVID Commission group that "might, at some point, merge w a congressionally appointed panel"

....wow...



nytimes.com/2021/06/16/us/…

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1392585619088416768?s=20

166/ “We have built and adopted technology that alters behavior at global scales without a theory of what will happen or a coherent strategy for reducing harm”

🧵⬇️

https://twitter.com/justinhendrix/status/1405623935128031237

166/ This is a state government employee harassing a scientist. This has no place in a democratic society.

https://twitter.com/jfeldman_epi/status/1406939143356157957

167/ “moral courage and standing up for democratic values demands that the American people throw their full support behind scientists and scientific institutions. To do otherwise is to capitulate to the forces of insurrection” 🔥

https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1406933846671638530

168/ 🇸🇪 This is a great 🧵 about how Sweden Johan Giesecke and Anders Tegnell promoted to other countries their herd immunity by natural infection (mass death by mass infection) approach to COVID-19.

https://twitter.com/VirpiFlyg/status/1349739878171422720?s=20

169/ 🇸🇪 Turns out "Johan Giesecke, the architect of the Swedish strategy & mentor of the Agency’s chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell" is also part of WHO's Strategic & Technical Advisory Group for Infectious Hazards (STAG-IH)

🔗

🔗 abc.net.au/religion/the-e…
who.int/groups/strateg…

170/ The AIER article referred to in this post is a veritable grab bag of logical fallacies.

It's riddled w ad hominem attacks, cherry-picked evidence & straw-man arguments.

Much of it relates to points made in this 🧵

There is so much to unpack...

https://twitter.com/jfeldman_epi/status/1407084086976520196?s=20

171 ⬆️ Philip Magness wrote a piece for AIER called Quacks in the Ivory Tower: How Conspiracy Theorizing Took Over Lockdown Science

He attacks scientists & others in this🧵who criticized Great Barrington Declaration & dismisses journalism of @BylineTimes

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1392585619088416768?s=21

172/ FL Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary has taken issue with @PeterHotez’s piece in the Daily Beast.

https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1406933846671638530

@PeterHotez 173/ @PeterHotez responds to accusations made this evening by Ron DeSantis' press secretary that "he knows nothing about Soviet history."

Oof.

174/ In AIER's "Quacks in the Ivory Tower" Phillip Magness accuses critics of Great Barrington Declaration of being conspiracy theorists

GBD's Martin Kulldorf is on the 'COVID-19 assembly' w Patrick Fagan, former lead psychologist of Cambridge Analytica

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1407120538779144195?s=20

175/ FL Press Secretary Tweeting more about @PeterHotez this evening 👀

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1407158654713962496?s=21

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1407168709462999042?s=21

176/ AIER's "Quacks in the Ivory Tower: How Conspiracy Theorizing Took Over Lockdown Science" by Phillip Magness begins by asking:

“Is the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) simply a front for a secret global eugenics plot?”

@gorskon makes an excellent point ⬇️

https://twitter.com/gorskon/status/1407104976913154053

177/ AIER's "Quacks in the Ivory Tower: How Conspiracy Theorizing Took Over Lockdown Science" inadvertently underscores the tremendous impact of @NafeezAhmed’s reporting on the Great Barrington Declaration for @BylineTimes. 🔥🔥

https://twitter.com/NafeezAhmed/status/1407249166884085761

178/ “teachers say some of the attacks against them are part of a more orchestrated campaign”

Yuuuup

🔗 theguardian.com/education/2021…

179/ It’s truly disturbing to see so many scientists being targeted by extremists who seek to intimidate & silence them.

https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1409537956193447939

180/ @VickerySec calls out Chris Wilson, another player in the systematic disinformation campaign that supported the unsafe reopening of schools.

🧵🔥

@NafeezAhmed @StefSimanowitz

https://twitter.com/VickerySec/status/1410232074313756673?s=20

181/ Multiple well-funded, systematic disinformation campaigns have influenced public opinion & distorted the discourse on COVID + public health in ways that have life & death consequences.

It's urgently important there is more media coverage & attn

https://twitter.com/BylineTimes/status/1359039342174429187?s=20

182/ The right-wing hate & disinformation machine never slows its roll.

https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1411385166803570693

183/ @NovelSci: "the disinformation campaign against Fauci resembles the one against Biden before the election"
🧵🔥

https://twitter.com/NovelSci/status/1402979976366809090?s=20

184/@charliehtweets and @FloraCarmichael have delved deeper into anti-vaxx / COVID disinformation campaigns that target social media influencers.
Interesting article + thread 🧵
#AdNow

https://twitter.com/charliehtweets/status/1419265467093602305?s=20

185/ @dirtybiology: "This is just the beginning...We are becoming the center of disinformation campaigns as internet creators...The whole ecosystem is perfectly built for maximal efficiency of disinformation."
20 min & definitely worth a listen ⬇️
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3…

@dirtybiology 186/ Back to AggregateIQ. Dominic Cummings, who campaigned for Vote Leave, worked w AggregateIQ which had ties to Cambridge Analytica. AIQ used data scraping & targeted voters w social media ads.
➡️See this 🧵 by @VickerySec 🔥🔥🔥🔥

https://twitter.com/VickerySec/status/1419868517889761281?s=20

@dirtybiology @VickerySec 187/ I CANNOT OVERSTATE HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS: Patrick Fagan, the former lead psychologist of Cambridge Analytica, has been actively coordinating a COVID disinformation campaign along with HART & UsForThem.
➡️🧵by @karamballes

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1420136511115255808?s=20

188/ This message by former Cambridge Analytica lead psychologist Patrick Fagan is from a HART UK chat log that was leaked recently.

cc @NafeezAhmed @StefSimanowitz

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1397654954530295811?s=20

189/ This "CEO of a global software business that protects children" is in the leaked HART chat planning how to disseminate anti-vaxx propaganda directly to teachers.
"I have direct access to 4500 schools in the UK w the ability to directly msg most staff"

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1420147601089912833?s=20

190/ Back to AggregateIQ - the firm w ties to Cambridge Analytica, Breitbart, Dominic Cummings, Ted Cruz & Greg Abbott.

https://twitter.com/vickerysec/status/1420597853387255809?s=21

191/ @VickerySec has found Tim Graboski of AggregateIQ on Reddit promoting COVID infection parties for children

@StefSimanowitz
@karamballes

https://twitter.com/5523467890_/status/1420597856566607874

192/ Thanks for the follow @PFagan87 😉

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1420139793036550147

193/ Former Cambridge Analytica psychologist & tobacco company shill Patrick Fagan has an opinion about children’s health.

Lol.

194/ @PFagan87: “we would basically be seen as child murderers”

Why would that be, Patrick?

https://twitter.com/MikaelThalen/status/1421191364776108042

195/ “The ‘Psych ops’ channel seems to have later been changed to ‘persuasion’”

dailydot.com/debug/leaked-c…

196/ Corey DeAngelis, y’all

https://twitter.com/kombiz/status/1423414077758574592

197/ Former Cambridge Analytica psychologist Patrick Fagan: “I did a segmentation on coronavirus & the different types of people there are with respect to that & there was this really small group of what I call gadflies.”

Keep buzzing, gadflies ♥️

🪰 🪰 🪰

198/ Great Barrington co-monster Jay Bhattacharya met with Governor DeSantis today — presumably to check in on how the mass killings are going.

https://twitter.com/greg_travis/status/1424894541354741761

199/ Now, this is interesting. Turns out UpGuard has financial ties to Peter Thiel.

UpGuard fired Chris Vickery this year.

Now, the Chris Vickery portion of this story is pretty wild, so stay with me.

https://twitter.com/VickeryGill/status/1425296015918202888

200/ It goes like this: Dominic Cummings & Vote Leave 💰➡️ AggregateIQ 🤝 Cambridge Analytica ➡️ voter manipulation

Vickery revealed all this & brought receipts.

https://twitter.com/vickerysec/status/1005285142686982145?s=21

201/ Cummings was also Boris Johnson’s top advisor - he played a key role in leading the UK’s COVID response

Cummings also had beef with Chris Vickery

202/ In March 2019, Dominic Cummings wrote about Chris Vickery by name in his blog

Cummings laid the groundwork for a false narrative that would attribute any future major epidemic/pandemic on a lab leak. It seems he wanted to set Vickery up as the bad guy in this story

https://twitter.com/VickeryGill/status/1402518974428901378

203/ 2020 was a hell of a year for Chris Vickery.

https://twitter.com/VickeryGill/status/1402381413018521600

204/ @VickerySec: “I believe that will probably lead down a few rabbit holes in the future as more minds can look into this”

https://twitter.com/brexit_sham/status/991745396404834306

205/ Adding some receipts to this 🧵so y’all see Chris Vickery is not just some Internet whacko.

newyorker.com/tech/annals-of…

206/ @DanRather said that in the lead-up to the Iraq War, journalists failed to ask tough questions & instead acted as “stenographers”

Once again, this horrible story – the manufacturing of consent for mass death – is happening right under our noses.

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1378808405507379201

207/ Why did wearing masks become a big deal?

Because former Cambridge Analytica psychologist Patrick Fagan is very good at his job, and his job is disseminating COVID disinformation.

https://twitter.com/DanRather/status/1426717487320600581

208/ All over Twitter people are regurgitating anti-mask talking points from former Cambridge Analytica psychologist Patrick Fagan.
👉 See Fagan's article thecritic.co.uk/face-masks-mak…

209/ Excellent🧵by @jason_kint on the lawsuit filed against Facebook which also names Peter Thiel & Palantir 👀

https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1440304941428473857

210/ Palantir taught data scraping to Cambridge Analytica. It is absolutely wild to me that more folks aren’t asking questions about Palantir’s role in the US & UK’s COVID response…

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1403153100748251137

211/ “The sudden interest in school boards is not an organic grassroots movement of angry parents.
It is an effort orchestrated by seasoned right-wing political operatives who have formed a constellation of well-funded groups.”
🧵 ⬇️

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/1448638295341215746

212/ Turns out Peter Thiel & Jay Bhattacharya are old college pals from Stanford (h/t @TeamSnolly)
Here's Thiel talking about the key ideas from Great Barrington Declaration
Thiel's company Palantir has contracts w NIH to support COVID research
So many ?s

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1403816681336623111?s=20

Jay Bhattacharya🤝Peter Thiel
Great Barrington Declaration🤝"Stanford Analytica"

213/∞

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1459318338082033675?s=20

Palantir got a $44m contract w the FDA to provide software to speed up the approval of new drugs & products.
This seems bad, but what do I know?



214/∞ endpts.com/peter-thiels-p…

Back to Palantir's Peter Thiel & Great Barrington Declaration co-author Jay Bhattacharya.
The Thiel-funded journal Inference has a history of publishing articles denying climate change.
They also published Bhattacharya's piece claiming contact tracing is ineffective

215/∞

This has been a key strategy of climate science deniers & the COVID-minimizing Great Barrington death cult ⬇️
"The inclusion of demonstrably pseudoscientific writing alongside the work of highly regarded researchers puts the two on equal footing"

216/∞
motherjones.com/environment/20…

Now back to Dominic Cummings, who was Boris Johnson's sr advisor & oversaw much of the UK's COVID response.
Cummings advised the healthcare company Babylon right up until Matt Hancock visited & said the NHS was interested in working w them

217/∞

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1425313765399072773?s=20

Babylon is now set to merge with another company, which will bring its value to $4.2bn.
One of the key investors in this company that Dominic Cummings apparently helped to get NHS contracts?
Peter Thiel's Palantir.

218/∞
digitalhealth.net/2021/06/babylo…

Earlier in this thread (57), I mentioned that Peter Thiel also funds a start-up belonging to Curtis Yarvin aka Mencius Moldbug known for his neoreactionary / “Dark Enlightenment” writing.

According to Yarvin, Thiel is “fully enlightened” 👀

219/∞

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1282485453648801794

Steve Bannon is also a fan of the neoreaction / Dark Enlightenment movement. Bannon was reportedly in touch with Curtis Yarvin (Mencius Moldbug) "via intermediaries"

220/∞



theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
politico.com/magazine/story…

Thiel's Palantir collaborated w Michael Flynn. Thiel also supported Ron Paul & Ted Cruz.

An NYTimes review of Chafkin's book states: "He contributed to Tea Party politicians with the aim of building a bigger 'neo-reactionary' political movement"

221/∞
nytimes.com/2021/09/21/boo…

Peter Thiel "poured money into Rebekah Mercer’s PAC." Rebekah Mercer's dad, Robert Mercer, funded an "offshoot of SCL, which Steve Bannon named Cambridge Analytica."

222/∞

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1402853650276491264?s=20

Cambridge Analytica officially ended its operations in 2018, but its former lead psychologist, Patrick Fagan, went on to co-found his own behavioral science consulting firm, Capuchin.

223/∞

Patrick Fagan knows that cute sells, which is why the website for his nefarious company features this adorable capuchin monkey.

But don't let the cute monkey fool you; you should be very, very concerned about what Patrick Fagan & Capuchin are up to now.

224/∞

Former Cambridge Analytica, current-Capuchin psychologist Patrick Fagan uses psychology "to get real-world results for commercial and institutional and political means" & "big data to find & target the right people."

He's also consulting for COVID disinformation groups.

225/∞

.@StefSimanowitz explains: Cambridge Analytica was intended to be a "psychological warfare tool designed to use big data & social media to drive open cracks in societies & hollow out democracies."
Fagan applies those same techniques to COVID disinfo
226/∞

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1330491530117853184?s=20

.@karamballes is a teacher & union organizer in the UK who has done an incredible job researching COVID disinformation & #UsForThem in particular.
Here he talks about anti-vaxxers attempting to break into schools.
Full interview⬇️

227/∞

https://twitter.com/Ostprog/status/1461152180170276866?s=20

I started making a map to better understand the network of individuals & entities who are collaborating to manufacture consent for mass death.

It's still a work in progress, but I've been learning a lot re-reading articles to piece this together...

228/∞

When I started this thread, I focused primarily on 5 people: Gupta, Kulldorff, Bhattacharya, Baral* & Zweig.

A key figure I've been reading more about is Sunetra Gupta's partner, Alexander Caccia.

229/∞

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1392585626428612608?s=20

Alexander Caccia is the CEO of Animal Dynamics "a ‘bio-inspired engineering company’ funded by the Ministry of Defence." He's also Sunetra Gupta's partner. Caccia traveled w Gupta to Massachusetts for the Great Barrington Declaration meeting.

230/∞

bylinetimes.com/2020/12/02/min…

Caccia's business partner & co-director of Animal Dynamics is William Mark Evans, formerly of Goldman Sachs "who currently sits on the Canadian Gov't Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which invests billions of dollars in fossil fuel companies"
231/∞
bylinetimes.com/2020/12/02/min…

"Sources familiar with the endeavor told Byline Times that former investment banker Alexander Caccia...wrote the [Great Barrington] Declaration at the meeting on 3 October"

232/∞

bylinetimes.com/2020/12/02/min…

Reading about the Great Barrington Declaration very quickly led me to Cambridge Analytica. Here's how:
GBD co-author Martin Kulldorff is part of the COVID-19 Assembly w Patrick Fagan, the former lead psychologist of Cambridge Analytica.



233/∞ bylinetimes.com/2021/02/02/cam…

As I mentioned previously in this thread, Cambridge Analytica has ties to a firm called AggregateIQ.

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https://twitter.com/VickerySec/status/1005285142686982145?s=20

Now, as you hopefully recall, Cambridge Analytica is notorious for having scraped data from millions of Facebook users' profiles & used it to target them w ads to manipulate the election for Trump.

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businessinsider.com/cambridge-anal…

Remember what former Cambridge Analytica psychologist Patrick Fagan said about using data & targeting people?
Here's Tim Graboski of AggregateIQ (the firmed linked to Cambridge Analytica) discussing using browser cookies to manipulate people.



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https://twitter.com/VickerySec/status/1420597853387255809?s=20

AggregateIQ's Tim Graboski asked Reddit:
"Given astroturfing, fake news, bots, and media manipulation, how are new voters supposed to figure out who to vote for, become informed, or fight what is essentially mind control?"

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https://twitter.com/VickerySec/status/1295892935129493504?s=20

So, how does AIQ/Cambridge Analytica's "mind control" work?
In 2016, Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix explained how CA used big data & psychographics to take Ted Cruz from being a low-recognition candidate to 2nd in a crowded primary.

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Nix explained there are 3 key elements to the work Cambridge Analytica did for Cruz's campaign:
Behavioral science, data analytics & addressable ad tech.

"We were able to form a model to predict the personality of every single adult in the United States of America."

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Alexander Nix: "Today we don't need to guess at what creative solution may or may not work. We can use hundreds of thousands of individual data points on our target audiences to understand exactly which msgs are going to appeal to which audiences."

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What kind of data did Cambridge Analytica use to manipulate people? 🤓

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Cambridge Analytica used data to identify & target the "persuasion group."

Nix: "If we wanted to drill down further, we could resolve the data to an individual level where we have somewhere close to four to five thousands data points on every adult in the United States."

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Nix: "We're able to match offline data to cookies to drive digital advertising...Most exciting of all...we can take this data and match it to set-top-box viewing data – that's television or cable data."

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Cambridge Analytica's Alexander Nix ended his 2016 presentation with the following: "Of the two candidates left in this election, one of them is using these technologies and it's going to be very interesting to see how they impact the next 7 weeks."

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Previously I mentioned that former Cambridge Analytica psychologist Patrick Fagan is on the COVID-19 Assembly w Great Barrington Declaration co-author Martin Kulldorff.

But what other connections does Patrick Fagan have to the Great Barrington Declaration?

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Sunetra Gupta, one of the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, received PR support from Sugrue Communications, which has also promoted her partner, Alexander Caccia’s, firm, Animal Dynamics.

246/
bylinetimes.com/2020/12/02/min…

On June 12, 2020, Cairbre Sugrue, the founder of Sugrue Communications, participated in Nudgestock2020, a virtual event organized by Ogilvy Consulting.
Sugrue Tweeted that he was particularly taken by the presentation he saw by Patrick Fagan.

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This article by @NafeezAhmed in @BylineTimes has more on Sugrue Communication's promotion of Sunetra Gupta's claims about herd immunity by natural infection.

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bylinetimes.com/2020/03/26/the…

Ironically, Cairbre Sugrue Tweeted that Patrick Fagan's presentation at Nudgestock2020 "makes it clear we need a proper ethical debate about #pyschographic messaging."

But what exactly did Patrick Fagan say that Sugrue found so compelling?

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Patrick Fagan's Nudgestock2020 talk is seriously creepy.

"We can predict that this person is more likely to be unfaithful – to cheat on their partner...Then you might serve them adverts for infidelity websites" 👀

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Former Cambridge Analytica lead phrenologist Patrick Fagan: "the shape of your face is linked to your personality."

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Cairbre Sugrue's firm Sugrue Communications helped promote Great Barrington Declaration co-author Sunetra Gupta's claims about herd immunity by natural infection
In June 2020, former Cambridge Analytica psychologist Patrick Fagan gave a presentation that caught Sugrue's eye

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Former Cambridge Analytica lead psychologist Patrick Fagan has connections to the Great Barrington Declaration & PANDA.
He also has ties to the alt-right.



253/ bylinetimes.com/2021/02/02/cam…

Back on my disinformation megathread 🤓 “All of the top 10 posts about the trucker protest were from right-leaning pages. These posts express support for their protests of COVID-19 mandates.”

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https://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1493706387435794436?s=21

"Extremely obvious right-wing radicalization pathway"
Yuuup!
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https://twitter.com/whstancil/status/1554513957402075138?s=20&t=WK82E3YMYF96kvmAtEJ85g

256/ That Ben Ryan guy getting retweeted by Jeff Giesea. This makes a lot of sense 👀
Nice catch, @Shortwoman93

https://twitter.com/Shortwoman93/status/1557808219711569925?s=20&t=p1bH4lwLKb7B_HR1iAAIRw

257/ David Zweig. Hmm. Where have I heard that name before?
Oh, that's right! This mass death propagandist was featured in 'the making of' The Great Barrington Declaration and has been deeply involved in promoting its core ideas.

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1392585626428612608?s=20&t=CTZ5J5WKaoy5e7OTO_S4ZQ

258/ Zweig's article also links to a Tweet from Stefan Baral who is featured in the same Great Barrington Declaration promotional video.

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1392585654576549901?s=20&t=hQuSMR0_5vT-hbtzG-tXqQ

259/ Jay Bhattacharya claims that Twitter's suspension of Clare Craig "impoverishes the discussion about COVID."

https://twitter.com/Kit_Yates_Maths/status/1561975778014789632?s=20&t=cHjTqKY3LLDoBpM_rhEo-Q

260/ Who is Clare Craig & why does it matter that Jay Bhattacharya is going to bat for her?
Craig is part of HART, which also includes former Cambridge Analytica psychologist Patrick Fagan. Craig's msg below is from the leaked HART chat (h/t @dgurdasani1)
dailydot.com/debug/leaked-c…

A while back I started mapping connections btw people/orgs involved in coordinating COVID disinformation.
I don't think it's a coincidence PayPal suspended service to anti-public health group UsForThem & alt-right figure T*by Y*ung at the same time.
261/

https://twitter.com/maya_chavez_/status/1468839245481754624?s=20&t=UUyqQjLqL0KoTqxlhvbomQ

Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former senior advisor, has been retweeting lab leak nonsense from one of the Brownstone Institute guys.
Cummings previously directed Vote Leave, which coordinated with Aggregate IQ, Cambridge Analytica and Breitbart.
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