Mimi Fontaine Profile picture
Jul 7, 2021 43 tweets 21 min read Read on X
How the UK government, media and scientists were complicit in misleading the British public after Europe raised concerns about the #Oxford #AstraZeneca #Vaccine

A semi-satirical 🧵in the form of a PR crisis management guide, created using real quotes from March and April 2021 Image
The situation:

Norway has made nightmarishly specific statements about blood clots they found in AstraZeneca recipients

The clots are really unusual and serious and will put people off the 🇬🇧 vaccine which would be a disaster for the UK roll out - and a knock to national pride Image
Step 1: Change the conversation to blood clots in general Watch from 1:48 as the UK’s absolutely, definitely, certainly not state-controlled broadcaster transforms the unusual clots into ordinary blood clots!

Cheers Ros and the BBC "News" team!
Image
With every UK media outlet repeating the same misdirection, the entire nation now thinks Norway and other countries paused AZ for a few DVTs and have no clue the clots are actually incredibly serious and unusual.

Brilliant! Image
Step 2: Erase all doubts

Send the JCVI out to give absolutely definitive statements on the safety of AstraZeneca to dispel any doubts the British public might be having Image
Don’t worry that the JCVI is totally clueless and hasn’t even read the one page public info from Norway that would reveal exactly why Norway is worried

Lack of knowledge shouldn’t be a barrier to making unconditional statements on vaccine safety! Image
Step 3: Discredit the Europeans

People will wonder why Europe is making such a fuss over a few DVTs

It’s obviously all about Brexit Image
...and it’s just the EU being crazy Image
.... just typical EU incompetence Image
Special shout out to Prof Stephen Evans for the virology equivalent of "have you tried turning it off and on again?"

“The first thing ... is to be absolutely sure that none of the cases... have undiagnosed Covid”

Thanks Stephen. I'm sure they didn't think of that already! Image
Step 4: Scare tactics (domestic)

Enlist experts to intimidate the populace into accepting the #Astrazeneca vaccine using some scary hyperbole and metaphors Image
Step 5: Scare tactics (Europe)

Roll out some experts, including a very objective and not-at-all-connected-to-the-Oxford-vaccine professor from, er, Oxford University to make ominous predictions of death and doom if Europe stops using the #AstraZeneca #vaccine Image
Step 6: The sympathy vote

It's well-known that registered charity #AstraZeneca made the vaccine out of the goodness of its heart and not as a springboard into the vaccine business nor to make money off IP rights

They've given up PROFITS — why can't people just be grateful? Image
Artist's impression of — in the words of the always sane and stable MP Andrew Bridgen — the "unwarranted attacks [by the EU] on #AstraZeneca … a company that had taken the noble decision to supply the world with a lifesaving product for no profit" Image
Step 7: Stand firm

Even to admit the possibility of a problem with the 🇬🇧 vaccine would be a national embarrassment on a par with Suez.

The British way is to stubbornly press on and face any potential dangers headfirst — even if that means ploughing right into them! Image
Step 8: "No evidence"

Absence of evidence (because you haven’t looked for any and when other countries tried to show you their evidence you put your fingers in your ears and hummed God Save The Queen until they went away) is 100% evidence of absence!

Just keep repeating it! Image
Step 9: Win over the daytime TV audience

Get medical psychic Dr Hilary to confidently dismiss Europe's concerns on GMB

The Europeans will look pretty silly this time next week when this all blows over! Image
Step 10: Pretend you have omniscient knowledge of all blood clots

From the statements made by #AstraZeneca and #MHRA, you'd be forgiven for thinking that they somehow know every single illness or medical condition that befalls people after vaccination Image
But unlike in a clinical trial where everything that happens to the vaccine and placebo group is recorded and compared, that's just not how vaccine safety databases like AstraZeneca's safety database or the UK's Yellow Card system operate Image
Reports are only made if there is a *suspicion* of a link between a medical condition and the vaccine

Literally by design, these reporting systems only capture a fraction of problems that happen post vaccination

Luckily, hardly anyone understands this!

Thanks to the media's cluelessness about vaccine adverse event reporting systems and general gullibility, they come up with some smashing headlines! Image
Just imagine if the media's ridiculous take was true — it would mean the #AstraZeneca vaccine was more effective as a thrombosis prophylactic than as a vaccine!

Actually that's not a bad idea, maybe suggest it to Sarah and Pascal! Image
Step 11: Lies, damned lies & statistics gurus

Guardianistas need reassuring the #OxfordVaccine is safe too. Luckily, thinking man’s Carol Vorderman, David Spiegelhalter, has a column

“Think slow as well as fast” he writes as he instantly decides Europe's concerns are unfounded Image
David reminds us that only dunces see smoke and suspect a fire

In fact, there’s no fire at all - not when you pretend the concern is about DVTs instead of unusual blood clots in the brain!

Cheers Dave!
theguardian.com/commentisfree/… Image
Step 12: Own up — but not to too much

When you see the blood clot issue isn’t going away, have a rummage around the back of the national sofa and find a few cases to prove you are in fact very vigilant to these things

Just keep things ambiguous by saying the link isn’t proven Image
Step 13: Keep calm and carry on ignoring the evidence

Don’t panic when the Norwegians announce they found a link to the vaccine or when Germans make crystal clear the clots in question are in the brain

The UK media will just ignore them! Image
Step 14: "No one could have known"

The clots are a shame, but these things just aren't foreseeable

Don’t worry, the media won't remind you that Norway detected the issue after giving only 1% of the UK doses at the time — or that they warned you loud and clear about the risk! Image
Step 15: Downplay the risks

Now that you admitted to a handful of clots, it’s time to start downplaying the risk by making absurd comparisons — to things like being killed by a meteorite!

Don't worry that this hasn't happened in over a century - nobody checks these things! Image
Don't shy away from making ludicrous comparisons to the risks of normal life - like the risk of getting hit by a plane crashing into your home!

The Telegraph reminds us of these very real dangers we accept daily, from drinking wine to having a bath!

telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/0… Image
The Telegraph even makes comparisons to extreme sports - come to think of it, maybe that could be the next marketing strategy for the #AstraZeneca #vaccine! Image
Whatever you do, never remind people there are alternative vaccines without the blood clot risk — just pretend that the only choice is between #AstraZeneca or Covid! Image
Don’t worry, no one in the media will call out this false dichotomy or mention other vaccines like Pfizer as an alternative to #AstraZeneca either! Image
Step 16: Tackle AZ-hesitancy amongst the womenfolk

As ubiquitous JCVI talking head Adam Finn says, women already willingly take the contraceptive pill as a lifestyle choice

How dare they turn down a bit more blood clot risk courtesy of his friends at #Oxford and #AstraZeneca? Image
Step 17: Save face

Salvage some national dignity by claiming that a British person solved this terrible problem that was unfortunately created by other British people - after all, it worked for William Wilberforce!

theguardian.com/society/2021/a…
Step 18: Subtly distance yourself from the vaccine In the beginning it made sense to trumpet the Oxford vaccine as a Great British success story Image
Now that things are looking a bit iffy with the clots and other problems, it's time to start trumpeting the #AstraZeneca part of the collaboration instead ! Image
Step 19: Throw shade at Pfizer

Why isn’t anyone talking about the blood clots caused by Pfizer? You know it's because there aren't any

But some 100% independent researchers at Oxford managed to cherry pick some US data that makes it look like there are!

marketwatch.com/story/blood-cl…
Of course even the most gullible journo should realise this finding from #Oxford University is a little bit too convenient

The sample was cherry-picked — thank goodness the small print was only read by internet weirdos and not journalists!
Step 20: Victims? What victims!

The dead don’t talk - and luckily the media won’t talk to their families

Cherry-pick a few survivors to show there are no #VITT victims - just happy, fully-recovered folks who encourage everyone to get fabulous #Oxford #AstraZeneca #vaccine! Image
Step 21: Make concessions, but not too many

Clot deaths are rising in the UK and slowing in Europe where #AstraZeneca is limited to over 55s — people might notice

Get Spiegelhalter to do some dodgy analysis to support a limited move away from #AstraZeneca — just for under 30s Image
It's unfortunately very obvious after ten seconds' thought that the books were cooked to make the #AstraZeneca risk look lower and the benefit look higher

Luckily, journalists don't check these details!

As a result of continuing with the #AstraZeneca vaccine, aided by the entire UK media and its scientific experts, the country with the most VITT deaths is…

You guessed it.

Probably don’t want to make too much noise about this particular world-beating statistic Image
To the complacent, gullible, useless British media who just go along with everything we say and the scientists who helped us pull the wool over the eyes of the public

We couldn’t have done it without you!

Your OBEs are in the post Image

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More from @mimifontaine

Jul 5, 2021
#AstraZenaca #vaccine and Guillain-Barre Syndrome: are the UK authorities missing a clear safety signal?

GBS can be caused by certain infections and there is also a small associated risk with some vaccinations, notably influenza.

What about the Covid vaccines?
In the UK the two main vaccines are AZ and Pfizer

The table below compares the incidence of GBS per million doses of each vaccine

GBS is reported 5 times as often after AZ than Pfizer

But could there be differences in the people who got AZ / Pfizer that could explain this?
GBS is most common in over 50s and older age groups are likely over-represented in the AZ group because of the JCVI guidance to prefer mRNA for under 40s

Can we quantify this? Unfortunately the UK is not transparent as to the age breakdown between the 2 vaccines

However...
Read 10 tweets
Jun 1, 2021
DVT as a feature of #VITT: unusual in the UK / Europe yet common in Australia - could cases have been missed?

NB this is a loose theory, not an assertion

Here are some observations
On 20 May ATAGI reported a breakdown of types of clot seen in 🇦🇺 VITT cases

Of 21 confirmed + 3 probable cases, DVT was present in 12 (50%)

Even excl. probables + assuming all 3 included DVT, that would mean DVT present in minimum 9 / 21 = 43% VITT cases
tga.gov.au/periodic/covid…
In Europe only 3 / 45 (7%) cases across 4 published papers (Schultz, Greinacher, Scully, Tiede) + 1 unpublished study (Scavone) include DVT according to a paper by M Cattaneo

This is strikingly different from the Australian data - what could explain it?

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
Read 12 tweets
May 12, 2021
As an add-on to my thread explaining why regulators are unlikely to detect an increase in the risk of blood clots generally due to the #AstraZenecaVaccine (annotated 100% with #JurassicPark GIFs!) I present:

Hang on a minute, *does* AZ increase overall clot risk??

[thread]
The previous thread outlined how the analysis done by #EMA and #MHRA to detect an increase in the incidence of #BloodClots after AZ was crap because they forgot they were dealing with vaccine reporting (reports filed *if* someone suspects vax link) and…
*not* a clinical trial where participants are monitored and all health issues are reported

So they ended up comparing a huge baseline rate to the tiny number of clots that actually got reported to them and now they think the AZ vaccine reduces the risk of blood clots by 98%
Read 9 tweets
May 11, 2021
If AstraZeneca increased the risk of common blood clots, as well as the rare and dangerous ones, would we even know about it?

[thread]
The focus of the blood clot risk of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been on the clots in unusual (and dangerous) sites such as the brain and abdomen that have been found alongside low platelets (thrombocytopenia)
Thanks to Norway and Denmark, this new syndrome was rapidly identified and reported as a risk, even if certain parties were initially in denial (looking at you MHRA)
Read 21 tweets
Apr 21, 2021
Oxford’s Dodgy Dossier (Part 1): How Oxford University researchers twisted facts and manipulated statistics to make the Oxford vaccine look better and mRNA vaccines look worse

Last week a group of Oxford scientists released a pre-print comparing the incidence of dangerous (1/x)
blood clots in the two weeks following 1) a Covid diagnosis 2) vaccination with the Oxford vaccine 3) vaccination with an mRNA vaccine

ox.ac.uk/news/2021-04-1…

While the main headline grabber of the report was the claim that Covid infection carries a higher risk of blood (2/x)
clots than the Oxford vaccine, the paper also claimed the incidence of unusual, dangerous blood clots after mRNA vaccines was much, much higher than after the Oxford vaccine

To be specific, the paper claimed that 4 out of every million people vaccinated with an mRNA (3/x)
Read 22 tweets

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