Thread by @Robber_Baron_

1/10 Politics & Ego or Science & Data?

Irwin Redlener has been an influential voice in closing schools, masking students, & pushing for vaccine mandates.

Unsurprisingly, Redlener has a 30 year history of partisan activism, ties to the Clintons, & a desire for media attention.

2/10 Redlener has been a key advisor to @AFTunion & Randi Weingarten.

In yesterday’s town hall with @OpenschoolsUS, Redlener seemed unable to debate research & instead excoriated “red states” & “Trump” while ironically saying this shouldn't be political.

3/10 Yet, partisan politics is entirely what Redlener has been involved with throughout his career.

Starting in the early 90s, Redlener organized a group of medical professionals to endorse Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. He has been closely tied with the Clinton’s since.

4/10 Spurred by his relationship with the Clinton’s, Redlener has inserted himself into national conversations on countless topics:
-HilaryCare
-Nuclear War
-Climate Change
-9/11
-Katrina
-Deepwater Horizon
-Keystone
-PR Hurricane
-Haiti Earthquake
-Flint Water
-Syrian Refugees

5/10 Of all these issues, the strangest has to be his involvement in the Elian Gonzalez Case Where Redlener claimed Gonzalez had been abused in the U.S. After which he was condemned by a group of pediatricians & many others.

latinamericanstudies.org/elian/redlener…

latinamericanstudies.org/elian/pediatri…

6/10 More recently, Redlener has been a special advisor to Bill de Blasio & since 2014 has been in charge of NYC’s disaster preparedness & response.

Predictably, once NYC had one of the worst Covid responses, Redlener quickly pivoted to blame Trump.
timesofisrael.com/in-virus-epice…

7/10 Blaming Trump seems is a favored hobby of Redlener.

Even before Covid, he took every opportunity to criticize Trump.

This, of course, was expected given his ties to Clinton & his planned role on her 2016 transition team.
thedailybeast.com/the-trump-admi…

8/10 Somehow between all of this, Redlener still has time to court celebrities and seek out media attention.

He only seems outdone in this regard by another long-tenured, self-serving public health voice – Anthony Fauci.

9/10 And this brings us back to Redlener’s role in influencing the AFT to keep schools closed throughout the pandemic which resulted in devastating social, physical, & educational damage to millions of children.

He is not motivated by data, he is motivated by Politics & Ego.

10/10 If the @AFTunion wants to regain the trust of parents, the first step would be telling Dr. Redlener his advice is no longer needed.

Only then, will they truly be able to tell parents they want to find non-partisan solutions that prioritize children over politics.