Tweet

Joe Pierre, MD

14 Oct, 11 tweets, 10 min read

1/ THREAD

This story of COVID disinformation grift deserves much wider coverage.

Back in July 2020, #AmericasFrontlineDoctors stood on the SCOTUS steps and gave a press conference spreading misinformation about #COVID19

cnn.com/2020/07/28/tec…

2/ They claimed COVID was less deadly than the flu. WRONG!

They said masks don't help prevent COVID spread. NOPE!

They endorsed conspiracy that studies showing hydroxychloroquine was ineffective were "fake science" by "fake pharma companies." NOT TRUE!

rev.com/blog/transcrip…

3/

After Trump retweeted their video, it went viral and sparked a deluge of false claims on Twitter about #HydroxyChloroquine effectiveness for treating COVID19, with 84% of 2.7 million tweets about the drug over 9-day period containing misinformation.

thelancet.com/journals/landi…

4/

In September, investigations revealed that #AmericasFrontlineDoctors was the brainchild of the Council for National Policy, a conservative group who wanted to exploit American’s trust of physicians to push to end lockdowns and reopen the country.

washingtonspectator.org/anatomy-of-dec…

5/

In January 2021, #AmericasFrontlineDoctors lead physician Simone Gold was arrested and charged for violent entry and disorderly conduct during the Capitol insurrection.

apnews.com/article/capito…

6/

In September 2021, clients of #AmericasFrontlineDoctors online telehealth service that offered Rxs for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin after a $90 video consult were complaining that AFD never delivered the meds, "leaving patients in a lurch"

time.com/6092368/americ…

7/

Now hacked data reveal that #AmericasFrontlineDoctors made $7 million in consultation fees and worked with the digital pharmacy #Ravkoo to (not) deliver the drugs at jacked up prices totaling $8.5 million in sales.

theintercept.com/2021/09/28/cov…

8/

Ravkoo's founders have a long history of grift that includes Medicare fraud. They rebranded their previous company Benzer into a hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin mill that charged customers hundreds of dollars for these generic medications.

time.com/6104407/ravkoo…

8/

People who believe misinformation and conspiracy theories often tell us to "follow the money," but all too often the real conspiracy theory is that those pushing the conspiracy theories are the ones profiting from disinformation.

@LuluLemew

@LuluLemew @Nick_Carmody @gorskon @meganranney @choo_ek @DrJenGunter @jonathanstea @tylerblack32 @MelissaJPeltier @DrWinarick @AllenFrancesMD @DebiecJacek @Heidi_Cuda @amybarnhorst @angie_rasmussen @SkepticsGuide @abbieasr @CaulfieldTim @drjessigold @jonathanstea @jack_turban

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More from @psychunseen

Joe Pierre, MD

@psychunseen

23 Mar

1/

Was just thinking there were few mass shootings during the pandemic.

Unfortunately, it looks like we're getting "back to normal" now.

This thread has some of my thoughts on mass shootings, #guns , & #GunReform through the years:

#Boulder #Atlanta

aeon.co/essays/does-a-…

2/

psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-…

"Guns make gun owners feel safer"

3/

"...while a few mass shooters in history have had serious mental illnesses, the more typical shooter has experienced the kind of milder difficulties with mood, anxiety, and social interactions with which most of us have some personal familiarity."

psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-…

Read 11 tweets

Joe Pierre, MD

@psychunseen

10 Mar

THREAD 1/

Do antipsychotics shrink the brain? No!

At long last, we have RCT data in 1st episode psychosis to disentangle effects of meds vs. disease.

nature.com/articles/s4138…

2/

Here are the striking findings.

At 3 months:

- no grey matter volume change in controls
- volume *loss* w/ placebo/psychosocial tx
- volume *increase* w/ meds

3/

The authors found no evidence to support confounding factors and therefore concluded that antipsychotic medications "prevent or perhaps even reverse" illness-related volume loss, consistent with a possible neuroprotective effect of 2nd generation medications.

Read 13 tweets

Joe Pierre, MD

@psychunseen

2 Mar

THREAD 1/

Harrow et al. have published another study demonstrating an association between antipsychotic treatment and poorer outcomes compared to non-antipsychotic treatment, this time for both schizophrenia and affective psychosis.

2/

To date, no RCT (no, not even Wunderink) exists to address potential causality or more precisely *direction* of causality. The million $$ question is whether antipsychotic discontinuation leads to recovery or whether recovery leads to discontinuation.

psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-…

@awaisaftab

3/

Harrow often uses baseline prognosis as a proxy of severity to address this question, but the only thing that really matters is *actual* disease severity. Why were meds stopped?

This is a chicken-egg issue as I discuss w/@awaisaftab here:

psychiatrictimes.com/view/there-bac…

Read 13 tweets

Joe Pierre, MD

@psychunseen

24 Feb

@zivacooper

THREAD 1/

This article on "addiction as a brain disease" is a must-read update on an age-old debate.

IMO, much of it equally applies to "addiction" as other mental disorders.

(thanks to @zivacooper for sending).

2/

A few points worth discussing. First, addiction as disease is a counter-narrative in response to the:

"prevailing nonscientific, moralizing, and stigmatizing attitudes to addiction [that framed it as a] moral failing or weakness of character, rather than a 'real' disease.

3/

"This argument was particularly targeted to the public, policymakers and health care professionals, many of whom held that since addiction was a misery people brought on themselves, it fell beyond the scope of medicine..."

Read 21 tweets

Joe Pierre, MD

@psychunseen

14 Feb

@JasperFeyaerts

THREAD 1/

Finally got around to reading and really enjoyed this new paper by @JasperFeyaerts et al. that offers a critical view of traditional conceptualizations of delusions and the (mis)assumption of a delusional continuum.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33485408/

2/

It affirms my view that firmly distinguishing between delusions and delusion-like (and shared) beliefs is ultimately doomed, because we do not have coherent existing definitions of "delusions" nor for that matter "beliefs"

Here are my favorite quotations from this paper:

3/

"Jaspers... points towards the experiential context within which primary delusions originate. Whereas delusion-like ideas arise in intelligible ways from everyday experience, primary delusions develop... as "a transformation in our total awareness of reality."

Read 10 tweets

Joe Pierre, MD

@psychunseen

2 Dec 20

@JoeBiden

THREAD 1/10

I've been enjoying a moment of political apathy, resting on the laurels of a @JoeBiden @KamalaHarris victory, while doing my best to ignore Trump's bluster which can't hide the reality that he's been deflated & will be put to rest like so many Halloween decorations.

@StephenAtHome

2/10

Last night @StephenAtHome compared Trump to herpes, suggesting that we'll likely see him "blossom" and reactivate from time to time like an annoying cold sore outbreak.

And yeah, maybe he will actually run for re-election in 2024.

thehill.com/blogs/in-the-k…

3/10

But Trump aside, what will probably not go away is the myth that the election was stolen. Trumpers & GOP pols will likely perpetuate the myth as a rally cry "seeding for future social polarization & division on a scale America has never seen."

nytimes.com/2020/11/30/opi…

Read 12 tweets

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