Tweet

More from @akheriaty

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

17 Oct

1/ The largest population-based study comparing the unvaccinated/naturally immune to the vaccinated found that vaccinated people were 6 to 13 times more likely to get infected, 27 times more likely to get symptomatic infections, and 8 times more likely to be hospitalized.

2/ These findings are not surprising, since infection with the virus allows our body to form an immune response to many parts (epitopes) on the virus, whereas the vaccines expose us only to one part, the spike protein.

3/ Data from Qatar found that only 0.02% of Covid recovered individuals experienced reinfection, with no waning over time, and with reinfections less severe than initial infections.

Read 5 tweets

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

30 Sep

Ideas are not viruses. You won't expose yourself and "catch" something deadly by reading, talking to, or considering the viewpoints and perspectives of those with whom you have strong disagreements. Be open and willing to learn. Admit that you don't yet have all the answers.

I want to follow my own advice here. Engage me if you think my claims expressed here or elsewhere are mistaken. Give reasons, cite evidence, ask difficult questions. I will engage and try to respond in kind, so long as there are no bad faith arguments or ad hominem attacks.

I have faith that shared rationality, in which all of us can participate, is not yet dead (though it may be on life support these days). We cannot let propaganda and power games have the last word.

Read 4 tweets

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

29 Sep

@mdlizs

1/ @mdlizs and @DrSandman11 I have never encountered someone who is "advocating for 'natural immunity' over vaccination." I certainly have never done so. This is a straw-man argument, but a telling one. I advocate for those who have *already recovered* from Covid.

https://twitter.com/mdlizs/status/1443237374608171010

2/ I have never suggested anyone deliberately try to get infected with the virus. This mischaracterization is telling, for it reveals one of the key reasons that so many public health officials and physicians refuse to acknowledge what research shows about natural immunity.

3/ Scientific findings are ignored not because they are false, but because people worry that if the public knows, it might impede behavioral outcomes (getting vaccinated) that public health officials want. But this just reveals a condescending contempt for the intelligence...

Read 16 tweets

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

22 Sep

@EPPCdc

1/ From my colleague Carl Truman at @EPPCdc:

"Technology has served to fuel humanity’s belief in, if not its own omnipotence, then at least in its ability to achieve anything it wishes by the deployment of instrumental reason and technical know-how.

2/ "In this context, it is interesting to notice the panic, perhaps even mass hysteria, induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. We have been faced with an enemy which cannot be immediately defeated and which brings the reality of mortality closer to us than has been typical of our age,

3/ "... marked as it is by the practical denial of death. Our panicked response has entailed eliminating the consideration of any social good except the immediate preservation of life, whatever the cost to others, and a corresponding desperate hunt for a vaccine.

Read 4 tweets

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

21 Sep

1/ Over the past century, an arrogant, technocratic positivism sought to elevate empirical science as the only valid form of knowledge. With a kind of totalitarian impulse, this negated entirely other domains of inquiry: ethics and metaphysics were declared nonsensical.

2/ Certain questions simply could not be raised. The point was not to understand the world but to transform it. Within this impoverished philosophy, which knows only impersonal forces, a critique of violence becomes impossible.

3/ As the useful replaces the good and efficiency becomes the highest value, not only is knowledge instrumentalized but human beings are also instrumentalized.

Read 4 tweets

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

@akheriaty

20 Sep

News from the UK: a new mutation is associated with immune escape – suggesting the virus is coming under pressure from highly vaccinated population inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

"Although case numbers are very low, the presence of E484K – known in virology circles as “Eeek” because of its vaccine-dodging qualities – is a cause for concern and Public Health England have classed it as a 'signal under investigation'."

"Scientists have warned... that a combination of highly transmissible Delta with an immune escape mutation could pose a threat to vaccines. The shift also suggests the virus is coming under pressure in a largely vaccinated population in the UK and is trying to adapt to survive."

Read 5 tweets

Share this page!

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @akheriaty

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Like this author's thread?