🧵 When ppl give anecdotes about public health efforts not working - please proceed cautiously
It is rare that public health success makes headlines or goes viral Bc success in public health almost always represents the absence of anything interesting.
Bias is tough to spot
1/
It is rare that public health success makes headlines or goes viral Bc success in public health almost always represents the absence of anything interesting.
Bias is tough to spot
1/
Imagine for example if a vax failure in a single person was the only times vaccines made headlines. We’d think they didn’t work. But this is why we have trials - to ensure that we put any Vax failures into proper perspective and measure rates of success vs failure
2/
2/
The same goes for anecdotes around tests, for example:
The White House Rose Garden outbreak made headlines and made everyone think that tests don’t work.
What was not discussed were the hundreds of WH events w no outbreaks owing exclusively in that WH to testing.
3/
The White House Rose Garden outbreak made headlines and made everyone think that tests don’t work.
What was not discussed were the hundreds of WH events w no outbreaks owing exclusively in that WH to testing.
3/
Outbreak prevention is always imperfect & control in public health is always a probability
So there will always be room for failures to be highlighted in media
We can do better than this and use data to understand rates of success, rather letting headlines carry us astray
4/
So there will always be room for failures to be highlighted in media
We can do better than this and use data to understand rates of success, rather letting headlines carry us astray
4/
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
