Thread by @DRTomlinsonEP

Covid-19: Runny nose, headache, and fatigue are commonest symptoms of omicron, early data show

But there follows a truth [👏 @timspector] & a lie [@DHSCgovuk]
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bmj.com/content/375/bm…

Truth:

'@timspector said the UK was now an international exception in not listing cold-like symptoms as likely indicators of covid infection, noting that the @CDCgov, @WHO & European countries...had all updated their advice.'

@timspector

“They [UK Gov] should amend it if the majority are presenting that way.”
@ShelaghFogarty @fascinatorfun @ScienceShared @ProfCalumSemple

Lie:

'@DHSCgovuk said that the main symptoms listed had been carefully selected to capture the people most likely to have covid-19 while not including a large number of people who did not.'

*Careful* selection wouldn't introduce selection bias via use of ISARIC data, would it?

Lie:

“Since the start of the pandemic we have acknowledged covid-19 has a much longer list of symptoms than the ones used in the case definition, & experts keep the list of symptoms under review.”

DHSC/PHE has NEVER acknowledged symptoms other than the critically flawed UK list

Ever since the flawed working underlying the UK limited symptom list came to light (June 2020 preprint), some of us have been politely asking for change.

I contacted PHE in June 2020.

The outcome?

October 2020: a very limited & unpublicised change 👇

https://twitter.com/DRTomlinsonEP/status/1313906488482705411?s=20

In July 2020 I also emailed ~15 NERVTAG scientists who had attended a late May 2020 meeting at which this issue had been discussed.

This included @ProfCalumSemple, @PeterHorby & @rwjdingwall.

Like me, you still have the emails I hope?

Not deleted?

Good.

Your refusal to expand the symptom criteria was firm, but polite.

So firm in fact that I was very surprised to read a July 2021 BMJ piece co-authored by @ProfCalumSemple presenting a strong argument for the very change I had suggested to him 12 months earlier.

Maybe now someone at @DHSCgovuk will realise that science will not submit itself to bullshit & narrative control.

There is such a thing as getting it right & wrong, & this is based on the rigour of your methods.

For the love of God, WAKE UP.