Thread by @CDPNetworkMap

🧵Is it a coincidence that the UK paediatricians promoting the concept of immunity debt also opposed masks and questioned vax?

They were also a key source of the claim children don't play a significant role in transmission

"No evidence of a child infecting an adult"

2/ Russell Viner's April 2020 systematic review was the main source cited around the world as evidence children didn't play a role in transmission

This was promoted by the site Don't Forget the Bubbles
Viner became a UK gov adviser on children

3/ Munro was appointed in March 2020 by the Royal College of Paediatric and Child Healths review on covid in children

Viner was President of the RCPCH at the time, Munro was given senior positions on various UK gov vaccine trials

4/ It should be noted that the UK gov had no plans in place to lockdown, schools were to remain open regardless to help build up herd immunity, only when it became clear the health system was about to collapse did the UK gov decide to U-Turn and go into lockdown

5/ They initially told the UK public we would beat covid in 12 weeks, pressure from lobbyists saw the go to work lockdown rules changed an hour after they were announced, allowing more businesses to stay open

This has never been raised by media, opposition MPs etc

6/ While the UK had officially abandoned herd immunity as a strategy a leaked call on 9 April shows that the government wasn't being honest with the public

Saving lives wasn't main priority, preventing rapid healthcare collapse was, they still expected everyone to be infected

7/ While public were being told we would get back to normal, perhaps with an exit wave, the Home Office science adviser was briefing that we would face many waves for many years

He won't have come to this independently, this is what he was told from the top

8/ So the attitude inside gov was that the vulnerable couldn't be protected, we just needed to spread out the harm to protect healthcare

Getting ppl back to work and the economy running was the main priority

9/ More details on the leaked call here
bylinetimes.com/2020/04/09/lea…

10/ The problem for the government was that schools had moved to only keyworker and vulnerable being in the building

Children needed to go back to school so their parents could go back to work

But a few weeks before we'd been told schools helped build up herd immunity

11/ UK gov needed the public to "stop living in fear and get back to the new normal"

How fortunate for them that only a week into lockdown paediatricians linked to the gov discovered that children are considerably less likely to be infected and to transmit to adults?

12/ The review made headlines around the world, particularly in RW press like Telegraph that a month before had called for 250k vulnerable ppl to be sacrificed to for the economy

Those involved became leading experts on covid, various govs cited the paper
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/the-april-20…

13/ The other key position regarding the UK govs evidence base was the public health lead Ladhani

He believes reducing transmission will prolong the pandemic, if we just infect enough kids covid will be gone

These paeds became the UKs gatekeepers

14/ Backed by the UK government this small group of UK paeds had considerable influence with their international peers, running webinars, events etc

Particular success in Canada and Australia, but they've influenced debate across the western world

https://twitter.com/DGBassani/status/1589390197799931904?t=NKZll5n0S4BkES9H8jJ81g&s=19

15/ The other people quoted early on that led the debate was Tegnell and Ludvigsson in Sweden

Tegnell lobbied his counterparts, for instance making economic and herd immunity arguments to Finland

16/ While advising other govs to use schools to build up herd immunity Tegnell was telling the Swedish public transmission wasn't occurring in schools
Ludvigsson produced supporting papers, it wasn't difficult to see they were lying

17/ Internal emails released through FOI reveal Ludvigsson and Tegnell were aware of excess mortality in children

They didn't look into this and fudged the figures

18/ Netherlands and some other countries did the same, they knew transmission was occurring in schools, that while risk was lower for children it wasn't negligible, they misled the people to get them back to normal for economic reasons
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/the-swedish-…

19/ We can see the influence on international paeds groups to claim children arent significantly contributing to transmission and are at such low risk they don't really need vaccinating

20/ The ESIDsociety recommended to stop asymptomatic testing of children in May 2021, allowing asymptomatic transmission, and testing ppl around the child instead

This Swedish approach means data to prove them wrong simply won't be collected

21/ If you go to the ESIDsociety website to look at their evidence base they direct people to an external link, guess where it leads...

22/ To Don't Forget the Bubbles, Munro, Bhopal and several other names working with UK gov

Hasn't been updated for a while, claims children are 50% less infectious than adults

23/ Have a look at their lists of top 10 papers on different elements of covid, its infuriating for anyone who doesn't agree with the mass infection of children

Minimiser central
dontforgetthebubbles.com/evidence-summa…

24/ Another interesting connection is that Sunil Bhopal of Don't Forget the Bubbles was providing evidence for Us For Them when they launched a legal challenge against UK gov, demanding all children immediately return in May 2020

Other evidence relied on was Viners review

25/ Us For Them launched via the Telegraph with help with the incredibly well connected Ed Barker and have been supported throughout by Ellen Townsend (GBD signatory, Pandata, HART, Collateral Global, PCRclaims)
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/unsafe-schoo…

26/ Bhopal and Absoud (RCPCH) were personally thanked for their aid and support in Us For Thems book

If you go to buy the book the authors Kingsley & Cole recommend also buying Naomi Wolf's book

Wolf is a well known conspiracy theorist (time travelling nanoparticles)

27/ An unusual choice of organisation for paeds working with UK gov to support, UfT have consistently pushed antivax disinformation, founder is currently retweeting Malhotra
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/the-blame-ga…

28/ The UK paeds are popular with anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers due to their constant questioning of the need to vax kids, they did this before the JCVI met to consider roll out to 12-15

Look at the language used

Ladhani: "experimental gene therapy"
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/the-blame-ga…

29/ Masks were introduced for 11+ in early 2021 the paeds vocally argued against them, saying they didn't work,masks were in place for only 40 school days,after they were removed as Delta was spreading in the UK Viner reassured parents pn radio by claiming measures were in place

30/ He claimed masks, social distancing and improved ventilation was in place

None of this was true! He knew masks had been removed, he'd been campaigning for it

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1396713604746031108?t=tQ-rjPqjIprjMyqZppOfDw&s=19

31/ And even if masks hadnt already been removed why would he claim masks would keep children safe when he had been very clear he didn't think they worked?

All part of the stop living in fear narrative, people needed to accept normality and accept infection

32/ When UK gov decided on a full return of students in Sept 2020 with no measures, up to 34 kids in some room without windows, the paeds completely supported it and called to stop testing kids

Even argued against any measures in the middle of the deadly Alpha wave

33/ Literally out across the media arguing for schools to return in full on Jan 4th without any measures, with noone in school yet to have their first vax

…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/expose-the-e…

34/ Worth noting UfT supporter Ellen Townsends Pandata colleagues Atlas and Alexander had spent the summer as Trump appointees trying to supress CDC information on transmission in schools
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/review-us-co…

35/ When JCVI initially decided to not offer vax to 12-15 this was based on the evidence base allowed by gatekeeper Ladhani, they relied almost entirely on their own studies

Not vaccinating kids to provide adults "booster infections" was discussed

36/ They talked about covid becoming endemic and turning into just another everyday childhood illness, many thought this could occur without needing vaccination

They keep overselling natural immunity, full minutes here

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1454235882400145414?t=FRsVQ524w_z4olPQkxFnOw&s=19

37/ Dingwall a gov adviser on NERVTAG was also attending JCVI, in March 2020 he effectively called for a cull

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1387151969127653376?t=FRsVQ524w_z4olPQkxFnOw&s=19

38/ The #HARTleaks reveal Dingwall was in contact with conspiracy theorist Michael Yeadon (Pandata,HART, PCRclaims, AFLD advisor) he also attended the launch of GBD successor organisation in the UK Collateral Global (Gupta, Heneghan, Townsend, Bhattacharya, Kulldorf, Bristow)

39/ More details here on the #HARTleaks, shows Yeadon was using evidence Bhopal sent to Us For Them to present to Florida on why children shouldn't be vaccinated

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1443965128890793987?t=bvRZAyT2cy_jpvSlIl55hg&s=19

40/ When it was coming towards the time for JCVI to decide on 5-11 vax, Viner, Dingwall, Livermoore (GBD signatory, HART, Collateral Global) and others all came out to argue against it

Pro child vax academics were attacked as "zero covid fanatics" by RW press

41/ UKHSA team led by Ladhani produced a study reviewing deaths that provided papers the headline "just 6 healthy children have died"
This was used to argue against all measures

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1455271387174744068?t=LIduF9xzxv4uMWJ-jIedjA&s=19

42/ JCVI minutes fpr 5-11 show there was conflict, decision delayed repeatedly, talk of providing only 1 dose because hybrid immunity was better

Read for yourself, it's a mess

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1537202714668675079?t=duqNaikvYrSbf-NvfcGckQ&s=19

43/ It didn't help that the paeds were also promoting Hoeg's questionable VAER dumpster dives while the media stoked fears of myocarditis
Disinformation and antivax groups had a field day, around the world they still regularly quote JCVI
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/the-blame-ga…

44/ After the French then NZ paper that introduced the term Immunity Debt, UK paeds picked up that ball and ran with it, they now had a lot of the paeds community in various countries listening to them
There was the WSJ article but they helped establish it amongst professionals

45/ Details here
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/immunity-deb…

46/ They opposed introducing measures in schools during the Omicron wave, resulting in arpund 1.3million children being off school in one week due to the scale of outbreaks. Would education have faced such disruption if teens had been vaxxed in the summer like other countries?

47/ They celebrated the end of testing in secondary schools in spring 2022, and the end of any isolation rules saying children should go to school even if positive as long as they aren't too sick to come to school
"Stop testing healthy children' was their slogan

48/ Viners replacement as RCPCH president Camilla Turner was calling to stop testing children in October 2021

Article in Telegraph

49/ Worth noting the article is by Camilla Turner who is mentioned repeatedly in the #HARTleaks as a journalist they and Us For Them regularly work with, there are a considerable number, she was also the first to promote the Hoeg VAER dumpster dive
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/internal-cha…

50/ Turner was then promoted to an editorial position

Article claimed false positive issues with rapid tests when false negatives were far more common

Cates MP is quoted

51/ Cates used Bhattacharya Brownstone article on masks to lobby the education secretary against masks in secondary schools

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1463601767590027266?t=S-j4bO0TiMIqyZcZI38crw&s=19

52/ Cates is part of the CRG sceptic group of MPs, and is the vice chair of an APPG linked to Collateral Global and HART, it provides an official platform for covid disinformation and keeps calling for an end to child vax

Details on APPG,CRG, CG here⬇️
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/who-funds-co…

53/ #HARTleaks even included the emails between CRG MPs and HART discussing coordination between them and also Us For Them

Damning evidence, in their own words
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/the-emails-t…

54/ Back to the end of the Telegraph article, the long piece only gives voices against, also Us For Them have a quote and Allyson Pollock, another who has minimised and oversold natural immunity throughout

55/ In the midst of the first Omicron wave on January with most children still unvaccinated Pollock, Townsend and Storah (HART) appeared at the APPG to call again for testing of children to stop

The paeds stances often align with these disinfo groups

56/ As part of the UKs "living with covid plan" in April 2022 testing and isolation if positive was removed from schools

The paeds celebrated this and urged other countries to follow, and now many of your countries/states have followed the UK on a path of mass infection

57/ As they say about themselves, it's incredible that they are continuing to fight for children in other countries to be protected from the harms of wearing a mask

If you question them they'll just accuse you of wanting to keep kids locked up forever

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1589688457219440640?t=RjaMKtGWFvuOgTBOIu0BQw&s=19

58/ The Green Book (like a rulebook for local government) revised Sept 2022 still quotes Viners April 2020 systematic review and other 2 year old sources on transmission

This is the UKs official line on covid in children

59/ As the leaked call on 9 April 2020 said, the UK gov expects waves to continue, they never dropped herd immunity as a strategy, just adapted it, schools are still integral to keeping immunity boosted, immunity debt concept plays directly into this pro-infection narrative

60/ UK has gone full circle to mid March 2020, the new normal is the old normal,nothings been done about clean air, they're even removing the choice of vax for younger kids and restricting boosters to over 50s

Booster infections instead
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/england-remo…

61/ So even if all other measures are intolerable, why has there been no effort to invest in ventilation and filtration?

DfE claims well over 90% of schools don't need it, did a CO2 survey before most schools got the monitors
1500ppm set as safe limit!

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1509625723585236993?t=7ozzMoMEz95Vf66TFS6XBw&s=19

62/ UKHSA say there is no evidence to show effectiveness of air filters, in August 2021 they announced a small trial, choice of air filters were noise £500 dysons🤷‍♂️
Results due by end of 2021

https://twitter.com/Care_excellence/status/1425714877973270534?t=7ozzMoMEz95Vf66TFS6XBw&s=19

63/ The trial finished, a year of FOIs have failed to get answers, it qas finally mentioned in Parliament, trial results would be published in October 2022

There is still no sign of the trial results being released, inquiries are being made

64/ Those at UKHSA now have a new argument for opposing ventilation besides claims it would cost billions (perhaps £200million in reality)

Preventing transmission in schools merely displaces infections into other settings where more vulnerable people are

65/ So we shouldn't vaccinate younger children to protect adults, but it's fine for children to take an infection for the team to reach short term herd immunity to get over each wave

This is the current state of debating UK public health now

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1578691140202926080?t=1V_KA5EiEti2AFQSC3FraQ&s=19

66/ Regular repeat infections to top up immunity seems to be considered preferable to one infection every year or two

Govs talk of covid becoming endemic but they never explained what that actually looks like

This is what it means in the UK⬇️

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1580813804572905472?t=1V_KA5EiEti2AFQSC3FraQ&s=19

67/ Gov is worried if they started offering everyone boosters or under 5s it would suggest "healthy" people are at risk, this would undermine "normality" ppl might want gov to do more, they might wonder why gov has allowed mass infection for so long, the same for clean air

68/ So we end up with headlines like this based on a paper by those at UKHSA

69/ Few days apart another paper found Covid was a leading cause of death for children in the US

…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/child-covid-…

70/ On reinfections

71/ On long covid

72/ Transmission isn't an issue in schools there are no large outbreaks, lockdown and restrictions are the main cause of harm

Don't prolong the pandemic, infect the kids

That's the UK plan

73/ What happens to anyone calling to reduce transmission in schools?

Hammered by the press, insulted by fellow professionals, just like Sweden, its just took some time to turn public opinion with a relentless stream of misinformation and disinformation

74/ This is the Telegraph but search Daily Express, Daily Mail, Sun, Spectator etc and you'll see similar

75/ BMJ inquiry piece raised concerns about narrow evidence from a small group of experts, set out how England was an international outlier
…terdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/bmj-study-qu…

76/ What was the response?

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1566384691103629313?t=E7huOGvzbaiHBskisIdrcQ&s=19

77/ Those responsible for the UKs evidence base that formed policy were outraged they weren't included in marking their own homework

They organised a response which was amplified by those who've also advocated mass infection of children

78/ They made out that nothing valuable could be taken from the paper, that it was purely political, this coming from some people who had been helping the political lobbying group Us For Them

Worth examining the much praised response

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1570560419315744768?t=E7huOGvzbaiHBskisIdrcQ&s=19

79/ Then Prasad and others decide to personally attack one of the BMJ authors questioning their mental health, school yard bullying

Their anti-vax and anti-mask followers then pile in

Perhaps paeds should question the type of followers they attract

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1570543519382765571?t=rK7R9PfxV6Y6HPR0RSFQBw&s=19

80/ Its incredible how a relatively small group providing the answers the UK gov needed to justify its policies has had such an impact on the narrative on schools and children around the world

Children have been used to facilitate herd immunity via mass infection

Please consider subscribing to the substack for more information on disinformation groups and strategies, all content is free

https://twitter.com/CDPNetworkMap/status/1553087516235931648?t=l0KQMmM34KqPQ2_noSgxNg&s=19

Also recommend following our partner @AliNeitzelMD and her #MisinformationKills substack

Check out @Aw_what and @_johnbye pinned tweets

And @StarsOfCovid have produced a really useful searchable database showing individuals links
starsofcovid.github.io