Thread by @stilgherrian

What @NewtonMark writes represents the views of a significant number of mathematically literate people watched the pandemic political and media response with a rational, critical eye. The personality cult that has built up around Normal Swan is an embarrassment. 1/

https://twitter.com/NewtonMark/status/1592661480662798336

@NewtonMark The ABC’s response will be the same as it’s always been with flagship presenters. The criticisms just come from a minority of trolls, look at all the lovely emails we get, look at the audience figures, we all love Dr Norman — no lèse-majesté against the stars! 2/

@NewtonMark Of course there’s an anti-personality cult too. I’ve seen plenty of people for whom shouting about Norman Swan and others has become a hobby. That’s a whole separate thing. But making Normal Swan the ABC’s Face of the Pandemic may not have been the best... 3/

@NewtonMark Compare Swan with Antony Green, the Face of Elections. Green runs the numbers and explains them — but he doesn’t do political commentary. Swan wasn’t just explaining the science. He was giving political commentary on the response, supported by misleading social media posts. 4/

@NewtonMark Now I’m all for journalists calling out lies, telling us what is and isn’t a fact, and avoiding the both-sides bullshit that plagues our political media. But I believe Swan went beyond that, and insufficiently distinguished between established consensus and personal views. 5/

@NewtonMark Google for “norman swan let it rip” and you’ll find example after example of him repeating this stupid and divisive political slogan. There was never a “let it rip”, just as there was never a “covid zero everything locked down”. There was always an evolving set of responses. 6/

@NewtonMark To be clear, the discussion about appropriate responses is populated at both ends by screeching zealots. Every decision is about relative risk. I’m not “taking sides” because it isn’t about sides. But Swan muddied these waters. 7/

@NewtonMark I’m not sure how to wrap this thread. Maybe just that we need to break down extremist positions at both ends, that covid-19 isn’t the only infectious disease in existence, and you’re still going to die of heart disease, diabetes, or dementia. abs.gov.au/statistics/hea… 8/

@NewtonMark Oh, and ignore Raina MacIntyre. Her predictions are wildly pessimistic, which makes for great TV, but I don’t think they’ve matched actual outcomes. She seems thin-skinned when it comes to criticism, and I’ve had far more people in the field warn me about her than praise her. 9/

@NewtonMark See, for example, “Raina MacIntyre takes the high (fee) road” about one defo case (29 Sep 2021) afr.com/rear-window/ra…

She blocked me here after I criticised her outrageous comparison of Australia’s covid response to the Holocaust.

https://twitter.com/stilgherrian/status/1474877746270539777

ENDS
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