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Peste Magazine Profile picture
@PesteMagazine
Dec 30, 2022 • 31 tweets • 14 min read • Read on X
The Worst Covid Takes of 2022.

How did so many in the US end up desensitized to mass death and disability, angrily opposed to almost all means of mitigating an occasionally fatal airborne virus, and willing to accept so little from the powerful? This list helps explain.

🧵
1/7/22: @DrTomFrieden: “18 months ago it was irresponsible and wrong to say: Covid is similar to the flu…Omicron is different. Now, that's basically correct.” @JuliaRaifman reminded him that day hospitalizations were at the highest of the entire pandemic:
1/7/22: Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) called Omicron "a normal respiratory virus, not an unusual, extraordinary, or grave danger," in early January 2022 shortly before Omicron was killing more than 2,200 Americans per day (higher than Delta). With Omicron’s observed dec...
1/24/22: The Urgency of Normal toolkit is released. We will not link to it. Instead, please see this thread from @gregggonsalves:
2/1/22: @DrLeanaWen: “Masks can be optional, not required, even at high rates of community transmission.” washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
2/21/22: Rochelle Walensky @CDCDirector joined @ASlavitt’s podcast and said, “The scarlet letter of this pandemic is the mask.” (It was accidentally edited out of the podcast — oops! — but fortunately preserved here, because she retweeted it.)
2/24/22 The polling firm for @POTUS recommends to “declare the crisis phase of Covid over and push for feeling and acting more normal.” Impact research February 24...
3/17/22 @DrLeanaWen celebrates @AshishKJha46 becoming White House Covid Response Leader and, as the White House polling firm suggested, a “return to normalcy.”
3/18/22 David Leonhardt blames nearly all existing public health problems on…Covid-19 mitigation?
nytimes.com/2022/03/18/bri…
3/31/22 Josh Barro (@jbarro) makes fun of the “MPH crowd” for “their bizarre values” shortly after the US eclipsed 1,000,000 dead from Covid-19.
4/11/22 @AshishKJha46 does what he’s been installed to do: tell everyone things are normal as people increasingly get sick and die from Covid-19.
nytimes.com/2022/04/11/us/…
5/9/22 @Bob_Wachter, chief of medicine at UCSF, posted a poll essentially asking his audience, "would you fly on the plane with a tight N95 after a positive test?" (most said no) — then he explained why they might consider doing so:
6/4/22 Not exactly a take, but no one should forget that DeSantis pressured the Special Olympics to drop its Covid-19 vaccination requirement. Fuck you, @GovRonDeSantis.
forbes.com/sites/brucelee…
7/24/22 @AshishKJha46 says, “We are now at a point, I believe, where we can prevent nearly every COVID death in America. That is a remarkable fact.” After Jha says so, more than 65,689 people in the United States will die from Covid. whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
8/16/22 @AshishKJha46 says, “my hope is that in 2023 you’re going to see the commercialization of” tests, treatments, and vaccines.
c-span.org/video/?522360-…
9/18/22 @POTUS declares on 60 minutes that the pandemic is over. More than 38,868 Americans have died from Covid-19 since Biden proclaimed it over. Here is a response from @GYamey: time.com/6214853/biden-…
9/28/22 Having eroded empathy for people who must mask and generated anger and mistrust toward anyone who does, now we have doubts about the possibility of clean air and ventilation from Francois Balloux @BallouxFrancois.
10/1/22 Vinay Prasad (VPrasadMDMPH) argues that it is important to avoid masking so you can get sick from preventable diseases in order to be immune from cancer, just like everyone was before the pandemic: vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/i-am-going-t…
10/4/22 David Leonardt claims Covid is a “racial equity success story.” Rather than present that breathtakingly stupid take, we share its evisceration by“researchers who actually work on health equity in America in a piece in @statnews: statnews.com/2022/10/25/cov…
10/20/22 John Ioannidis, once a respected Stanford researcher, says “death is a beautiful woman”
11/23/22: @elonmusk ended action against tweets spreading Covid-19 misinformation. No longer will action be taken against accounts that post " "demonstrably false or misleading" information about the public health crisis that has caused mass death and disability.
12/4/22 Aseem Malhotra, @DrAseemMalhotra, elevated recently by Tucker Carlson, says “THE most reliable source” told him Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died because of the Covid-19 vaccine.
12/15/22 Despite having no relevant experience or expertise, @elonmusk spreads misinformation about Covid-19, which is even fact-checked as incorrect by his own site.
12/16/22 Immunity debt. Here is an excellent article about an argument premised on the claim that there was extreme lockdown and masking in the US for years which harmed the immune systems of kids who damnit should have been getting infected with viruses: thegauntlet.substack.com/p/with-immunit…
12/27/22 The New York Times publishes a piece called “The Last Holdouts.”
12/28/22 The New Yorker publishes “The Case for Wearing Masks Forever.”
Yes, 2022 was a great year for covid minimizers in academia, medicine, journalism, and government. We presented the 25 worst public health takes — ones that worked to inculcate the belief that life is back to normal while hundreds of thousands died and millions suffered.
We also tried to answer who was the very best at making public health worse in 2022 with our Public Health Disservice Awards, hosted by @NeoliberalSnow:
Please reply with the worst covid takes of 2022 that we blocked out.
In grief and in anger, we go into 2023 for the furious and fucked over, the lonely and abandoned, and those who believe every preventable death is a terrible failure we should never get over but instead avenge with righteous anger. pestemag.com/lost-to-follow…
Thank you for reading the Worst Covid Takes of 2022. While you are here, a reminder that @ProfEmilyOster, the economist who argued for open schools despite bad data and worker concerns, also argued against AIDS drugs for people in Africa.

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More from @PesteMagazine

Peste Magazine Profile picture
Nov 28, 2023
Today, we are publishing a small series on medical debt.

Please read, share, and contact us if you or someone you know is struggling with medical debt. We are a nonprofit with expert resources and work for free.

🧵
The hospital didn’t tell him the price. His insurance wouldn’t pay. Then they put him nearly $17k in debt.

Here’s how we helped him erase nearly all of his debt.
pestemag.com/featured-posts…
“Medical debt is protected by thick walls of power and money. This kind of debt is enforced by law and politics, and depends on the mistaken notion that healthcare should, must, cost money.”

@DrZackaryBerger on debt.
pestemag.com/the-costs-of-l…
Read 7 tweets
Peste Magazine Profile picture
Mar 2, 2023
A growing chorus of prominent journalists and pundits have taken aim at proponents of a more vigorous public health response to the pandemic. From Anne Sosin (@asosin) and Martha Lincoln (@heavyredaction). pestemag.com/featured-posts…
“Reflecting the pandemic’s sharply uneven impacts, Black and Hispanic Americans as well as individuals with a disability have consistently voiced greater concern about COVID and supported a stronger policy response.” pestemag.com/featured-posts…
“By suggesting that well-to-do ‘liberals’ are the vanguard of COVID mitigations, these stories shift attention away from the groups that have been most impacted and that remain at greatest risk.” pestemag.com/featured-posts…
Read 4 tweets
Peste Magazine Profile picture
Feb 27, 2023
Vivek Murthy, the @Surgeon_General, should clarify his relationship with @calm, a software company. pestemag.com/large-scale-me…
The @Surgeon_General has repeatedly plugged his partnership with the enterprise behind the meditation app @calm — a corporate software company recently valued at $2 billion. pestemag.com/large-scale-me…
We twice contacted the office of the @Surgeon_General to clarify his involvement with @calm. These are the questions they did not respond to: My name is Jason Silverstei...
Read 6 tweets
Peste Magazine Profile picture
Feb 13, 2023
Here are questions for @AshishKJha46. We look forward to his answers.

1. You said, “In October, we’re going to reach the elderly, nursing homes, and other high-risk settings.” But by December, only 46% of nursing home residents were up to date on vaccinations. What happened?

🧵
2. @AshishKJha46, are you committed to keeping vaccines, masks, and tests free through the federal government, or does the administration still plan to "get out of that business" in 2023, as you said back in August?
3. @AshishKJha46, you say vaccines and Paxlovid “will continue to be available for free to all Americans who need them.” But here’s what you said to CSPAN. Will vaccines and paxlovid remain free to all Americans? c-span.org/video/?522360-…
Read 7 tweets
Peste Magazine Profile picture
Dec 29, 2022
Politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale, and so, yes, @NateSilver538, public health is about politics and power.

Here is some of our reporting on who lives, who dies, and who has blood on their hands.
🧵
Biden and public health leaders who haven’t invested in a layered approach — of masks and testing and ventilation and vaccines — blame your behavior, not theirs, for the continuing pandemic. @heavyredaction pestemag.com/large-scale-me…
Gavin Newsom's CARE courts use progressive language to expand the carceral state, writes @RafiknWahbi pestemag.com/large-scale-me…
Read 17 tweets
Peste Magazine Profile picture
Dec 28, 2022
.@TRyanGregory on the @PesteMagazine Public Health Disservice Awards: "One might imagine that when the stakes are extremely high, as they surely are when it comes to public health during a global pandemic," (1/5)
"a record of accuracy, self-reflection, humility, and integrity ought to determine who is revered as an expert and given a wide platform." (2/5)
"Unfortunately, the pandemic has given us example after example of just the opposite: self-promoting experts who remain utterly certain in their pronouncements despite being wrong over and over." (3/5)
Read 5 tweets

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