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Conor Browne Profile picture
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Mar 9 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
1/ I've had the great privilege of speaking to a number of people over the past couple of weeks who are all trying to avoid infection / re-infection with SARS-CoV-2. People of all ages and all walks of life. I'm very well aware of the silo / echo chamber effect here...
2/... but let me tell you something. By far, the most obvious commonality between all of these disparate individuals is a sense of utter incredulity at the messaging coming from public health agencies and governments worldwide...
3/... combined with the dearth of critical thinking in the majority of the general public. Of course, the latter is informed by the former: that is to say, the general public are not being given the information they need to make informed decisions. Or, to put it another way...
4/... the public are not being given the information they need to be able to give *informed consent* to the policies of their respective governments. As a politician I spoke to yesterday put it, it's all about 'feeding the vote machine'.
5/ This pervasive incredulity is directed at the fact that the vast majority of governments, public health agencies, and the general public now seem to believe that avoiding infection from a pathogen that can cause significant acute illness and serious long-term effects...
6/... is at best futile or stupid (the 'it's just a cold' argument) to, at worst, falsely pathologised into evidence of a mental health disorder.

Let me be very clear: Attempting to avoid infection is rational, obviously so, and when public health agencies suggest otherwise...
7/... through concepts such as 'hybrid immunity', it's not public health anymore. Public health does not and should not encourage infection, even tacitly.

There are many more of us than you imagine. Do not let your rationality be swayed by the crowd.
8/ My first degree was in Philosophy, and my dissertation was on Nietzsche. Nietzsche's great insight was, fundamentally, that relying on one's own reasoning and insight was infinitely superior to blindly following the crowd. And that the crowd will resent you for it. /end

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More from @brownecfm

Conor Browne Profile picture
Mar 5
1/ From the notorious left-wingers at @TheEconomist :
2/ 'Countries characterised by both high infection rates and high productivity levels are likely to experience the greatest economic losses'.
3/ 'Without measures in place to suppress infection rates, SARS-CoV-2 infection could continue to have substantial impacts on economies'.
Read 5 tweets
Conor Browne Profile picture
Feb 27
1/ Three years of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland: a personal 🧵

Exactly three years ago today, the first case of the disease which would be later named Covid-19 was discovered in NI, my home.

I have avoided infection since then. I remain a 'Novid'.
2/ Before the inevitable and predictable commenters descend, it's worth making this clear from the outset: I do not expect anyone else to live the way that I have chosen to live over the past three years. I cannot say this strongly enough.
3/ Why do I choose - and continue to choose - to avoid infection? First, because my mother is in a nursing home and I don't want to bring SARS-CoV-2 into a building where 40 CEV people live. Second, my best friend has emphesyma, and I don't want to infect her.
Read 13 tweets
Conor Browne Profile picture
Feb 25
1/ The Interconnectedness of Infectious Disease: 🧵

It is important to note that this thread is speculative. It is a hypothesis, not a statement of fact. I welcome constructive comments.
2/ SARS-CoV-2 has a tendency to mutate in immunocompromised hosts - people with primary immunodeficiencies, people who are taking long-term immunosuppressant medication, potentially people with unmedicated or poorly medicated HIV infection.
3/ As such, we currently live in a world unlike that of any previous pandemic, because we now have a global population of immunocompromised people. This situation accelerates viral mutation.
Read 11 tweets
Conor Browne Profile picture
Feb 22
1/ This is an extraordinarily confused tweet. Dr. Gregorevic asserts that she finds people who advocate for clean air 'distasteful'. Why? Because she asserts - incorrectly - that CO2 monitors and portable HEPA filters have no evidence behind their use.
2/ But, let's assume that there *was* no evidence behind the use of CO2 monitoring and personal HEPA filters. Even then, why is advocating for their use distasteful?

Second point: how does the ability to avoid restaurants equate to moral superiority?
3/ I have a postgraduate degree in Applied Ethics and I can't figure this argument out. Evidence of privilege? For sure. Not everyone can afford to eat in restaurants and therefore it's a privilege to be able to avoid them.
Read 4 tweets
Conor Browne Profile picture
Feb 9
1/ Sure, Ronnie. The first thing you should know about me is that I have epilepsy. It's well-controlled, but, regardless, I'm still legally not allowed to drive. So my only option is public transport. My elderly mother is in a nursing home and is approaching the end of her life.
2/ She has a clinical frailty score of 7/8, which makes her by definition clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV). I visit her almost every day, because I'm her only regular visitor and she is now in a condition not dissimilar to the end-stage of a terminal neuromuscular illness.
3/ Because she lives in a nursing home with 38 other residents, I effectively share a household with 39 clinically extremely vulnerable people. Everyone in nursing care is considered to be CEV. In addition, my closest friend has emphesyma, and, as such...
Read 4 tweets
Conor Browne Profile picture
Feb 8
1/ The single most dispiriting element of the whole pandemic response thus far to me is how obvious it has become that the vast majority of people are unwilling to make the smallest alterations to their daily lives in order to protect the vulnerable.
2/ Mandatory masking on public transport and in health / social care settings is a very small ask that fundamentally is a minor inconvenience for most people, but hugely important for those that are vulnerable.
3/ The elaborate argumentation I have witnessed on this platform against this very basic level of NPIs in society is generally nothing more than a faux-intellectual justification of two qualities of the authors: selfishness, and 'I don't like masks'.
Read 4 tweets

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