Thread by @19joho

Let’s discuss this by Dr. Marty Makary on the misinformation site Sensible Medicine.

A long thread, basically a @ScienceBasedMed article.

I hope you’ll take the time to read it.

Here’s one of three articles that will help you understand why it is a antivaccine misinformation site. sciencebasedmedicine.org/apology/

Back to the paragraph.

Dr. Makary wants you to know he’s a brave independent thinker, unlike his critics, the sheep who are only capable of groupthink.

This technique has been used for awhile,& most of the time, the brave independent thinker has been wrong, though undeterred.

https://twitter.com/19joho/status/1494652334873452547

As I noted yesterday, all of the doctors who consider themselves immune to groupthink all sound the same to me, as they declared the pandemic over 2 years ago and mocked those who tried to avoid the virus.

https://twitter.com/19joho/status/1683657344205352962

It’s easy to think one is immune from groupthink and other cognitive errors, while everyone else is obviously vulnerable to them.

That was the conclusion of this non bestseller.

I mean, this is right. Humility is important in medicine.

Had I declared herd immunity arrived 2 years ago, I’d hope I’d admit my error and try to be a bit more humble moving forward.

Next, Dr. Makary wants you to know he’s not part of the “establishment”, who screwed everything up. They are to blame, and he’s not one of them.

But that’s not true.

Dr. Makary had a HUGE media footprint. He was everywhere telling us the pandemic ended 2 years ago.

Or that variants were nothing to worry about.

He has a large presence here. Many people have seen what seems like advertisements for the virus.

It win again!

Many people heard him declare natural immunity as POWERFUL, though “policymakers” are to scared to celebrate the virus.

He was the advisor to the governor of Virginia and testified before Congress.

This is not someone outsider maverick, but in fact a very influential member of the establishment.

Nearly all of his preferred policies have been in place for a long time.

What about his claim that the “establishment” never talked about obesity and covid, as if the relationship between the two was some huge hidden secret.

Of course, the “establishment” did talk about this.

https://twitter.com/19joho/status/1682427255148929025

However Dr. Makary feels they should have done it more, as if their words alone could have solved obesity in spring 2020.

Losing weight is *hard* and an extra push from Dr. Fauci 3 years ago would not have made the difference for many people.

Do you disagree?

This is typical of articles on Sensible Medicine. They make really hard, impossible things sound easy.

I wrote this long article about that with regards to endless calls for RCTs.

sciencebasedmedicine.org/letter-to-a-me…

Notably, Sensible Medicine authors always call for someone else to do these things.

They just call for RCTs and weight loss campaigns in blogs and twitter.

They don’t want to actually do any of this themselves.

At least I helped a bit in the real world.

So why is this done? What’s the purpose?

It’s to create anger and doubt.

The fact that the CDC and Fauci couldn’t do literally everything was framed as a moral failure.

They are presented as having decided not to solve obesity.

They chose.

sciencebasedmedicine.org/criminal/

As always, our sensible medicine author always depicts himself on the outside looking in.

“I only they listened to me, none of this would have happened”, he says in essence.

Again, he was the establishment. Did he solve obesity in Virginia?

Why not?

Now we come to the inevitable antivaxx part.

Having chosen not to solve obesity, “the establishment” turned to pharma instead.

And pharma is bad.

And pharma makes vaccines.

So they’re bad too.

This is old, basic antivaxx nonsense.

Of course, vaccines save money. A sick covid patient can receive many expensive medications.

So I do not cede the high ground on this issue to those who discouraged vaccines.

The antivaccine movement supports big pharma. sciencebasedmedicine.org/big-pharma/

Next, he says they “indiscriminately” told people to get the vaccine, as if the right answer was obvious in all cases and it would have been a catastrophe were someone to get a potentially unneeded vaccine dose.

Of course more people suffered for lack of a vaccine.

Yes, that plane again.

Many of those who regretted not getting the vaccine are not hear to remind us of that regret.

What would they say if they could do it all over again?

Perhaps the most egregious part of the article was its title.

Dr. Makary is presenting himself as and outsider and the last bastion of those who still care about data, compared to the “establishment.”

And given his track record in that department, I find that a bit unbelievable.

We all need a reminder of this from time to time.