Jonathan Howard MD Profile picture
Jul 26 25 tweets 9 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
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. Image
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.
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.
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. Image
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. Image
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.


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Or that variants were nothing to worry about. Image
He has a large presence here. Many people have seen what seems like advertisements for the virus.

It win again! Image
Many people heard him declare natural immunity as POWERFUL, though “policymakers” are to scared to celebrate the virus. Image
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.
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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.
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. Image
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. Image
Of course, vaccines save money. A sick covid patient can receive many expensive medications. Image
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. Image
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? Image
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.” Image
And given his track record in that department, I find that a bit unbelievable. Image
We all need a reminder of this from time to time. Image

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More from @19joho

Jul 25
It became normal for doctors to *mock* people who doubted the end of the pandemic and to shame those who tried to avoid infection.

Let’s do a linguistic tour through the pandemic.
If you tried to avoid the virus, you were ridiculed. Image
This tweet was sent at the peak of the deadliest wave of the pandemic for the USA. Image
Read 20 tweets
Jul 9
I’m don’t do long twitter threads often. But I will now, and it’s not my fault.

But first, let’s look at two news stories. One from 2012 and the other from 2017.

And now our story begins with an adult oncologist who had many thoughts about teachers unions.





Many thoughts





Read 17 tweets
Jun 3
New study on vaccine myocarditis from 44.3 million Koreans

- peak rate was 1 in 19,000 for males 12-17
- 95 total severe cases (all ages)
- 36 fulminate cases (2 in kids)
- 21 deaths (0 in kids, 12 in young adults 22-50 years)

academic.oup.com/eurheartj/adva…
Outcomes in this study are more severe than in all other studies, but at least some of the reactions seem unrelated to the vaccine to me.

1/3 of fulminate cases didn’t even develop symptoms until several weeks after vaccination.

In vaccine to blame?

Other studies are below. ImageImageImageImage
For non severe cases, the outcome is below. I’d get yelled at for quoting it directly. Image
Read 5 tweets
Jun 2
Why did anyone think the precautionary principle meant treating the vaccine as the threatening unknown and the virus as a familiar friend?

Shortly after this tweet was sent… Image
This happened Image
Then this. Image
Read 5 tweets
Apr 30
An effective way to shut down discussion/debate is to reframe criticism as an “attack.”

“Sure, Dr. X said COVID ended in 2021 & vaccine side effects are worse than death, but the REAL problem is you hurt their feelings.”

This itself is an attempt to shame people into silence. ImageImageImageImage
These people don’t want discussion and debate. They want the freedom to spout gross misinformation without anyone correcting them.

More coming soon, but for now…sciencebasedmedicine.org/debating-how-t…
Read 6 tweets
Apr 21
My book, "We Want Them Infected
How the Failed Quest for Herd Immunity Led Doctors to Embrace the Anti-Vaccine Movement and Blinded Americans to the Threat of COVID" is available from @RedhawkPublica1

A little🧵

tinyurl.com/JonathanHoward…
While many of us were surrounded by mass death, begging people to stay safe, other doctors, sheltered from the consequences of their words, were making YouTube videos and influencing politicians to spread a new virus widely amongst unvaccinated youth. Image
In "We Want The Infected", I name names and bring receipts, extensively quoting famous doctors who minimized the virus repeatedly, spread wild myths, and embraced the anti-vaxx movement.

The intro, foreword by Michael Lewis, and table of contents are⬇️.

sciencebasedmedicine.org/we-want-them-i…
Read 8 tweets

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