Thread by @dense_evi

This pre-print has been put under my nose by an anti-vaxxer. It is the worst paper I have yet seen. And that includes Kirsch/McCullough's car crash of a (just) retracted Covid vaccine study

🧵
1/17researchgate.net/publication/37…

Midazolam is the latest anti-vaxxer thème du jour following last night's UK TV screening of #Breathtaking about hospital wards during the early pandemic.
Some posts reference the pre-print with the imaginatively titled "Midazolam & Euthanasia in the COVID-19 Pandemic"
2/17

The paper claims that a very large spike in UK deaths in April 2020 was not due to Covid19 but associated with widespread use of midazolam "under a systematic policy of euthanasia. Yep
3/17

April 2020 (32,869) was an exceptionally tragic month during the pandemic with the highest number of deaths in the first wave topping January 2021's (32,869 - ONS) Alpha wave peak (not vaccines as the paper implies - this was still early in rollout)

4/17 ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati…

The lengthy paper's conclusion relies on two main contentions.
Firstly, it claims that the April 2020 deaths were not due to Covid19 despite the declaration of a global pandemic the previous month
5/17
who.int/europe/emergen…

This was based on 2 misconceptions.
1. UK Govt downgraded C19 from a High-Consequence Infectious Disease. The paper wrongly suggested C19 was no longer considered dangerous. In reality, it could be tested, was understood and did not have a high IFR
6/17
factcheckni.org/topics/health/…

How seriously did the UK government take the virus at this point? Just 7 days after 'downgrading' the virus, a national lockdown was announced
7/17

2. The paper focuses heavily on low numbers of declared C19 cases in the weeks leading up to Apr '20's high death rates. Yet it glosses over testing capacity at that early stage. A PCR test was developed in January but production, distribution and lab capacity took time
8/17

Early testing was limited to severe cases in clinical settings
9/17
nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/how-…

A 5 pillar programme was implemented to ratchet up testing over time. April '20 was in Pillar 1 only reaching the second phase at the end of the month
10/17
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5e888f05…

By October 2021, the full test & trace capacity reached over 10 million. Of course new cases would be considerably higher than in Spring 2020
11/17

In fact, early testing capacity was so low, the BMJ was sharply critical of the Govt's implementation
12/17
. bma.org.uk/advice-and-sup…

Known low testing meant that all health statistical services, including the ONS, had to provide case estimates in 2020. Nuffield combined some of the best known in this chart. Yet the paper appears to have ignored these
13/17
nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/how-…

The paper's other main contention is that midazolam use correlated with high death rates in April '20.
It is a subject that anti-vaxxers have been jumping on following the first episode of the excellent Breathtaking
h/t @doctor_oxford
14/17
itv.com/presscentre/ep…

The treatment is a sedative often used as palliative therapy for end-of-life care. Of course it was widely used in April 2020 as thousands lay dying from Covid19.
This senior doctor, who was in the thick of it, explains how
15/17

https://x.com/mancunianmedic/status/1760306643047248226?s=20

The paper's sole author, Dr Wilson Sy, has several publications to his name. I know this because he references 4 of them in his paper! Which is...unusual... and clearly conflicted
16/17

Dr Sy is also an 'investment researcher'. I have no problem with this, my own background is in asset management - numbers

What I do have a problem with is poorly researched fabricated nonsense created to accuse thousands of brave health workers of enforcing euthanasia
/fin