The authors and editors of @PNASNews should be fucking ashamed of themselves for publishing this study that is being picked up en masse in the media. It directly misrepresents its methods in its title by claiming causation (not correlation!) with a phenomenon it doesn’t study.🧵
So apparently other trauma, like kids watching their relatives die as I was during this time, didn’t stress them out, just “lockdowns.” Oh, and the study doesn’t control for covid infection? Which causes brain aging and is often asymptomatic or milder in children. You fools.
Reddit r/science knows what’s up better than the scientists who apparently wrote up this manuscript while on psychedelics. reddit.com/r/science/s/du…
There are 10+ articles on this small study with invalid conclusions on major news sites, liberal and conservative alike. Everyone’s dying to serve up another round of neuroinvasive virus to our kids so we can preserve the vibes. I’m so done with this.
@RetractionWatch take a look at this one.
Please excuse my colourful language, I was pretty upset last night as shoddy, dishonest research is immediately being used to further a media narrative all over the place.
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RETRACTION: The @JAMAPediatrics study claiming “strikingly low” incidence of Long Covid (PCC) in kids, retracted due to multiple errors whereby incidence was underestimated by a factor over 2.5. But also it’s methodologically completely invalid anyway.
🧵 jamanetwork.com/journals/jamap…
Me, @Mark_Ungrin and @GosiaGasperoPhD previously published a response letter in @JAMAPediatrics and a breakdown social media of how the manuscript makes no sense and the methodology claims to use the @WHO definition of PCC but doesn’t at all. See here:
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I’ll add to this thread as this story develops. News organizations who reported on this invalid study have an obligation to report on its retraction, as this study was one of the “feel good” articles that led to abandonment of public health measures for kids.
@CBCNews @MSN
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We desperately need better air purifiers for public spaces. The best I’ve seen is the metal box computer fan style using regular furnace filters.
Here I compare a @Vailima1-designed unit (~equivalent to @NukitToBeSure Tempest) to a Winix C535. Listen to the noise difference!
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The black metal box is way quieter and FIVE TIMES+ AS ENERGY EFFICIENT. It’s around 75% more efficient than any cleaner certified by Energy Star.
These metal box style air purifiers are effective, BIFL sturdy, quiet, nonadjustable, repairable and inexpensive to operate.
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The Winix uses 54W at max power & I measure 53 dBA. This produces smoke CADR of 232 CFM, or 4.3 CADR/watt efficiency.
Tempest / Deis units use *~9 watts* (conservative, 6 fans draw only 1.44 watts each) & I measure 40 dBA. This produces CADR of ~266 CFM, high 20's CADR/watt.
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My latest in @globeandmail highlights that broken or nonexistent social safety nets can push disabled folks into assisted dying. Also, with far-right ideology rising, language similar to "useless eaters" is now even publishable in a major newspaper.
/1 theglobeandmail.com/opinion/articl…
I submitted this article for publication before the tragic story about Normand Meunier came out. It was already accepted by the Globe, and then modified to mention and reflect on this important new story. My article was in response to this horrible one:
/2 thetimes.co.uk/article/we-can…
The Canadian political, social and economic landscape is fraught. We face inflationary impacts including outrageous cost of living and housing crises. Chronic illness, including the brand-new disease of Long C.o.v.i.d., has surged since the onset of the p.andemic.
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It's time to clean the germs out of our indoor air.
My latest article in the @edmontonjournal discusses how after four years, the @WHO is finally on board. We have the opportunity to make the greatest advancement in human hygiene since water treatment.
1. Mitigating all airborne diseases at the same time 2. Helping prevent future pandemics 3. Beneficial feedback loops/exponential decay 4. Healthy schools 5. Chronic disease prevention 6. Reducing burden on healthcare 7. Adapting to climate change
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You could make a list of 100 benefits and just keep going, but those are ones I raise.
People like myself who understand airborne spread & want to avoid it wear fitted respirators in public to protect themselves from the structural failure to address indoor air quality.
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1. Covid likely can damage the blood brain barrier 2. Covid directly infects neurons and other brain cell types 3. We are reinfecting everyone with Covid over and over.
What range of outcomes could you foresee from this?
"At some point we're going to have to have a discussion nobody wants to, one about how repeated COVID infections have left our children with permanent neurological changes / damage and how we are going to adjust our academic standards and expectations"
Signs put up in Brooklyn
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Not a joke. It's based on the accumulating evidence we have about covid causing brain damage. In adults, covid, even mild, causes average of 3 IQ point drop, and 2 more for reinfection. How is this impacting child brain development?
Good summary of much of the available science here.
Remember, kids are supposed to be *always getting smarter* so you can't understand how their brains are being impacted by only looking for instances where cognition decreases. What is the rate of gain?