Incredible testimony** today @covidinquiryuk

Sir Frank Atherton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Chief Medical Officer

‘Healthcare leadership has lost its way. Its foundation should be in love, not lies. We are truly sorry for what we have done’

** ‘testimony’ 🙃

/🧵 ‘We knew SARS2 transmission was airborne in Jan 2020, but instead of showing love to healthcare workers & being honest with them about the RPE shortages, we lied to them & kept on lying’

‘…we are truly sorry for what we have done’

/2

If you missed what Prof Sir Chris Whitty said on IPC & PPE, or just couldn't carry on watching after the amazing @Kevin_Fong [God bless you sir, & thank you for all you do 🙏]

TL/DR

/1 Sir Chris worked shifts on the wards in every wave

Wore FRSM mainly - as per IPC guidance, he said

HCID declassification had no bearing on IPC guidance

"I am not an expert on IPC'

/2

Now we've seen IPC Cell minutes from 22/12/2020 & the plea from 'CB' for wider FFP3 use because:

'Our understanding of aerosol transmission has changed'

🚨Would you like to know whether very late 2020 was when *all* 🇬🇧Gov departments knew of the importance of aerosol risk?

/1 Obtained via FOI request

🚨From the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

🦺Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19)
10 July 2020 update

'You should ensure that steps are taken to avoid people needing to unduly raise their voices to each other...

/2

Over the last 2 days at @covidinquiryuk the NHS has shown its dark & ugly side

There was never going to be an apology from IPC guidance authors whose guidance drove disproportionately high rates of death & COVID19 in non-ICU HCWs & huge rates of nosocomial SARS2, but…

/1 the level of obfuscation, evasion & incompetence on display from those tasked with keeping HCWs safe, is jaw dropping

I was one of the lucky ones: my NHS Trust ALWAYS provided HCWs with FFP3 when caring for those with COVID19 - my IPC remained precautionary

As a result…

/2

'I would like to highlight evidence demonstrating that Professor Heneghan may be in breach of Section 35(2) of the Inquiries Act 2005'

Am looking forward to hearing your response @carlheneghan

covid19.public-inquiry.uk/documents/inq0… TL/DR in evidence to @covidinquiryuk, CH stated SARS2 transmission is via large droplet & fomites

But:

Following peer review triggered changes 6 Jul 2022, CH's own work stated that SARS2 transmission is via 'fine aerosols & respiratory droplets, & to a lesser extent...fomites'

🚨David Halpern Cabinet Office

'Arguably the most fundamental misstep in the UK response was the presumption that covid would be an unstoppable flu-like wave'

This

underpinned the early (Chris Whitty) position on T&T, & the Vallance view on 'herd immunity' (later air-brushed)' Aside

Early SAGE minutes clarify the UK rationale for stopping community SARS2 testing: it was deemed unnecessary because with rapidly increasing case numbers there was no point in testing, as there were insufficient personnel to contact trace

Good to know whose plan this was

In his capacity as co-chair of the 2016 pandemic respirator stockpile committee, where does JVT stand legally with this description of healthcare workplace protection 'logic' like this?

🚨Respirators only specifically recommended for ICU/HDU staff - i.e. AGP 'hotspots'

/1 DESPITE

🚨Stronger evidence of aerosol transmission since 2009

🚨His own 2013 review now already used by David Heymann at @covidinquiryuk M1 to describe optimal protection against aerosols - FFP3 mandated as per COSHH

/2

Dear @DidierPittet @jonotter @peyo3319

Good evening

By now 2 of you will have an email alert about my @PubPeerBot response to your Letter

UK Research Integrity Office (@UKRIO) teams suggested this route, on reading my detailed evidence submission
pubpeer.com/publications/B… To overcome an unexpected formatting issue on upload to the PubPeer site, below please find my correctly formatted letter expressing concerns & questions over your 'research behaviour'

[your letter, plus summary comments from 2 down this thread]

p1-4

Day 3 @covidinquiryuk

🚨Prof David Heymann

CV highlights

2003: WHO executive director for communicable diseases - headed the global response to SARS

2017-2022: Chair of the WHO Strategic & Technical Advisory Committee on Infectious Hazards (STAG-IH)

Written evidence 🥁

/1 Annex 2: Matters to be addressed from Letter of
Instruction

I hope you don't mind, but for obvious reasons I'll focus on his comments on transmission

#COVIDisAirborne

/2

Day 2 @covidinquiryuk: witness statements online

Prof Jimmy Whitworth & Dr Charlotte Hammer [p36] make an 'interesting' (i.e., exposing their bias &/or COI) statement concerning future recommendations
covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/upl…
/1 'Engagement...with academic research groups is needed so that key unanswered Qs arising during the early stages of an epidemic can be rapidly addressed. An example from the COVID-19 epidemic would have been to determine the role of airborne and droplet spread of infection'

/2

Day 1 @covidinquiryuk

@TheBMA

'This statement seeks to highlight four key areas
that the BMA considers should be explored...to identify what went wrong...

/1

covid19.public-inquiry.uk/documents/tran… 1. 'Failure to prepare adequately for a range of pandemic threats'

'One consequence of the predominant focus on an influenza-style pandemic was that the UK's response to Covid-19 failed to properly consider the potential for aerosol transmission of the virus'

#COVIDisAirborne

What have I learned since Jan 2020?

🚨In a crisis, ‘outside track’ expertise can act as a crucial sense check & can be life saving

🚨When ‘inside track’ experts stop listening to pain in the ass [sometimes] dissenting voices from scientists outside the field, disaster awaits

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1640643358358945794

The fact that key opinion leaders at WHO, CDC etc energetically devoted themselves to advertising a never proven & obviously flawed hypothesis of predominant large droplet & fomite transmission, yet as early as Apr 2020 my then 9yo kids knew SARS2 was airborne, is mind boggling

🚨 NEWSFLASH 2

'How Covid-19 is transmitted

🇬🇧 Gov document 24 Jun 2020

Aerosol transmission - fine droplets of liquid containing virus are breathed out, form an aerosol & are carried through the air. You may become infected if you breathe these in'

/1 Anyone interested in accountability for countless harms following still ongoing anti-reality IPC measures?

This June 2020 document has a nice authorship evidence trail of who in 🇬🇧 leadership could & should have done better at communicating the risks of airborne SARS2

/2

From an expert on wordplay, Tom Jefferson, this is good

Use of the word ‘exactly’ allows the suggestion that our knowledge of respiratory viral biology is so lacking in detail that we can’t define & deliver transmission preventative measures

Extending his logic to my job

/1

https://twitter.com/MaryanneDemasi/status/1622215758880313344

No cardiac electrophysiologist knows *exactly* why any individual patient gets AF (a rhythm disturbance typically causing lifestyle limiting symptoms & conferring a >> risk of stroke - risk varies)

Therefore, I should get another job, where there are no such unknowns

In the face of negligent leadership leading to hundreds of preventable deaths EVERY WEEK, I would like to share a story of how, against the odds, a dedicated team of NHS professionals once tried to save a single life 🧵

https://twitter.com/actuarybyday/status/1606591829767356418

It was ~15y ago & I was a registrar on call for cardiology

A consultant at a neighbouring hospital called me to explain that he had a lady whose heart was being compressed by a blood clot in the pericardial space (the sac around the heart)

Her BP was very low, & dropping

🚨Two new FOIA rejections: public interest disclosure

@beisgovuk 'Working safely during COVID19' guidance

10 Jul 2020

Increased risk of AEROSOL TRANSMISSION likely from 'people needing to unduly raise their voices to each other'

Q: Source data please?
A: 'No' @beisgovuk 'Working safely during COVID19' guidance

22 Jun 2021

'Section 6.1 PPE
COVID-19 is a different type of risk to the risks you normally face in a workplace. You do not need to manage this risk by using PPE.’

Q: Source data please?
A: 'No'

@CSA_HSE @BamptonKevin

It’s hard to explain how important it is for me to see this handwriting at Christmas

It’s a miracle really It will be 6yrs ago in March

Heart failure, already on amiodarone for VT suppression, fancy pacemaker-defibrillator (CRT-D) & presenting with slow VT

Over the course of the weekend he slipped into pulmonary oedema (his lungs filled up with fluid)

25th March 2020*

"Hi JVT. It's a bit late; what's up?"

"Steve, we need your help. Bloody medics are kicking off about the guidance change. They're refusing to see patients without FFP3"

"I thought the airborne HCID declassification was meant to sort that?"

[*Unverified date] "Seems not. Twitter is kicking off; probably the source for this. Too many cottoning on the the fact that coughing releases aerosols & these have to be assumed to be infectious"

"Shit. We don't have enough even for ICU right now; what do you need from me?"

"A letter"

"I am glad that in the UK we never mandated masks for young children

Thankfully @UKHSA / PHE and, yes, our politicians, made it more about science/evidence and an appropriate interpretation of the precautionary principle than partisan politics/tribalism"

Let me tell you a story 🚨DfE FOI

My Q: On page 7 of the 9 Dec 2021 updated Schools COVID-19 operational guidance is stated:

'Health advice continues to be that children in primary schools should not be asked to wear face coverings.'

Please send details of this 'health advice'.

Reply: No.

Hot 🥔?

Superb expose of historical documents from @WHO & @CDCgov confirming bad science: THERE NEVER WAS EVIDENCE of droplet transmission

So why wouldn’t WHO IPAC teams listen to the 239 scientists telling them that SARS2 was airborne, July 2020?

https://twitter.com/EvonneTCurran/status/1581271048682868738

Why did WHO governance processes permit @allegranzib, Conly et al to produce yet more anti-reality guidance on transmission?

Why did WHO governance processes finally allow this vital news of inhalation transmission to reside in a remote Q&A section of their site, 30 Apr 2021?

🚨FOIs: I'll be brief

This figure was the trigger, plus text already mentioned in the linked tweet

That spike in HCW infections [Alpha, more transmissible & virulent than wild type SARS2] Dec 2020 pre-vaccine availability, is from workplace exposure

/1

https://twitter.com/DRTomlinsonEP/status/1554088398553600000?s=20&t=Jd8QzchVn38GkREPVJPcLw

We know this because of the dose-proximity response effect noted:

☣️The greater the time in contact with known SARS2 +ve patients, the greater the risk

☣️Infection risk almost 2x greater for those working in ambulance services, ED/in-patient wards

...wearing surgical masks

/2