🧵This thread about the twitter files is an example of false balance: trying to “both sides” COVID & the vaccines. It argues that the practice of misinformation moderation is simply “political bias”. Let’s walk through the examples:
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https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607378386338340867

The examples used in that thread ARE misleading and were rightly flagged by twitter. This journalist is not a scientist. The conclusions in these tweets may appear correct to a layperson, but are in fact either very misleading or just wrong /2

The “died suddenly” shockumentary is ridiculous disinformation. Let me count the ways…./1 A) If the vaccine was supposed to “depopulate the world” as the doc claims, then it’s doing a bad job. Instead it saved millions of lives. COVID would have done a better job just running unchecked. /2

🧵Lots of throwing around of the word “endemic” today. Let’s look at the actual data. While we are still at the mercy of viral mutations to cause big surges (instead of, for example, seasonal flu where we know what to expect & when, we know when to vaccinate, etc.), there’s nothing “endemic” about COVID-19

My son lasted three days in the “mask optional” school year and he tested positive for COVID-19 last night. He wore a KN95 mask. I have asked several times over the past 2.5 years to be included in the schools “COVID task force” and I have repeatedly told that they are “all set” because they only include MDs on the team.

🧵People who are using Justin Beiber’s Ramsay Hunt syndrome as an anti-vaccine talking point don’t understand that this is a vaccine-preventable condition, and this is a great example why vaccines are important /1 Ramsay Hunt syndrome is a form of shingles, which is caused by the varicella virus that causes chickenpox, in people who have been infected, often decades later. In Ramsay Hunt syndrome, shingles occur in the ear and the nerves in the face are paralyzed /2

🧵We (@jessicamalaty & I) tried to raise alarms about this “series” a few weeks ago. We saw Candace spreading vaccine misinformation on her large ig platform, & could not understand why Candace, who is neither a doctor nor a scientist, would be educating parents about vaccines/1

https://twitter.com/realcandaceo/status/1495187206054494215

As epidemiologists, we understand the need for vaccines & chose to debunk her misinformation about the rubella vaccine as one example. We posted a well-researched slide deck on Jan 29 dismantling her conspiratorial claims about the rubella vaccine & congenital rubella syndrome /2

I’m still hearing people referencing Israel’s data to spread disinformation that vaccines don’t work. In a highly vaccinated population you cannot use the NUMBER of vaccinated cases vs unvaccinated. Let’s look at an example of people 60+ in Israel of whom ~90% are vaccinated 1/7 If we look at the raw numbers of severe cases 60+ it looks like the vaccine is not protecting against severe disease in this age group but this is misleading 2/7