There's a new ConWom article out about "How ventilators killed".
As always with these conspiracies its based on nuggets of truths, presumptions, the opinion of non-experts and a scattering of lies.
Here's why:
*busy week-might not finish this one in a single go. The second sentence of the article is false (good start). In fact, most patients ventilated in wave 1 of COVID in the UK survived, as demonstrated by @ICNARC dataset.
The third sentence is a false assertion the rest of the article attempts but fails to evidence.

John Campbell @Johnincarlisle has stepped away from misinterpretting studies and turned his hand to NG163, the NICE Guideline for COVID (now replaced by NG191 on the MagicApp).

As usual, he's wrong.
Here's why:
🧵 He starts by focussing on 6.5 shown in full below alongside the bits he has typed up (no idea why he keeps doing this).
Specifically 6.5 is combined low dose opioids and benzodiazepines for people who are:
-end of life AND
-have mod/sev breathlessness AND
-are distressed.

Next we come to the midazolam procured from Accord.
"Obviously 'The State' needed huge doses of these" says Nawaz.
Yes. To effectively sedate the several thousand ICU patients and provide palliative care to the >40,000 more people than normal who would die in the coming weeks. "...and the boxes arrive...and what did you notice about the labelling?".
It sounds as if Wilkie has inspected a box of the midazolam procured from France.
"The first thing to note is it's all written in French"
Fair point.

Up a notch again.
"What you are saying is that 'The State' has engaged in State sanctioned involuntary euthanasia"
Despite the fact that what Wilkie has presented to date does not evidence this AT ALL.
All it seems to evidence is his own deficiency as a "medical researcher" "Why?" is Nawaz's next question and Wilkie turns back to the 2011 Govt paper.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Basically, Wilkie (reminiscent of Patrick Pullicino) can't grasp the ethics of palliative care and suddenly, all the previous makes much more sense (unless you bought any of it)

Wilkie goes on to compare the 83% figure, which IS NOT a mortality rate, amongst people referred to a PALLIATIVE CARE TEAM with the ISARIC paper.
bmj.com/content/369/bm…
Again he quotes ISARIC's 26% mottality amongst hospital admissions.
The two are obviously not comparable. And we come to an incredibly ridiculous take, even given what has gone before.
"...we come to the crucial document, a 99 page document...that tells us a set number due to die on this protocol...and that number was 549,000 people".
The paper he refers to:
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Still Wilkie, now asking why you would give a drug that can cause respiratory depression to somebody with a respiratory disease, a common question I recieve on Twitter.
The answer, unsurprisingly, is when its indicated and when the benefits outweigh the risks. The two major indications during COVID were ICU sedation and palliative care.
For ICU sedation the risk is near obsolete as respiratory depression is of little concern (often some benefit) when you are on mechanical ventilation.

A summary (clocking in at over 10 minutes) re-treads worn ground with Deevoy, Yeadon and Sam White.
Then we get to Wilkie who we last saw in Episode 6 willfully conflating bolus and 24 hour infusion dosing guidance to claim patients were being given 10x the recommended dose. Maajid introduces Wilkie as having "dug up" new data.
Then things really go downhill.
The "new data" is an observational study from June 2020 by a team at Salford.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Next Nawaz turns his attention to DNRs.
My opinion, for what its worth, is that blanket DNRs are/were absolutely ethically wrong, though I understand the context and appreciate the situation that led to those decisions. Some important background. Resuscitation is rarely successful (and that's when attempted).
bmj.com/company/newsro…
Its even lower for PEA arrest which would ve the expected rythm for somebody dying due to low oxygen levels from COVID.
sjtrem.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

Of course, what Dr Luke Evans is discussing is palliative care.
Nawaz describes this:
-DNR, because resuscitation is futile if you have been deemed to be dying from your illness.
-Morphine and midazolam (used to keep patients more comfortable during end of life care for decades). "A drug that suppresses the respiratory system"
Yes. Importantly said suppression is modest in the doses and preferred route (subcutaneous) during palliative care.
Context. When dying from COVID you are dying due to a lack of oxygen. You breathe very quickly, using A LOT...

First up, 3 minutes of wittering about Luke Evans' use of the term "a good death" in a Select Committee Hearing in March 2020. Icke's film also pays a LOT of attention to this.
Its interesting for its simplicity and utter implausability but its a common tactic of conspiracists. IMO, for what its worth, Dr Evans' choice of language is poor.
There is no such thing as a good death. Some are better than others. I've no idea how Palliative Care Specialists do their job, but I'm very glad they do.

Urgh @MaajidNawaz has been at it again. Another 90 minute smooth looking rant of "if's", "could's" and "allegations" (baseless ones he keeps giving a platform to).
I've got better things to do but-a thread (this might take a while). Here's my take on his first episode dedicated to Midazolam. Noteable is whilst giving a platform to and supporting the same voices (Deevoy, Wilkie) as the Ickes, Nawaz is quite deliberately using "If" a lot. Its as if he doesnt actually believe it himself.

https://twitter.com/JamesLynchGTC/status/1531606107533230081?t=h0xMkarcL6juovH5LTVh-g&s=19

@MaajidNawaz has dedicated an entire episode of his @TheRadicalShow to the vile accusations about midazolam.

TL:DR this video sums it up quite well:

https://twitter.com/TheRadicalShow/status/1530978644985880584?t=Bri33oB5J_Qps1kwaHTAzw&s=19

"If" is doing A LOT of heavy lifting. This isn't journalism. It start's with the usual "context" of the Exposé articles on the same subject, misinformation to downplay the pandemic.
Maajid summarises "There is no doubt that our hospitals were not at risk".
This is demonstrably false. ICUs WERE beyond safe staffing and existing capacity.

So...a few days ago I naively mentioned the initials of Clare Wills Harrison (you might remember her from Simon Dolan's KBF) in response to one of the anonymous accounts spreading disinformation about midazolam.
Somebody kindly alerted me to a response on Telegram... 🧵 I thought I'd respond to some of her questions (not on Telegram though, Im sure somebody will pass it on).

I work on ICU. So predominantly I use midazolam as a sedative. Its typically a third line agent after a hypnotic (almost always propofol) and an opiate.