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Kelley K Profile picture
Kelley K
@KelleyKga
Fact checking public health and the media | "Check Your Work" Substack
2 subscribers
Jun 3 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Fauci today: "The first iteration of vaccines did have an effect, not 100%, not a high effect, they did prevent infection, and subsequently, obviously, transmission. However, it's important to point out something that we did not know early on that became evident as the months went by, is that the durability of protection against infection, and hence, transmission was relatively limited."

Oh really? Let's check what scientists actually knew about the first iteration of vaccines...🧵

In Dec. 2020, the FDA said there wasn't evidence it prevents transmission and no data about how long protection would last.

In Feb. 2020, the CDC said "protection may wear off after 3 months." Image
Mar 14 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Back in January, I complimented the CDC on some reassuring messaging about Covid, that it turns out was the work of @dr_kkjetelina and a team she's working with at CDC. I took the opportunity to reach out to Dr. Jetelina to see if she'd be open to talking with me. 🧵 I'd admittedly been critical of Dr. Jetelina during Covid, but I appreciated that she was trying to improve communication and rebuild trust, and I wanted to share my perspective as someone who had lost trust in public health. We ended up having a very interesting Zoom call!
Feb 20 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Laurie Garrett is most certainly NOT "the country's leading public health journalist." 🤦‍♀️
Feb 14 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Apoorva is out with a terrible take in the NYT on the new proposed CDC isolation guidance. It's a very one-sided piece that doesn't include a single expert who supports dropping isolation. She can't stand the idea that we haven't reorganized society around Covid precautions. 1/4 Image And I'm disappointed to see @JenniferNuzzo acting like Covid is still very different from other respiratory infections. She suggested the CDC could "at least" recommend N95s in lieu of isolation. (People aren't going to do that, and there's no good evidence it would help.) 2/4
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Nov 22, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Some people still think that Covid is the third or fourth leading cause of death in the US, but that hasn't been true for a while. I thought people could use some more good news as we head into the Thanksgiving weekend! checkyourwork.kelleykga.com/p/leading-caus… Below are the leading causes of death in the US for rolling 12-month periods since Dec. 2020. (*For the period ending September 2023, rankings for Accidents was adjusted up based on the CDC’s 6-month lag in reporting external causes of death.) Image
Oct 5, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Apparently the CDC, under new Director Mandy Cohen, has decided that the problem with their guidance is that it's too *precise* and not simple enough! AYFKM?!? They can't even handle nuance that elderly cancer patients are more at risk from Covid than healthy teen boys! (1/6)
In their infinite wisdom, they decided to lean further into emotional appeals about **protecting grandma** to "counterbalance...concerns around fear mongering." DO THESE LUNATICS EVEN HEAR THEMSELVES?!? (2/6) Image
Sep 14, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Gavin Yamey was happy to dunk on this random account for being a Covid minimizer, but somehow left out that the number cited is a huge overstatement of pediatric Covid deaths in 2020 (it's actually ~200). Is he ok letting people believe that Covid was that deadly to kids? Of course, as a well-known scientist at a respected institution, you'd expect him to delete his tweet sharing incorrect death counts and update his followers once he's presented with accurate data from CDC, right?
Sep 11, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Infuriating, and more proof that @DrEricDing intentionally lies about Covid data to stoke fear. He got a @CommunityNotes for the tweet below, then deleted his tweet and reposted it the next day with the same erroneous "hospitalization rate".

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Image Saying that "~15% needing hospitalization" grossly misrepresents the hospitalization data in England for BA.2.86. As @kallmemeg explains, the UK report explicitly warned against doing this, because most sequencing is done in hospitals. Image
Jun 21, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I dug into the paper the recent myocarditis study shared by Celine Gounder and wrote up a response. It has some serious problems.
checkyourwork.kelleykga.com/p/more-bad-sci… Comparing the Covid vaccine to the smallpox vaccine is very misleading, but this is the part that really floored me. Their comparison to "non-smallpox vaccines" INCLUDES SMALLPOX.

Jun 15, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Several people have sent me this tweet or tagged me in the replies. Yes, this is the same study I've written about extensively, which found Covid was the 8th leading cause of death for ages 0-19 during the peak of the pandemic for children/teens. checkyourwork.kelleykga.com/p/revisiting-c… 2/ Dr. Iannattone uses a different finding from the study - that Covid surpassed influenza/pneumonia as the leading cause of death by *infectious disease* for ages 0-19 years old *during a period that included the Delta and Omicron waves*. That statistic is no longer true...
Jun 3, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Jay is absolutely right. This paper is utter garbage and of course is being promoted by all the worst anti-school Covidians on Twitter. There are a ton of assumptions and "inferences" made by the authors, and a ton of confounders ignored. The fact that it's being uncritically amplified by so many supposed experts just because it matches their preconceived notion that kids are gross viral spreaders and schools are dangerous hot beds of Covid is pathetic, but entirely unsurprising.
Mar 23, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Three years ago when I started tracking Covid data in Georgia, I never imagined I'd end up co-authoring a paper on basic mathematical errors the CDC made during the pandemic. Most of the errors exaggerate the risk to children. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… This paper identifies 25 errors the CDC made - all factual numerical errors. The CDC's use of the Data Tracker demographics page to consistently overstate pediatric deaths was the source of several errors. kelleyk.substack.com/p/the-cdcs-fla…
Mar 15, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
In the wake of debate about the Cochrane review and a new New York Times op-ed from Zeynep Tufecki claiming "the science is clear that masks work," many are just learning about her outsized influence on mask recommendations early in the pandemic. kelleyk.substack.com/p/where-us-mas… A major part of Zeynep's advocacy was not just that cloth masks were an effective mitigation strategy, but she also vehemently disputed any discussion of potential mask harms. kelleyk.substack.com/p/where-us-mas…
Feb 26, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I know that @CDCgov lies a lot about pediatric Covid risks (esp in ACIP meetings), but when they state so clearly "6 months - 17 years," I expect them to actually subtract the 305 deaths *under 6 months* from total pediatric deaths. This slide should say 1184, not 1489. CDC should also label the slide as "Covid-associated Deaths" -- deaths where Covid is anywhere on the death certificate. UCoD by age comes from CDC WONDER, so the time period and <1 age brackets are a bit different, but ~30% of pediatric Covid deaths are NOT underlying CoD.
Feb 9, 2023 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
Walensky repeated the lie that Covid has lead to 2000 pediatric deaths in the US?!? That's from their flawed Data Tracker demographics page, and is NOT accurate. @CDCDirector needs to be held accountable for providing this false information. @DanCrenshawTX kelleyk.substack.com/p/the-cdcs-fla… @CDCDirector @DanCrenshawTX Also, at the ACIP meeting when they discussed the Vaccines for Children program, the CDC explicitly stated that the vote on the VFC program was completely separate and distinct from the schedule. So she's admitting they lied to the ACIP advisors and to the American public then?
Jan 30, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Three more months to “begin the process of a smooth operational wind-down of the flexibilities enabled by the COVID-19 emergency declarations.” 🙄
And I'm wondering if this will include lifting the ban on unvaccinated travelers to the US?!? Here's some good information about what each of the various declarations do. It sounds like the two I highlighted are what Biden will be ending. The link has additional tables with a lot more specifics about which declarations affect which things. kff.org/coronavirus-co…
Jan 29, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
1/ Many issues with this study that have been addressed by a lot of others, but I looked into their claim that their finding of 36% is in line with estimates of 10-80% from other studies. The meta-analysis they referenced that found 80% had Long Covid is seriously flawed. 2/ The cited study included a meta-analysis of 7 studies identifying prevalence of Long Covid. The highest one used **the wrong number** from that study. 94% had symptoms when they tested positive. 35% had symptoms 2-3 weeks later. Very different. Image
Jan 18, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Disappointed to see @nirav_mainecdc appointed to a leadership role at CDC. His Twitter bio says he "may call out Tweets that are not factual" but when I repeatedly called out his tweets saying Covid was a top 5 cause of death for children, I was ignored. Dr. Shah is also a voting member of the ACIP, and was a member last fall when the committee voted unanimously to put the Covid vaccine *and bivalent booster* on the pediatric immunization schedule.
For more on that decision: kelleyk.substack.com/p/acip-immuniz…
Jan 18, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Leana Wen talking about incidental Covid hospitalization has gotten a lot of attention, and it seems like there are still people who don't believe that we would list a trauma victim as a Covid hospitalization. We absolutely do. By design, CDC tracks hospitalizations *WITH* Covid. This is the guidance from HHS/CDC on how to report. Notice it says "with confirmed Covid-19" and not "primary diagnosis" or "reason for admission." One positive test, and you could be a Covid hospitalization for 2 weeks or the duration of your stay! hhs.gov/sites/default/…
Dec 11, 2022 • 7 tweets • 7 min read
It's been almost a week since I emailed @FortuneMagazine and the reporter @paidion asking for the source of their claim that **80%** of Covid survivors may have Long Covid, and I still haven't gotten any response. 🧐 @FortuneMagazine @paidion 2/ I never heard back from @FortuneMagazine or @paidion about their claim of 80% of Covid survivors having Long Covid, but they *did* update the article. It now says 10-80% and links to another Fortune article written by @ErinMPrater as a source. fortune.com/2022/12/05/lon… Image
Nov 16, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
1/ This @CNN article by Deidre McPhillips (@Deedrah) reported on the outrageous model estimating 51K pediatric hospitalizations could be prevented by aggressively boosting children. The model is implausible, but the article has a factual error too... cnn.com/2022/11/15/hea… 2/ This article also contains factually incorrect information that was based on erroneous pediatric hospital data from HHS/CDC that has since been corrected. There were actually ~1050 pediatric hospitalizations *with* Covid last week (including incidental positives), not 2400+.