2/ @jasonfurman also now concedes just how weak the ex-post case is for even the initial lockdowns:
"Initially it was reasonable & maybe true to think no tradeoff between protecting lives & economy".
We go from consensus that didn't allow debate to "maybe true" ? cc @greg_ip
Aug 12, 2021 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Alberta ends contact tracing, routine testing, and mandatory isolation.
Huge wins for public health, as are the rationales:
- Risks of focusing on just one disease are too great
- Test-and-trace futile for stopping Covid
- Class quarantines disrupt learning and development
🧵
2/ Recap: Alberta
- ended almost all contact tracing
- ended mandatory isolation of contacts
- no longer recommends asym. testing
- will end mandatory case isolation this month
- and limit testing to those with severe illness
Predictably there was a lot of (unjustified) outcry
Aug 6, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
How Ontario can increase public's INCENTIVE to vaccinate:
1. Admit seasonality and that Covid will be here for decades (even with >90% vacc) 2. Admit testing/lockdowns/masks do not "stop virus in its tracks", contrary to past claims 3. Admit devastating harms of past closures
This would help public understand that there will be future Covid waves and that testing/lockdowns/masks will not protect them from that spread.
Seems far superior to vaccine passports; hard part is admitting the 17-months-long misguided hubris about testing/lockdowns/masks.
Apr 22, 2021 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
1/ No doubt OST did a 180. Note also this:
"What was really very important in each jurisdiction ... was to communicate the seriousness of this, so that people did stay at home. And there’s different ways to do that."
Exaggerating the threat to young people sure is one way.
'Social distancing and masks hinder learning while harming children emotionally, socially, and physically, all for no purpose other than providing false comfort to adults who ought to know better. The mask mandates are especially cruel to young children.'
city-journal.org/masking-childr…
'The pandemic has turned American adults, or at least the ones who make the rules, into selfish neurotics who have been punishing innocent children for over a year—and still can’t restrain themselves.'
Apr 20, 2021 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
1/ I welcome the apparent change of heart by the Ontario Science Table. Zero Covid fantasies are now permanently off the table. This allows Ontario to finally focus the debate on more reasonable goals and plans.
Thread
2/ One good aspect of the new Ontario Science Table plan is that there is no mention of test and trace (aside from a side remark in the context of paid sick leave). OST seems to understand its futility now. This bodes well for the future.
Apr 2, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
1/ Our coronavirus response is beset by populism and fundamentalism. There is a fervent belief in our means to control the virus and attempts to assess the validity of these beliefs are shunned.
2/ Test-and-trace was the religion last year. It was supposed to 'stop the virus in its tracks', and thus we didn't protect the vulnerable adequately. Children, youth, vulnerable, and the economy paid a heavy price for this illusion and the switch to a lockdown-based 'strategy'.
