1/18 This piece is why journalists w/o vaccine reporting experience shouldn’t do hot takes. Despite good intentions, its inept & irresponsible execution make it dangerous. Claiming (falsely) that public health experts are being dishonest w public isn’t how you promote a vaccine.
2/18 The author does morning newsletters for @nytimes & reviewing his work shows he hasn't reported much on vaccines or hesitancy—and it blatantly shows. He begins in the worst possible way: discussing guidance on masks. Here’s why that is such a dangerous start to his article.
3/18 A) Masks are still a very divisive article, esp politically. That’s not ok, but that makes comparing vaccine messaging to mask messaging stupidly dangerous right off. B) He’s wrong: there was more to early mask guidance than “not trusting the public.”
I. Am. Livid. By the time I finish this tweet story abt my beloved alma mater @utaustin, you may be too. I am normally a proud Longhorn (‘00, ‘12), Texas Scholar & @texasexes lifetime member. But tonight I am disgusted, appalled & ashamed. This event was held yesterday. 1/n
This isn’t just a random club having a meal. The Forty Acres Scholars are the cream of the crop, the best of the best. The program grew out of Texas Scholars, the most prestigious @TexasExes scholarship at @UTAustin when I attended. Texas Scholars go on to great things. 2/n
Texas Scholars go on to be teachers, ace lawyers, entrepreneurs, NFL coaches, cancer researchers, nonprofit founders—and those are just some of my friends from when we were in Texas Scholars together. @TexasExes Forty Acres Scholars grew from that program. 3/n
@SaskiaPopescu@jeromeusa@ShellyMBoulder It’s perfectly w/in epidemiologists’ lanes to say clinical trial evidence is needed before we can say HEPA filters actually reduce transmission/cases. No one’s questioning whether they improve indoor air quality. The ? is whether they prevent COVID cases. Can’t say w/o trials.
@SaskiaPopescu@jeromeusa@ShellyMBoulder Engineers’ lane is about what diff filtration systems do/don’t do wrt affecting particles in the air. Epidemiologists’ lane is about whether those changes to air particles actually results in any significant change to transmission of the actual disease. You need trials to know.
@SaskiaPopescu@jeromeusa@ShellyMBoulder Sure, would be great to replace all indoor systems (schools, offices, etc) w HEPA filters to improve overall indoor air quality, independent of Covid. But for places deciding on filtration SPECIFIC to Covid, it’s intellectually dishonest to say it’ll reduce cases until it’s shown
