BC SOCIETY
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

1/ One year of destroyed economies, social isolation & deep social splits calls for an anniversary ⬇️thread ⬇️ to celebrate the RT-qPCR manuscript by Christian Drosten (@c_drosten) & Victor Corman (@vmcorman), submitted on 21st Jan 2020 to @Eurosurveillanc. #UnbiasedScience

 2/ Before this very publication, virologists were neither treated like superstars, nor were they considered icons or half-gods. In 2009, Drosten almost succeeded in installing the false premise virology could supersede holistic medical sciences as discussed in this thread.
3/ Drosten is a virologist. He neither has any background in epidemiology, nor has he ever worked in the civil service. He also doesn’t have a background in public health. Yet he and his colleagues affect our daily lives to the level of whom to meet up or how to flush the toilet.
4/ Before January 2020, Drosten and Corman were common virologists at Charité Berlin, whenever they were not involved in economic implications (https://t.co/UTDwG8U7Du). Other than that, they looked at coronaviruses in dromedary calves in the Middle East or Africa. 😍 #cute
5/ Finally in Jan 2020, the published paper laid the theoretical grounds for the current pandemic, the RT-qPCR mass testing-religion, for which he was awarded his second German Federal Cross of Merit (he received the first one in 2005 for developing the SARS-CoV PCR test).
6/ The manuscript was rushed through every approving authority at @Eurosurveillanc. Prior to the submission, it was already sent to @WHO with the prospect of being approved in any case. Big-data analyst @waukema visualised this phenomenon at @tableaupublic https://t.co/iddgwmAQOZ
7/ Being part of the editorial board at @Eurosurveillanc has been advantageous for @c_drosten & @c_reusken to reach the one-day-peer-review ‘milestone’, even though they might have been excluded from the process. So far, providing the process protocol is being refused.
8/ I addressed this peer review process issue in a dedicated thread (https://t.co/Fg81ooah0z), which led to controversial discussions & accumulated in an interview by @naomirwolf, in which I further explain the pitfalls for science in this particular case. https://t.co/M9u4bAFwTF
9/ It is also remarkable that Drosten has not been into sophisticated Twitter campaigning since 2016. His first substantial tweet since his rediscovery of Twitter (with 770 followers) was on Jan 23 2020, when he promoted his one-day-wonder publication. Coincidence or PR-campaign?
10/ On 9 Jan 2020 Drosten’s #overconfidence reached a new high by complaining that the correspondence to @NEJM did not cite his freshly published paper. Instead, the authors chose to refer to his protocol-design pre-release on @WHO.int (13th Jan 2020). https://t.co/JY65DxkiI3
11/ Drosten aimed for an RT-qPCR protocol design, which could serve as a “robust diagnostic methodology”. However, the protocol-design and its factual scientific precision somewhat resemble Russian roulette (concerning false positives; see below). https://t.co/7Mlr4m4CZ8
12/ Back in 2009, Drosten already followed a similar approach when he created a PCR test for the swine flu (H1N1). Regarding the question of why it is crucial to do so much testing if the strain is mild, he answered: “Because we remember the 1918 outbreak.”https://t.co/ZuDuK4lNfk
13/ As mentioned in the introduction tweets, PCR testing (in 2009) already caused a pseudo-epidemic that was stopped by @wodarg and 13 other European parliamentarians as reported by the following @nature-article: https://t.co/049KPTd4VA
14/ The @nature-paper also states that “it is disturbing that a rogue politician [...] can create such mischief for the @WHO and drug industry, despite virtually no evidence of wrongdoing. @wodarg was the prime mover behind the fake pandemic outcry.“ https://t.co/pebQKun86r
15/ Despite his track-record and great merit, @wodarg is heavily discredited by German media and fact-checking blogs such as @Volksverpetzer (i.e. the German low-tier version of @snopes). https://t.co/i0dEIi0zNB
16/ In 2014, @c_drosten gave a striking interview for the German business magazine @wiwo. His statements back then are in contradiction with comments he made in 2020. Let’s take a closer look at what he said in this particular interview. https://t.co/QIdnTw4ccE
17/ The statement below addresses the PCR testing method. He explained that the technique is hypersensitive and is not suitable for pathogen testing. He said that if a pathogen “slips along” the nasal mucosa of a nurse, she’d consequently be considered a “(false) case”.
18/ He continued to remark that, by applying this PCR method, people who are actually very healthy or only have mild symptoms became part of the officially reported statistics. In the case of MERS infections in Saudi Arabia, he ironically also blamed the media for fear-mongering.
19/ In the following section, @c_drosten criticised that the Saudi authorities did not solely focus on the “real cases”. He heavily questioned whether hospital staff with “no or only mild symptoms” could potentially carry the virus or even transmit it to other people.
20/ He further clarified that “‘our body is constantly being attacked by viruses and bacteria and that they are usually fending off in the mucous membrane, e.g. nose, throat. The immune defence only creates antibodies against pathogens that really affect our body.”
21/ It is true, as #Drosten points out that someone was/is truly infected if there are antibodies. He states that ‘such an antibody test would facilitate distinguishing between cases of scientific interest and cases of medical relevance.’ Keep this in mind!!
22/ The strange thing about his statements is that he and the @WHO are currently claiming precisely the opposite concerning #COVID-19. Why this sudden change of mind? Maybe we should go back in time to get to the bottom of this matter.
23/ In May 2019, Drosten took part at a conference of the ruling German party @cducsubt on ‘strengthening global health’. The guest list is conspicuous, taking the 2020 events into account.
24/ In my opinion, it is quite remarkable to invite a virologist (with 700 followers on Twitter) who was prevented from causing a “fake pandemic” (sic! @nature) to such an exquisite and influential group.
25/ To be fair, we do not know why he was invited and what actually happened behind closed doors. What we know is that @c_drosten fueled the pandemic several months later by writing that particular paper and doing exactly what he heavily criticised in his 2014 @wiwo-interview.
26/ Summed up:

@c_drosten in 2014: no asymptomatic testing, people with mild symptoms are most likely no spreaders, PCR tests deceptive, use antibody tests if necessary, do not add PCR-positives to the reported statistics.

@c_drosten in 2020: https://t.co/SYncRdUXII
27/ What happens when antigen tests are used instead of PCR tests can be seen in the case of #Austria, where antigen mass tests are performed since January 11th 2021 (https://t.co/nwVJXaOt2P). It’s definitely time to stop this PCR-madness.
28/ It is also worth mentioning that #COVID was not characterised as a #pandemic until March 11th, almost two months after the Corman-Drosten paper passed peer-review in a record-breaking time.
29/ The person who declared #COVID a pandemic is @DrTedros, the Ethiopian director of the @WHO who is accused of genocidal crimes.
https://t.co/xhrlxBRtNw
30/ The measures above leads to a casedemic as shown in the case of Austria and as explained by @robinmonotti.
https://t.co/zqYDVfheMa
31/ All of us must remain vigilant, to ensure that our fundamental rights continue to be guaranteed. These rights cover #freedom of assembly, #privacy, #data protection, physical #integrity, freedom of self-determination etc.
32/ I also consider scientific integrity in danger. Political pressure and pressure from media prevent objective debates & critiques on the measures. Broadcasting talkshows intentionally omit opinion diversity (i.e. medial pluralism), while shaping opinions and framing positions.
33/ The currently observed conformity between politics and media excludes critics from participation in the discourse, as shown in an article written by @saschalobo from Aug 2020: critics are demonised and marked as anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists.
https://t.co/13AthaWw6t
34/ Another recent example is the following article of the Dutch magazine @FTM_nl on PCR testing, where facts were omitted, critics were discredited, and, to cap it all, the article refers to the biased fact-checker and convicted chess cheater @pjvanerp.
https://t.co/yQJDVDBlDb
35/ For those who are interested in how unethical journalistic practices have been applied here, should take their time to read the following thread by @hommel_b. It is in Dutch, but luckily Twitter offers the “Translate Tweet” feature. https://t.co/FhmlGZNYYe
36/ It's the duty of the media to report about the current events objectively. The press codex specifies the need for critical journalistic research. It's crucial for a society that journalists examine a subject from several angles instead of acting like the Ministry of Truth.
37/ And what does our flagship virologist @c_drosten think about the principles of balanced media coverage? Exactly - absolutely nothing! 😶 He even demands a vigorous information campaign to propagate #zerocovid. https://t.co/CO9EKaKYcD

More from Dr. Simon ツ

Dr. Simon \u30c4
Dr. Simon ツ
@goddeketal
1/: Scientific integrity is a valuable commodity. What happens when external funders take influence on both scientific™ findings and media coverage can be seen in the current global crisis. It is time to return to the fundamental principles of science: ⬇️A thread⬇️


2/: In this thread, I will roughly explain why #empiricism and #repeatability are important factors for science and why model approaches should be interpreted with caution (and that is what I am saying as a modeller).

3/: I am aware that the principle of science is far more profound than explained in this thread, but this thread is written for laymen on @twitter and not for the lecture room. Also, within the scientific community, there is no clear consensus about this topic either.

4/: In recent years, I have been working on complex food production systems that increase food production and show high nutrient and water use efficiencies. I have thus been involved in plant growth experiments and holistic system modelling activities (@MATLAB, @AnyLogicCo).


5/: The plant growth experiments included environmental factors, #metagenomics (i.e. microbial genome sequencing), flow regulations etc. and the modelling covered the prediction on non-existing systems based on experimental and literature data.
CATEGORY C19
Dr. Simon \u30c4
Dr. Simon ツ
@goddeketal
1/: The Nuremberg Code is a set of research ethics principles for human experimentation created as a result of the Nuremberg trials at the end of the Second World War. In light of the current events, they are more actual than ever before. ⬇️an important thread⬇️


2/: These so-called ‘Doctors’ Trial’ focused on physicians who conducted #inhumane and #unethical human experiments in German concentration camps, in addition to those who were involved in over 3,500,000 sterilizations of German citizens. (the picture shows doctors/criminals)


3/: Ten points of the code were given in the section of the verdict entitled "Permissible Medical Experiments". They can be found in detail on the following website:

4/: Point #1 means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, or deceit.


5/: Using an insufficiently-tested vaccine on humans is unethical. However, as long as people voluntarily consent to receive the vaccine, being informed about all risks, everything is OK. Doing this with force, however, is against the Nuremberg Code.
CATEGORY C19
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Dr. Simon \u30c4
Dr. Simon ツ
@goddeketal
1/: The inventor of the corona PCR-Test @c_drosten is one of the #protagonists of the current crisis. He is known for involving himself in contradictions. In 2014, he gave a legendary #interview to @wiwo (https://t.co/jzTRh5Suhc) that I will address in this ⬇️short thread⬇️.


2/: The interview is significant because @c_drosten made totally sane statements back then that follow the principle of common sense. Considering his involvement in the "genesis of the current pandemic", his assertions appear in an entirely different


3/: In 2014, for instance, washing the hands was sufficient against being infected by coronaviruses. Several years he demands measures that destroy national economies and social life worldwide.


4/: Young @c_drosten also severely criticized the fact that Saudi Arabia used the PCR method to detect potential infections. From his point of view, that specific method could lead to many irrelevant cases. Nowadays, his view shifted his opinion towards 'collective punishment'.


5/: Whereas he demands "testing, testing, testing" nowadays and spreads panic and fear via (social) media, he heavily condemned that behaviour of Saudi media in 2014. On top of that, he expressed his concern that medial panic could increase the number of lab tests significantly.
CATEGORY C19
Dr. Simon \u30c4
Dr. Simon ツ
@goddeketal
1/ Happy to announce that we have submitted our #paper ‘Bayes Lines Tool (BLT) - A SQL-script for analyzing diagnostic test results with an application to SARS-CoV-2-testing’.

In this ⬇️thread⬇️, I will explain why our tool is that powerful for decision makers. #UnbiasedScience


2/ In the meantime, the submitted paper is available on the preprint platform @zenodo_org. Factual criticism is highly desired and encouraged. The publication itself presents a seminal Bayesian calculator, the Bayes Lines Tool (BLT). (Petje af, @waukema!)

3/ The Bayes Line Tool (available on https://t.co/jIomSIxOd9) is able to back-solve disease #prevalence, test #sensitivity, test #specificity, and therefore, true positive, false positive, true negative and false negative numbers from official governmental test outcome reports.

4/ This is done by creating confusion matrices with four variables. Namely: TP, FP, TN, FN. In order to calculate the matrices, we need prevalence, specificity, and sensitivity as well as the number of people that got tested (within a given period) and the number of positives.


5/ The number of positives and the number of tests are given by the government. Prevalence, specificity, and sensitivity are unknown. So we assume any combination of them ranging from 0-99%. These three combinations can amount up to #millions of #combinations.
TECH
Dr. Simon \u30c4
Dr. Simon ツ
@goddeketal
1/: Avicenna was a Persian scientist, who lived 1000 years ago. He put two lambs in separate cages, which had the same health conditions. But only one lamb could see a wolf that was put in a third cage. The observations were astounding. (h/t @farmer_student) ⬇️a thread⬇️


2/: Both lambs were provided with the same feed. Also, the weight was exactly the same when the experiment started. Several months later, the lamb with sight on the wolf became cranky, restless, weak, and showed a significant weight loss and signs of poor development.

3/: The lamb that was under chronic stress as it was placed in a situation of constant apparent danger died eventually. 🐑🪦 In fact, the wolf did not pose a danger at all, but this was beyond the lamb's perception.

4/: This experiment showed that increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol have a bad impact on the metabolism of mammals. And 1000 years after this experiment, we are facing a similar situation again but with the difference that we are aware of the impact of stress.

5/: Currently, we are overwhelmed with medial and governmental propaganda with respect to a common cold virus (that might hypothetically be more lethal though) that doesn't do harm to the majority of the people. Extreme global measures are taken.
CATEGORY C19

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In the 90s I was a host on a talk radio station in LA, the same that aired Rush. I was president of LA NOW, & the liberal wkend host when he visited the station. He was so vilified by my then-crowd, I expected a monster. Instead, I met a remarkable, kind and encouraging man... 1/

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Rush was not a monster, he wasn’t evil, he did not mean people harm, he wasn’t a bigot, or any of the other smears lobbed against him by my leftist associates. I liked him very much, and while we disagreed on many things (then) he was nothing has he had been painted 4/

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Hi @officestudents @EHRC @EHRCChair @KishwerFalkner @RJHilsenrath @trussliz @GEOgovuk

The Equality and Diversity section of your job application has 'gender' in what appears to be a list of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

However...

1/15


However, 'gender' is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and is not defined in the Act.

https://t.co/qisFhCiV1u

Sex is the protected characteristic under the Act, but that is not on your list.

2/15


You then ask for the 'gender' of the applicant with options:

Male
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3/15


Again, 'gender' is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and is not defined in the Act.

https://t.co/qisFhCiV1u

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Sex is the protected characteristic and the only two possible options for sex are 'Female' and 'Male' as defined in the Act and consistent with biology, but you don't ask for that.

https://t.co/CEJ0gkr6nF

'Gender' is not a synonym for sex.

5/15
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