I remember when the monkey pox scare arose. It was obvious to me as a retired physician that this was a far different pathogen compared to SARS-CoV2. It was a sexually transmitted disease. It was fascinating to see politicians and certain healthcare care establishment types fan the flames of fear. They have NOT been held accountable and the GOP should bring some of the prominent scaremongers back into the public eye. We have so many lessons from the pandemic to learn.
For those who defended their erroneous tweets with noble intention they are the king who had not discovered that he had no clothes. The downfall of public health is a self-inflicted wound.
There appears to be a significant disparity in the ability of MD/PhDs to perform a critical appraisal of randomized controlled trials, with some demonstrating proficiency in this regard while others do not.
It continues to amaze me how people think that just because someone has a couple letters before or after their name, they must know what they're doing. Having an MD or PHD doesn't mean you can't make bad decisions.
MDs went from heroes to zeros. It could get much worse if countries (including 🇺🇸) give the WHO a supranational authority during pandemics. This power would likely be extended and abused by unelected bureaucrats
Regarding WHO and CDC clinical expertise, always ask yourself, how many clinical months do those MDs do every year and in what field. I had to interact with MDs of both, during my years. People would laugh/cry if they knew more just by asking questions
Thanks very much for the recognition about my tweets. I was so enraged that these people were leveraging their doctorates to such ill effect. These doctors clearly didn't know what they were talking about, clearly didn't do the homework by reading up on the epidemiology, and clearly had a problem with expressing any concern for the very real suffering that gay men were enduring last summer. Instead, they wanted to spread harmful fear and hysteria that kids were all going to get the virus at daycare. I can't tell you how many messages I got from parents who had been needlessly frightened, wondering if they could safely send their kid back to school in the fall. It is tragic but unsurprising to learn that despite tweeting with no basis in actual science, these scientists won the misinformation war.
I'm especially proud of the work I did on Twitter (all my reporting on mpox is here: http://www.benryan.net/mpox.html), because at the peak of the misinformation wave, I was very ill with side effects from the chemo I was undergoing for cancer at the time (I was cured). The chemo made me pretty manic, so I found that my brain rhythms synced nicely with the frenetic energy of Twitter. As burdened as I was medically, I found that fighting this fight took me away from my own woes.
We went from “scary” (as our regional newspaper called it) COVID-19, to Long COVID, to Monkeypox, to the Tripledemic. Look under your beds for monsters, kids! I don’t know if reason finally returned, or if the public was just too exhausted after being scared for two and a half years, but very few respond to that tactic any more.
Interesting study. Thank you for quantifying this. Would be interesting to extend this to official news outlets (WSJ, NYTimes, WashPost, etc.) and announcements by government officials.
I think it helps to separate drugs that cure disease (anti-cancer drugs and antibiotics, for instance), drugs that suppress symptoms (antidepressants and analgesics), and drugs that (in the main) prevent the apparently well from becoming ill (statins and oral antidiabetics).
Pharma does a relatively good job with the first group, makes some money but can face legal problems with the second group ( i.e., the Sackler family), and have a field day in the third group and make huge profits. In the main, people take this last class to extend their lives, but often studies fail to show improvements in all-cause mortality. In this sense, the marketing can mislead. (Statins and vaccines). Better regulation could go a long way to improve things.
Many believe you are best off trying to lead a healthier life rather than filling your bathroom cabinet with tablet containers.
Via Veritas Vita - the way the truth and the life. Glasgow University’s motto. Alumnus perchance?
I remember when the monkey pox scare arose. It was obvious to me as a retired physician that this was a far different pathogen compared to SARS-CoV2. It was a sexually transmitted disease. It was fascinating to see politicians and certain healthcare care establishment types fan the flames of fear. They have NOT been held accountable and the GOP should bring some of the prominent scaremongers back into the public eye. We have so many lessons from the pandemic to learn.
For those who defended their erroneous tweets with noble intention they are the king who had not discovered that he had no clothes. The downfall of public health is a self-inflicted wound.
There appears to be a significant disparity in the ability of MD/PhDs to perform a critical appraisal of randomized controlled trials, with some demonstrating proficiency in this regard while others do not.
It continues to amaze me how people think that just because someone has a couple letters before or after their name, they must know what they're doing. Having an MD or PHD doesn't mean you can't make bad decisions.
MDs went from heroes to zeros. It could get much worse if countries (including 🇺🇸) give the WHO a supranational authority during pandemics. This power would likely be extended and abused by unelected bureaucrats
Regarding WHO and CDC clinical expertise, always ask yourself, how many clinical months do those MDs do every year and in what field. I had to interact with MDs of both, during my years. People would laugh/cry if they knew more just by asking questions
The only thing saving us from a nationwide Monkeypox lockdown is people feel so stupid when they say the word.
Excellent review & summary! Thank you.
Thanks very much for the recognition about my tweets. I was so enraged that these people were leveraging their doctorates to such ill effect. These doctors clearly didn't know what they were talking about, clearly didn't do the homework by reading up on the epidemiology, and clearly had a problem with expressing any concern for the very real suffering that gay men were enduring last summer. Instead, they wanted to spread harmful fear and hysteria that kids were all going to get the virus at daycare. I can't tell you how many messages I got from parents who had been needlessly frightened, wondering if they could safely send their kid back to school in the fall. It is tragic but unsurprising to learn that despite tweeting with no basis in actual science, these scientists won the misinformation war.
I'm especially proud of the work I did on Twitter (all my reporting on mpox is here: http://www.benryan.net/mpox.html), because at the peak of the misinformation wave, I was very ill with side effects from the chemo I was undergoing for cancer at the time (I was cured). The chemo made me pretty manic, so I found that my brain rhythms synced nicely with the frenetic energy of Twitter. As burdened as I was medically, I found that fighting this fight took me away from my own woes.
Also, FYI, here's a greatest hits thread I did of the worst mpox misinformation: https://twitter.com/benryanwriter/status/1607503033318916096?s=20
We went from “scary” (as our regional newspaper called it) COVID-19, to Long COVID, to Monkeypox, to the Tripledemic. Look under your beds for monsters, kids! I don’t know if reason finally returned, or if the public was just too exhausted after being scared for two and a half years, but very few respond to that tactic any more.
Interesting study. Thank you for quantifying this. Would be interesting to extend this to official news outlets (WSJ, NYTimes, WashPost, etc.) and announcements by government officials.
I think it helps to separate drugs that cure disease (anti-cancer drugs and antibiotics, for instance), drugs that suppress symptoms (antidepressants and analgesics), and drugs that (in the main) prevent the apparently well from becoming ill (statins and oral antidiabetics).
Pharma does a relatively good job with the first group, makes some money but can face legal problems with the second group ( i.e., the Sackler family), and have a field day in the third group and make huge profits. In the main, people take this last class to extend their lives, but often studies fail to show improvements in all-cause mortality. In this sense, the marketing can mislead. (Statins and vaccines). Better regulation could go a long way to improve things.
Many believe you are best off trying to lead a healthier life rather than filling your bathroom cabinet with tablet containers.
This guy comes to mind - the fear porn queen of epidemiology : https://twitter.com/DrEricDing?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
This paper has demonstrated what many of us MD MPHs who follow the evidence based data have been saying: these “experts” are not experts at all.
.
Panic ! Panic ! Panic !
In The Private Jet Cabins
The Wealthy Are Past The Point
Where They Are Scared Shitless
That The Joe’s And Josephine’s
Throughout The World
Are Going To Cut Their Heads Off.
.
I always wondered what specialty those who graduated at the very bottom of their medical school class went into. Oh! Public Health.