10/n Conversely, there is fairly good evidence that in the majority of cases COVID-19 was indeed the primary cause of death, despite comorbidities, and that the biggest issue in many places may be UNDERCOUNTING of deathshttps://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m2859 …
-
Show this thread
-
11/n The author then goes on to argue that while there have been excess deaths in 2020, these are most likely due to GOVERNMENT ACTION rather than the pandemicpic.twitter.com/6MKRZpRcE5
4 replies 4 retweets 48 likesShow this thread -
12/n Now, while this is purely speculative anyway, I thought it worth noting that it is incorrect to argue that all disruptions to (say) TB programs are due to government measures. It is likely that much of this disruption would've occurred anyway due to, well, the pandemic
6 replies 9 retweets 106 likesShow this thread -
13/n Therefore, the argument made by the author that there is harm caused by "recurrent lockdowns and other draconian measures" is not really substantiated by the evidence at hand Not great, that
2 replies 6 retweets 73 likesShow this thread -
14/n (I'm not saying that there is NO harm from these measures, just that the cost-benefit of government action is quite clearly more complex than the logic presented here)
1 reply 4 retweets 66 likesShow this thread -
15/n Moving on, the author basically makes the same argument about comorbidities as before, but in the framework of Years of Life Lost. Similarly, the basic argument is that people who died of COVID-19 were already very sickpic.twitter.com/zcY136e5BJ
2 replies 4 retweets 45 likesShow this thread -
16/n The author then argues (again, citing himself liberally in references 3 and 41) that many deaths due to COVID-19 were "avoidable" None of this is really well-supported as far as I can tellpic.twitter.com/j1re0nfhgE
2 replies 4 retweets 62 likesShow this thread -
17/n For example, the claim that "many deaths" in Lombardy were due to nosocomial (acquired though healthcare) infections is referenced back to the same April commentary as before, which itself actually suggests that hospital overcrowding was to blamepic.twitter.com/0vyrg6GCo6
2 replies 4 retweets 55 likesShow this thread -
18/n It's also worth noting that the idea that nosocomial infections are AVOIDABLE in a pandemic is perhaps not entirely reasonable, given the burden that it places on the healthcare system more broadly
2 replies 5 retweets 70 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @GidMK
I have lots of feels about the preventability of HAIs - but that might be one for another day.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
What about the preventability of HAIs when a hospital is running at 400% ICU capacity?
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.