You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more
1. Drosten demands „the hammer“ against Corona, referring to the March 2020 Medium essay „The Hammer & the Dance“ by Bay-Area entrepreneur & thinkfluencer Thomas Pueyo. Pueyo‘s mysteriously viral essays inspire policy in multiple countries. Why?https://www.welt.de/wissenschaft/article229463153/Lockdown-Verschaerfung-Drosten-meint-bleibt-nur-noch-der-Holzhammer.html …
2. Pueyo has no epidemiological qualifications. He appears to be primarily a self-promoter who wrote an odd book about „narrative structure“ in Star Wars. He claims to be an expert in producing „viral ... online content.“ https://unherd.com/2021/02/inside-the-zero-covid-campaign/ …pic.twitter.com/UcBfA57SsW
3. His „Hammer and Dance“ essay had only been up on Medium for a few days when German modellers working for the ministry of the interior used the same title for their ideal „Hammer and Dance“ containment scenario.https://twitter.com/eugyppius1/status/1371017658938884096 …
4. At the height of his renown, Pueyo appeared on UK television to ‚debate‘ mitigation strategies with a British epidemiologist. This Express item even bills him as an ‚expert‘. Only in the text do you learn he is an „entrepreneur.“https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1255170/coronavirus-uk-covid-19-italy-latest-update-boris-johnson-herd-immunity-Tomas-Pueyo …
5. This is „The Science“ we are following — propaganda rehashed clumsily from the 24 February WHO report (and the like) & thrown up on Medium by self-professed viral content expert Month of 5 of lockdown and Germany‘s top Corona prophet is still talking about the Pueyo hammer.
Seems like Pueyo found a sweet-spot for a type of writing/messaging of a length and presentation that a) wasn’t too difficult or sophisticated (like a real journal article, but b) couched in language, framing, charts such that Smart People could feel Smart for understanding it
Combine that with its quasi-samizdat status (it was a Medium blog post, not a Lancet or Nature or even NYT article), which could make Smart People feel as though even knowing about it, circulated via their social media friends, put them in a special in-the-know club.
In hindsight this seems very odd. A random guy appears out of nowhere as some data-driven covid expert and suddenly goes viral. At the same time a bunch of social media posts also from random people go viral, all sharing the exact same evocative messaging. Seems manufactured.
Perhaps he is just a smart guy who is very good at getting getting his name out there are promoting his work but it seems too coordinated. Especially given the bizarre amount of influence his writing seems to have had on covid policy.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.
