Paul Romer

- Who produced an instant uproar? "That woman!" - Who grossly mischaracterized the situation and thereby contributed to the complacency that leaves us now on the cusp of yet another wave of infection and death? "Well, it was the guy, but hey, you know, nobody bats 1000." 3/N

If the internal politics of the CDC are anything like those of the World Bank, it is a reasonable bet that this is attack was launched, or at least supported, by CDC under-performers there who want to kneecap the new director so she cannot make any changes. 4/N

The insiders are incredibly attuned to the tiniest deviation from rote dogma. But no surprise there. 5/N

But can someone explain to me why her comments merit this type of attention by the NYTimes and all this condescending scolding by academics? Yet none of the dozens of Barr-class, intentionally misleading statements by Giroir like one above never merited a raised eyebrow? 6/N

Not to mention the dangerously incoherent claim that Redfield made to @drsanjaygupta -- as a virologist, he can tell that the virus came from a lab; because human spread is fast and no virus could evolve toward faster spreading variants in the wild. (?!?) 7/N

The NYTimes found two academics willing to scold Walensky: "It is an important public health message that needs to be gotten right." But for Redfield? @drsanjaygupta at least got Fauci to say that what he thinks R meant was the opposite of what R said. 8/N

And NYTimes quotes Redfield, who was pinned down at a news conference, saying, in effect, "reasonable people can differ." But those stern academic scolds? ... 9/N