Read on Twitter
Thread 1/On #Covid_19, in France antigen-based tests are very popular. https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/maladie/coronavirus/coronavirus-la-fiabilite-des-tests-antigeniques-remis-en-cause_4226929.html At one point there were 80 on the market. Of nine tested by the French APHP, six gave false negatives. On another group of tests checked by a biological lab, there were up to 63% false
2/positives. When tests are carried out by untrained personnel, sometimes in conditions (say reagent temperature) different from those specified by the manufacturer, the test also can fail miserably. In the UK, an up to 70% more contagious (not deadlier, just far more easily
3/transmissible from patient to patient) strain of the virus causing Covid https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/royaume-uni/coronavirus-le-royaume-uni-reconfine-une-partie-du-pays_4226347.html is forcing more drastic containment measures. Darwin is hard at work: a more easily transmissible strain that doesn’t kill patients “too quickly” is evolutionary favored. The more
4/cases you get, the easier mutations arise. The more mutations arise, the faster evolution does its thing. In a country decimated by the virus, a barbaric herd immunity push, disinformation galore, complicity of spineless lawmakers, collapsing structures due to cyberattacks &
5/lack of national strategy, new & improved Covid will find an ideal environment to keep spreading. Wear a mask & follow the advice of medical professionals, NOT celebrities who go against the medical professionals, flooding social media with deadly disinformation.
6/As @FareedZakaria was saying citing a paper of the Rand Corporation, we’re worried about Russia hacking so many computer systems we might miss that this “firehose of falsehoods” they constantly plant to confuse their adversaries is the same system of madness Trump has been
7/planting all these years. Add to that: journalists, even the more serious ones, who can’t resist some tabloidish behavior (see @JakeTapper asking @PeteButtigieg about an old ad when he was competing with Biden in the primary, Obama’s tan suit comes to mind as well) &
8/Mainstream Media giving Trump “consideration” (i.e. analyzing to death every lie, half-truth & out of context thing he ever said) “out of respect for the Office” (as if the office of the president was some magical dragon, aside & separate from the person that occupies it) & you
9/ will begin to understand why the hacking, the disinformation war, Covid & the virus of ratings at any cost are beating US Democracy to a pulp. If you don’t learn from four years of intense circus, maybe you deserve—like many actual circuses—to be replaced by more resilient
10/societal paradigms. Darwin is watching. @FoxyJackieBrown @NurseEricYeah @HeyNurse_lb @BhadeliaMD @PeterHotez @DrEricDing @eugenegu @JoyAnnReid @ashishkjha @NicolleDWallace
