33. Another example of human bias run amok was the reaction to this tweet by Trump. Many Trump tweets led to extensive internal debates, and this one was no different.

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34. In a surreal exchange, Jim Baker, at the time Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel, asks why telling people to not be afraid wasn’t a violation of Twitter’s Covid-19 misinformation policy.

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35. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of Trust & Safety, had to explain that optimism wasn’t misinformation.

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36. Remember @ KelleyKga with the CDC data tweet? Twitter’s response to her is clarifying: “we will prioritize review and labeling of content that could lead to increased exposure or transmission.”

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37. Twitter made a decision, via the political leanings of senior staff, and govt pressure, that the public health authorities’ approach to the pandemic – prioritizing mitigation over other concerns – was “The Science” . . .

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38. Information that challenged that view, such as showing harms of vaccines, or that could be perceived as downplaying the risks of Covid, especially to children, was subject to moderation, and even suppression. No matter whether such views were correct or adopted abroad.

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39. What might this pandemic and its aftermath have looked like if there had been a more open debate on Twitter and other social media platforms—not to mention the mainstream press—about the origins of Covid, about lockdowns, about the true risks of Covid in kids, and much more?

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40. Thanks to @ ShellenbergerMD, @ lwoodhouse, @ lhfang and the team @ thefp for their help reporting this story.

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41. An expanded version of this thread is available now @ thefp!

https://www.thefp.com/p/how-twitter-rigged-the-covid-debate

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Twitter Files

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A hugely important story that should get more attention:

Adults with exposure to kids and common colds had a *lower* incidence of severe Covid than other similar adults

These findings should cause a reassessment of some pandemic policies regarding kids

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/12/spending-time-with-kids-might-help-protect-adults-from-covid.html

@davidzweig

You know you're in good shape when this is the worst thing in a hit piece on you 🤣

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David Zweig: Twitter RIGGED Covid Debate By Censoring 'Inconvenient' Information

I talked about my reporting on the Twitter Files on HillTV Live

COVID hospitalization trends in New England are not going well. Be careful out there.

Merely citing hospitalizations, see original tweet, can be misleading

In the last 8 months severe Covid has decoupled from Covid hospital numbers. The portion of Covid admins in ICU are *half* of what they were earlier in pandemic

And huge difference for >70 vs rest of pop

/1

We've known for a long time that a significant portion of Covid hospitalizations are incidental. I reported on this twice. First, for pediatric numbers, in May 2021

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/study-number-of-kids-hospitalized-for-covid-is-overcounted.html

/2

And again for adults in Sept 2021

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/09/covid-hospitalization-numbers-can-be-misleading/620062/

/3

Earlier numbers showed >40% of Covid hospitalizations were incidental or not severe disease, but it's even lower now

More good news: We are seeing a downward trend of Covid patients getting dex, also meaning less severe disease, as Shira Doron MD showed

/4

In summary: Covid hospital numbers are not a direct indicator of risk to most of the public

If you find this type of reporting informative, please sign up for my substack. It's free (for now)!

https://davidzweig.substack.com/