The conversation we really need to have is on Twitter COVID opportunism

Why do so many scientists with only a passing affiliation with ID, pandemic response, drug approval, drug trials, vaccine development, vaccine trials feel compelled to build a Twitter brand?

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Even folks who know a lot about modeling epidemics may know very little about clinical trials and drug approval, but once a COVID twitter brand is started the compulsion to provide guidance on all things COVID is insatiable

When one low on paraphrasing the latest CNN stories, one has to invent more and more dramatic things to tweet about.

But what is the purpose of this?

These 15 mins of fame will end

Many of these folks are not selling anything. -- So that can't be it.

Appearing on mindless TV segments?
Perhaps it is something of an ego boost, but LBH:

Who even watches cable news anymore?

I honestly don't understand the motivation for many of these accounts

The successful ones just manage to stay within the 'canonical' twitter doctrine view of HCQ, school reopenings, etc.; But rarely offer original insights

Again, I am baffled why this became a thing.

The addictive nature of the platform may be to blame?Getting 100 k new followers perhaps?

But again, who wants followers who are salivating for COVID content 2 years from now?

COVID opportunism is not a light switch, it is more like a dimmer. With many many people in the middle

Often they start by talking about the elephants trunk (which they study), but soon they are tweeting about the elephants tail (which they read about in the Atlantic)

Its not healthy to want to weigh in on everything COVID

Its literally being the cliche of a doctor at a dinner party

No matter the topic, or the expertise of others, he always has an ill informed opinion