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1/10 Tomas Pueyo ( @tomaspueyo): Panic, Profit, and Denial.
This is the story of how the VP of Growth for an Online Ed. Company unjustly helped lock down the world and in the process saw his fame grow and his company secure millions in investments.
This is the story of how the VP of Growth for an Online Ed. Company unjustly helped lock down the world and in the process saw his fame grow and his company secure millions in investments.
2/10 Pueyo wrote the original CV19 panic article back in March; it received more than 40 million views.
It was based on the idea of exponential growth (disproven by @MLevitt_NP2013), focuses on cases counts, and concludes we must go into severe lockdown https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
It was based on the idea of exponential growth (disproven by @MLevitt_NP2013), focuses on cases counts, and concludes we must go into severe lockdown https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
3/10 This article was then touted by leaders, celebrities, and scientists as evidence that lockdowns were necessary.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/im-not-an-epidemiologist-but-the-rise-of-the-corona
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/im-not-an-epidemiologist-but-the-rise-of-the-corona
4/10 LOTS of people used it to justify flattening the curve:
5/10 He didn’t stop there. He then wrote the “Hammer and Dance” that suggested extremely severe lockdowns were the only way to prevent 10,000,000 deaths in the U.S.
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56
6/10 When confronted with this conflict of interest back in June, he claimed that lockdowns would actually HURT his company and online education.
7/10 What a shocker to find that @CourseHero (of which is the V.P. of growth) received an $80 million Series B round investment; one of the largest U.S. funding deals of 2020 https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/26/course-hero-a-profitable-edtech-unicorn-raises-rare-cash/
8/10 In fact, the entire industry has gained major investments due to lockdowns:
“14 edtech companies raised over $569 million so far in 2020, more than all funds raised by the industry in 2019." https://www.forbes.com/sites/mergermarket/2020/09/02/edtech-awash-in-capital-amid-shift-to-remote-learning/#28289c57adcf
“14 edtech companies raised over $569 million so far in 2020, more than all funds raised by the industry in 2019." https://www.forbes.com/sites/mergermarket/2020/09/02/edtech-awash-in-capital-amid-shift-to-remote-learning/#28289c57adcf
9/10 And as a fun add on to all of this, Pueyo was also involved early on with @CovidActNow which shouldn’t be at all surprising given their commitment to wide-scale panic whenever possible.
10/10 The most disheartening thing about all of this is that no journalist or media outlet seems interested in telling this story.
