When will the #JohnSnowMemo authors formally reject @marcbonten’s signature? He is an outspoken mitigation /‘immunity buildup’ advocate since the start of the pandemic. 1/N

In this tweet, @MarcBonten, a prominent member of the Dutch 'Outbreak Management Team', the official advisory council to the government, states he has signed the #JohnSnowMemo while also reaffirming his stance in support of #HerdImmunity: https://twitter.com/MarcBonten/status/1316751685298073600

He links to his article from May and reaffirms his position as outlined in that article. A Google Translated version of this article can be found here, for your convenience: https://screens.wings.dev/Groepsimmuniteit-_-Nederlands-Tijdschrift-voor-Geneeskunde-1602931788.pdf

He only says that herd immunity buildup is not the *only* measure (!) 3/N

The problem is: as long as you reserve any role of significance *at all* for immunity buildup in your epidemiological strategy, assuming infections result in protective immunity which suppresses the R, it results in a radical shift in your framework of political calculations 4/N

Namely: virus circulation among young/healthy will be considered beneficial to your pandemic response strategy, actually an 'investment' in population resilience - which is exactly how the strategy of 'maximum control' (controlled spread' has been described by Jaap van Dissel 5/N

It is downright farcical that @marcbonten has the audacity to both sign the #JohnSnowMemo as well as simultenously reaffirms his support for #HerdImmunity without batting an eye. He abuses the #JohnSnowMemo to whitewash the very strategy it sets out to condemn. 6/N

I appreciate the efforts of the #JohnSnowMemo authors, but you are missing the mark in some respects:
1) it is not *really* about 'immunity'. No country which pursued #HerdImmunity bothered to study immunisation first, nor were serious efforts made to 'shield off the frail' 7/N

- and research findings indicating immunity may neither be strong, effective nor long-lasting did not result in meaningful policy changes. #HerdImmunity should be re-labeled as mitigation, 'let it rip' or 'let them die'
8/N

- Many countries who initially embraced the concept of #HerdImmunity, later said it is just a 'by-effect' not a policy goal. However, if expected immunity is considered beneficial to overall pandemic response, desire to contain the virus at low circulation levels disappears 9/N

The result is all the same: the virus is allowed to spread until ICUs fill up, half-hearted (or whole-heartedly half-asssed) containment plans that fail to deliver notwithstanding. The result is the same, but the framing isn't, the narrative is different. 10/N

Therefore, dear #JohnSnowMemo authors, it doesn't help to unequivocally condemn 'HerdImmunity'. As you can see, even the #HerdImmunity architects of the Netherlands advocating a controlled spread have no qualms about signing your manifesto. I'd like to ask you to do *more* 11/N

What we need, is international condemnation of the national pandemic response policies that boil down to #HerdImmunity. We should be able to point to international expert analysis stating that the Dutch strategy is not containment/suppression but mitigation/controlled spread 12/N

Because we have a REALLY HARD TIME even getting the pandemic response strategy even on the media agenda. The official narrative is that we are suppressing the virus, just making a couple of mistakes + blaming the public for not following the rules 13/N

However, that's not the reason we have one of the highest levels of circulation globally, will see our health infrastructure completely collapse in weeks time, and may expect tens of thousands of deaths in the coming months. It is the strategy, and has been all along. 14/N

If you need proof, ask @containmentnu / @containmentnow or @C19RedTeam for that matter, or read up on https://www.containmentnu.nl/en/home . So, what I would like to request from the international scientific community, is the following: 15/N

1) publicly give your expert analysis which country is pursuing 'herd immunity'. Everyone talks about Sweden all the time. Talk about The Netherlands, we can easily prove the Dutch strategy is herd immunity / 'let them die'
16/N

2) publicly refuse #JohnSnowMemo signatures of Dutch OMT members such as @marcbonten, @marionkoopmans, @Jankluytmans, knowing that refusing to do so allows them to whitewash the Dutch 'Herd immunity but only as a by-effect wink wink' strategy.

Thank you. 17/N

@threadreaderapp unroll pls