THREAD – Tomás Pueyo Returns: The MBA Who Shut Down Europe on Masks and the Cochrane Review
Pueyo is an MBA who came to sudden fame for his March 10, 2020, article Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now, in which he urged leaders around the world to emulate China’s lockdowns. 1/
Pueyo is an MBA who came to sudden fame for his March 10, 2020, article Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now, in which he urged leaders around the world to emulate China’s lockdowns. 1/
Having been relatively quiet for the past three years, Pueyo has returned with a new viral thread purporting to debunk the recent Cochrane review concluding that mask mandates made “little to no difference” in preventing COVID or flu. 2/
Pueyo had no relevant credentials or prior interest in epidemiology but, strange as it may seem, Pueyo’s article was one of the most-shared articles of the 2020, and the most influential causes of global COVID lockdowns. As one academic at Sheffield University summarized: 3/
In his 2020 article, Pueyo urged leaders to adopt methods of virus containment modeled on China’s. 4/
tomaspueyo.medium.com
tomaspueyo.medium.com
Pueyo’s article went viral at an astonishing pace, gaining 40 million views in 9 days. Reactions were mixed. Many top commenters expressed shock at Pueyo’s lack of qualifications, and accused him of being a “liar and a fraud.” 5/
Other commenters questioned how someone with no experience or previous interest in epidemiology was suddenly one of the most influential voices in a public health emergency. 6/
When asked about his credentials, Pueyo cited his experience with viral media applications, apparently as a qualification to discuss the spread of viruses in the biological sense. 7/
Undeterred, Pueyo then went on tour advising state legislators and national leaders on implementing lockdowns. 8/
Pueyo’s article contained many oddities. It implored leaders: “But in 2–4 weeks, when the ENTIRE WORLD is in lockdown.” Yet by March 10, WHO hadn’t declared a pandemic and there were hardly any cases in the developing world ex China. 9/
Pueyo’s article contained a trendy GIF purporting to show how China’s lockdown measures could be used to “flatten the curve,” which many influencers included when sharing the article. 10/
Days later, CGTN, China’s largest global propaganda network, shared much the same graphic in a news segment encouraging the global adoption of China’s lockdown policies. 11/
Pueyo then posted another Medium article titled “The Hammer and Dance,” which again went viral, explaining the strategy “The Hammer” (lockdowns) followed by “The Dance” (track and trace). 12/
tomaspueyo.medium.com
tomaspueyo.medium.com
Three days after Pueyo’s “The Hammer and Dance” was published, a strategy paper by the German government (dubbed “the Panic Paper”) was secretly distributed to members of parliament and certain media outlets—playing a large role in Germany’s lockdown. 13/
Despite being published just three days after Pueyo’s article, the German Panic Paper relied heavily on Pueyo’s work, discussing the “Hammer and Dance.” The term “Hammer and Dance” has no history in epidemiology—Tomas Pueyo had invented it for his March 19 article. 14/
One of the Panic Paper’s authors was Otto Kölbl, who had no background in epidemiology or public health, but taught for many years in China and ran a blog in which he’d described Hong Kong as “parasitic” and praised the CCP’s exemplary governance of Tibet. 15/
Another author of the Panic Paper, Maximilian Mayer, also had no epidemiology or health background but spent years working at University of Nottingham in Ningbo China, Tongji University in Shanghai, and Renmin University Beijing. 16/
Later, hundreds of pages of emails containing communications leading up to the Panic Paper were provided to Germany’s independent Corona Committee. In one email, Mayer specifically recommended: “We suggest the motto ‘collectively distanced.’” 17/
Of the 210 pages of emails leading to the German Panic Paper, 118 were blacked out. The emails contained frequent references of China, but nearly all of these are were redacted. The stated reason: “May have adverse effects on international relations.” 18/
threadreaderapp.com
threadreaderapp.com
To this day, it remains unclear where Pueyo got the ideas for virus containment Pueyo’s ideas mirror those of major lockdown proponents like Imperial College Professor Neil Ferguson, who’d already endorsed global lockdown measures. 19/
dailysceptic.org
dailysceptic.org
Yet outside of a niche epidemiology community, these ideas were far from well-known. For the most part, it wasn’t until Pueyo’s articles that these ideas for strict virus containment measures reached the mainstream. 20/
Ultimately, the COVID lockdowns and restrictions imposed by governments failed while leading to the deaths of millions, pushing tens of millions into poverty, and transferring trillions of dollars in wealth from the world’s poorest to the very richest. 21/
michaelpsenger.substack.com
michaelpsenger.substack.com
Now, Pueyo has roared back onto the scene with his new viral thread purporting to debunk the recent Cochrane review which concluded mask mandates made no difference, and attacking the reporting of the Cochrane review by the New York Times and others. 22/
Like his 2020 Medium articles, Pueyo’s thread has been shared widely by celebrities, influencers, and even scientists. 23/
However, many users have already pointed out the many glaring flaws in Pueyo’s “analysis.” Professor Francois Balloux called Pueyo’s work “uninformed nonsense.” 24/
25/
Aside from these many errors, those gushing over Pueyo’s thread are missing the most glaring point of all. Even if they can pretend to poke holes in the Cochrane review, that still leaves them with zero RCTs showing mask mandates had any significant effect. 26/
Pueyo’s embarrassing attempt to cast shade on Cochrane and the New York Times should tell us all we need to know: Despite the millions of lives destroyed, one of the chief instigators of global lockdowns seems to feel no remorse about his actions. /end
michaelpsenger.substack.com
michaelpsenger.substack.com
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