Responding to Critiques of My Observations about NYC
woodhouse.substack.com
After Brownstone Institute republished my last article on New York City emergency department data, friends made me aware of some pushback from a hospitalist on Twitter. Addressing criticism on every platform is not a wise use of time, but enough of my fellow “Team Reality” colleagues engaged the thread to motivate me to respond.
It's worthwhile for those reading this to go back and read through Burnett's series of tweets.
There are multiple examples of appeals to emotion, appeals to authority and other logical fallacies.
This alone lends itself to damaging his credibility.
But let's put that aside and have him come forth for an open debate on this. I'm certain that multiple people on 'team reality' would be up for this.
Most of these individuals like Burnett rarely, if ever, come out of their twitter echo chamber as once scrutinized their claims crumble. Frankly I think this guy is being dishonest through and through.
Someone might also want to clue this character to the fact that all PCR "diagnoses" (for the millionth time PCR is NOT a test) are inherently fraudulent.
It's troubling that you'd catch flak for digging into what researches with integrity should looking into as relating to the reported high # of deaths out of NYC at that time... what was it killing those people then that isn't killing others now? Don't they want to know? What happened to that Nurse who was reporting on all the ventilators that they needed? Where are those vents now?
I know that another major hospital system in New York published quarterly data about admissions, discharges, etc in their financial statements that showed the hospitals weren't over run in spring 2020.
I'm glad the Brownstone Institute is running some of your articles. The BI has been a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dark world. As you probably know, they've published a couple of my articles as well.
Here's my latest - that wasn't published at the BI, but I think some of your readers might be intrigued by the theme - which is how "logic" has not been applied to our times.
Jessica, I went over to Brownstone Institute and saw the articles you have there. Looking forward to reading them! Thank you so much for all you do!
This is a small point, but I must make it. I scanned the hospitalist's tweets and observed right off the bat that he has to point out that you (Jessica) are not the expert ---- and that he is. His thinking is that only one who is an expert can discuss "his" subject, and that no one who is not one should even dare to. Some of us (hopefully many) have learned in the last few years that being an expert doesn't mean much. If expertise is not based on integrity and good morals, it is useless and can even be dangerous. I'm not saying anything negative about this guy, but generally speaking, we've seen what experts are able to do. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence, integrity, reason and research can arrive at answers and these can be far more valuable, especially if one does not begin with an agenda.
On footnote 7, about the NAAT tests: someone appears to have confused "highly sensitive" with "highly accurate." The testing is very sensitive due to the amplification - but as with any test, when sensitivity increases, specificity decreases.
I will address this all in my response. But you really have no idea what you’re talking about. You mention patients running out of sedation and paralytics, do you know why that is? Did you ever think to ask someone why those things might have happened? You’ve created this fantasy world where EDs were empty yet there were hospitals full of vented patients without meds. And you fail to understand the link between ED visits and hospital capacity in a pandemic. I will be present all the data that portray what actually happened in nyc.
Respectfully, I’m not insulting you. You’ve continued to gaslight me and other HCW and complain about ad hominem attacks. Saying that you’re confused isn’t an insult, it’s a legitimate observation based upon your data analysis. Saying that your data analysis is flawed isn’t an insult against you personally. I know you’re probably very proud of your work and perhaps even view it as an extension of yourself. But it’s very obvious to anyone who actually works in a hospital that your analysis is flawed. Hopefully my post will allow you to see that.
Thanks for the advice. Trust me, I used your post as a template and break each claim down using actual data. It's very granular and goes into a tremendous amount of detail, detail that I don't think you even considered when you wrote your post. I hope you actually learn something from it.
I maintain you have no idea what you’re talking about and your confidence on this subject is perplexing to me. I will let you know when I publish my critiques of your points. I doubt it will change your mind, you seem rather intransigent, but it will at least let others know how wrong you are.
Again, I don't have an issue with the data, I have an issue with your interpretation of them and the conclusions you arrived at as a result. I've mentioned this several times.
So you don't dispute that hospitals were overwhelmed but still say that EDs weren't. So you'll forgive me if I don't believe you have an in depth understanding of how any of this works. Which is why I maintain that speaking to an actual HCW before posting might have done you a world of good.
The fact that you still don't get where I'm coming from is mindboggling.
You're attempting to re-write history here. You're gaslighting me and other HCW who worked on the frontlines of this pandemic, and you ask me why I'm taking it personally? Are you serious?
You are dismissing the experience of thousands of healthcare workers because your data analysis (which is very flawed and demonstrates a critical lack of understanding of how any of this works) doesn't fall in line with the testimony of HCW.
The fact that you don't understand that ED visits are directly linked to hospital bed capacity shows me that you are very, very confused about even the most basic facts of hospital operations. yet you still somehow feel emboldened to make these posts. You post them in an echo chamber and never get called out on it, you insulate yourself here and then when someone actually challenges you what do you do? You retreat to countless whataboutisms and change the subject. you refuse to actually engage them in a live debate, and just come up with a string of excuses.
Perhaps ask yourself the question "when my data conflicts with peoples experience perhaps I am the one who's wrong. Perhaps I don't understand the data and should ask for some help." your hubris here is something else.
You sat in the safety and comfort of your own living room, hundreds of miles from NYC, you looked at numbers on a screen and made assumptions on what life was like inside NYC hospitals. You have the audacity to gaslight HCW and then refuse to speak with them.
I'm not going to engage with someone who denies reality.
You're asserting that COVID diagnoses were fraudulent, you're 100% wrong. You're persisting in a delusional fantasy realm, being fed misinformation that you blindly swallow because it confirms your preconceived biases. That's a really sad way to live life.
I'm not going to write paragraphs explaining the COVID protocols employed in the spring of 2020. My guess is you will ignore anything I say because it's clear from your response you're not living in reality. I would likely be wasting my time. As I have told Jessica and you, I will be more than willing to have this conversation face to face, the fact that you both have refused to discuss this with me is very telling. Again, you're worried about stepping out of your echo chamber, which I can understand, being uncomfortable isn't fun. But why don't you act like an adult and say this to me face to face. You seem very confident in your assessment as you're stating it unequivocally. So what's holding you back?
I will address all of this and more in my written response.
Just gauging your understanding here: what are the criteria to intubate a patient in respiratory failure? For example when would you decide to intubate a patient presenting in the setting of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure from COVID?
What do you know about COVID ARDS? What do you know about the management of ARDS in general? What do you know about the non-pulmonary complications of critically ill COVID patients? For example: renal failure, hematologic complications such as DIC, neurologic complications from CVA, cardiac complications, and how they impact mortality?
These are all pieces of background information that you should probably understand before you start making assumptions about COVID mortality and labeling them as "vent-expedited deaths"
Again, I think these queries could have been answered if you bothered to talk to even a single physician who cared for COVID patients in the spring of 2020.
So what are you implying here? That the EDs were empty but the hospitals were full of dying patients? We were using bad protocols on patients that just teleported into the hospital? Where do you think the admitted patients came from, Jessica? I really do think you’re very confused about how all of this works, again confusion which could have been avoided if you actually talked to anyone who works in a hospital. I don’t want to engage in an endless back and forth in the comments. I will post my breakdown of your claims soon, I’m adding more data as we speak. Please, take me up on my offer to have this conversation face to face. It doesn’t have to be public if your concerned it may harm your reputation.
It's worthwhile for those reading this to go back and read through Burnett's series of tweets.
There are multiple examples of appeals to emotion, appeals to authority and other logical fallacies.
This alone lends itself to damaging his credibility.
But let's put that aside and have him come forth for an open debate on this. I'm certain that multiple people on 'team reality' would be up for this.
Most of these individuals like Burnett rarely, if ever, come out of their twitter echo chamber as once scrutinized their claims crumble. Frankly I think this guy is being dishonest through and through.
Someone might also want to clue this character to the fact that all PCR "diagnoses" (for the millionth time PCR is NOT a test) are inherently fraudulent.
It's troubling that you'd catch flak for digging into what researches with integrity should looking into as relating to the reported high # of deaths out of NYC at that time... what was it killing those people then that isn't killing others now? Don't they want to know? What happened to that Nurse who was reporting on all the ventilators that they needed? Where are those vents now?
I know that another major hospital system in New York published quarterly data about admissions, discharges, etc in their financial statements that showed the hospitals weren't over run in spring 2020.
I'm glad the Brownstone Institute is running some of your articles. The BI has been a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dark world. As you probably know, they've published a couple of my articles as well.
Here's my latest - that wasn't published at the BI, but I think some of your readers might be intrigued by the theme - which is how "logic" has not been applied to our times.
https://billricejr.substack.com/p/what-if-bill-gates-was-an-epstein
Jessica, I went over to Brownstone Institute and saw the articles you have there. Looking forward to reading them! Thank you so much for all you do!
This is a small point, but I must make it. I scanned the hospitalist's tweets and observed right off the bat that he has to point out that you (Jessica) are not the expert ---- and that he is. His thinking is that only one who is an expert can discuss "his" subject, and that no one who is not one should even dare to. Some of us (hopefully many) have learned in the last few years that being an expert doesn't mean much. If expertise is not based on integrity and good morals, it is useless and can even be dangerous. I'm not saying anything negative about this guy, but generally speaking, we've seen what experts are able to do. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence, integrity, reason and research can arrive at answers and these can be far more valuable, especially if one does not begin with an agenda.
On footnote 7, about the NAAT tests: someone appears to have confused "highly sensitive" with "highly accurate." The testing is very sensitive due to the amplification - but as with any test, when sensitivity increases, specificity decreases.
I will address this all in my response. But you really have no idea what you’re talking about. You mention patients running out of sedation and paralytics, do you know why that is? Did you ever think to ask someone why those things might have happened? You’ve created this fantasy world where EDs were empty yet there were hospitals full of vented patients without meds. And you fail to understand the link between ED visits and hospital capacity in a pandemic. I will be present all the data that portray what actually happened in nyc.
Respectfully, I’m not insulting you. You’ve continued to gaslight me and other HCW and complain about ad hominem attacks. Saying that you’re confused isn’t an insult, it’s a legitimate observation based upon your data analysis. Saying that your data analysis is flawed isn’t an insult against you personally. I know you’re probably very proud of your work and perhaps even view it as an extension of yourself. But it’s very obvious to anyone who actually works in a hospital that your analysis is flawed. Hopefully my post will allow you to see that.
Thanks for the advice. Trust me, I used your post as a template and break each claim down using actual data. It's very granular and goes into a tremendous amount of detail, detail that I don't think you even considered when you wrote your post. I hope you actually learn something from it.
I maintain you have no idea what you’re talking about and your confidence on this subject is perplexing to me. I will let you know when I publish my critiques of your points. I doubt it will change your mind, you seem rather intransigent, but it will at least let others know how wrong you are.
Again, I don't have an issue with the data, I have an issue with your interpretation of them and the conclusions you arrived at as a result. I've mentioned this several times.
So you don't dispute that hospitals were overwhelmed but still say that EDs weren't. So you'll forgive me if I don't believe you have an in depth understanding of how any of this works. Which is why I maintain that speaking to an actual HCW before posting might have done you a world of good.
I was referring to Allen's comment, not yours. He is a complete COVID denier, but you do seem to like a lot of his comments.
The fact that you still don't get where I'm coming from is mindboggling.
You're attempting to re-write history here. You're gaslighting me and other HCW who worked on the frontlines of this pandemic, and you ask me why I'm taking it personally? Are you serious?
You are dismissing the experience of thousands of healthcare workers because your data analysis (which is very flawed and demonstrates a critical lack of understanding of how any of this works) doesn't fall in line with the testimony of HCW.
The fact that you don't understand that ED visits are directly linked to hospital bed capacity shows me that you are very, very confused about even the most basic facts of hospital operations. yet you still somehow feel emboldened to make these posts. You post them in an echo chamber and never get called out on it, you insulate yourself here and then when someone actually challenges you what do you do? You retreat to countless whataboutisms and change the subject. you refuse to actually engage them in a live debate, and just come up with a string of excuses.
Perhaps ask yourself the question "when my data conflicts with peoples experience perhaps I am the one who's wrong. Perhaps I don't understand the data and should ask for some help." your hubris here is something else.
You sat in the safety and comfort of your own living room, hundreds of miles from NYC, you looked at numbers on a screen and made assumptions on what life was like inside NYC hospitals. You have the audacity to gaslight HCW and then refuse to speak with them.
I'm not going to engage with someone who denies reality.
You're asserting that COVID diagnoses were fraudulent, you're 100% wrong. You're persisting in a delusional fantasy realm, being fed misinformation that you blindly swallow because it confirms your preconceived biases. That's a really sad way to live life.
I'm not going to write paragraphs explaining the COVID protocols employed in the spring of 2020. My guess is you will ignore anything I say because it's clear from your response you're not living in reality. I would likely be wasting my time. As I have told Jessica and you, I will be more than willing to have this conversation face to face, the fact that you both have refused to discuss this with me is very telling. Again, you're worried about stepping out of your echo chamber, which I can understand, being uncomfortable isn't fun. But why don't you act like an adult and say this to me face to face. You seem very confident in your assessment as you're stating it unequivocally. So what's holding you back?
I will address all of this and more in my written response.
Just gauging your understanding here: what are the criteria to intubate a patient in respiratory failure? For example when would you decide to intubate a patient presenting in the setting of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure from COVID?
What do you know about COVID ARDS? What do you know about the management of ARDS in general? What do you know about the non-pulmonary complications of critically ill COVID patients? For example: renal failure, hematologic complications such as DIC, neurologic complications from CVA, cardiac complications, and how they impact mortality?
These are all pieces of background information that you should probably understand before you start making assumptions about COVID mortality and labeling them as "vent-expedited deaths"
Again, I think these queries could have been answered if you bothered to talk to even a single physician who cared for COVID patients in the spring of 2020.
So what are you implying here? That the EDs were empty but the hospitals were full of dying patients? We were using bad protocols on patients that just teleported into the hospital? Where do you think the admitted patients came from, Jessica? I really do think you’re very confused about how all of this works, again confusion which could have been avoided if you actually talked to anyone who works in a hospital. I don’t want to engage in an endless back and forth in the comments. I will post my breakdown of your claims soon, I’m adding more data as we speak. Please, take me up on my offer to have this conversation face to face. It doesn’t have to be public if your concerned it may harm your reputation.