HomeMy WebLinkAbout20201023_K Kolff COVIDFrom:kkolff
To:news@ptleader.com; Brian Kelly
Cc:Board of Health; Steve Schumaker; Kees Kolff,MD; Kees Kolff
Subject:Re: Follow-up questions for Locke interviews
Date:Friday, October 23, 2020 10:54:03 AM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside your organization. Exercise caution when opening attachments or
clicking links, especially from unknown senders.
Dear staff at the Leader,I sincerely hope that you do not print this letter without giving Dr. Locke adequate time to respond to SteveSchumacher’s letter.I know Steve personally and over many years have had a respectful relationship with him. He and I have alreadyexchanged several emails about this topic, and I could not disagree more with his opinion. If I had not already hadmy turn at a letter to the editor this month, I would have loved to reply to his letter.Misinformation spread by deniers of good science is costing us dearly in our efforts to address climate disruptionand now is costing us dearly in lives lost during our effort to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Witness the RoseGarden superspreader event! Unfortunately, news and social media has often played a role in spreadingmisinformation by allowing those few deniers of science to have the same time or print space that the vast majorityof those who accept good science get. I don’t think you have fallen into that trap, but others clearly have.Thank you for your in-depth coverage this past week.Respectfully, Kees
> On Oct 22, 2020, at 11:44 AM, Stephen Schumacher <solmaker@olympus.net> wrote:>> Dear Editor, the Leader,>> In the latest Leader's interview with Jefferson Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke, he concludes, "We think the nextthree months might be the most difficult yet in the pandemic." What is the source for this grave prognostication?>> From previous such statements and the timing of this one, I assume one of his sources is the Institute of HealthMetrics and Evaluation (IHME) model that currently predicts 262,163 new COVID-19 deaths nationwide betweenOctober 22 and February 1 if a hard lockdown is not reimposed. (Note this refers to their "Mandates easing"prediction, which actually means lockdown "mandates are not re-imposed" according to the small print.)> http://solmaker.com/public/IHME-201022.png>
> But on August 22 these same modelers were predicting 250,000 deaths between then and December 1, whichIHME recently had to downgrade to 87,565 (probably still too high given current downward-directed trend lines).> http://solmaker.com/public/IHME-200822.pdf>
> Why is Dr. Locke trusting these multiply-debunked IHME modelers, who have been embarrassingly wrong timeafter time throughout this crisis?> http://solmaker.com/public/DebunkIHME.pdf>
> What conflicts of interest does IHME have, given they were paid $279 million dollars (!!!) by the GatesFoundation to come up with these low-quality models?> https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2017/01/IHME-Announcement>
> These aren't mere academic questions, since such fallacious models continue to be used to push catastrophiclockdowns around the world. On October 21, Ireland was locked down again due to hysteria over false-positive-fueled "cases" despite a completely-flat near-zero death rate (actually indicating herd immunity is being achieved).Who's next?> http://solmaker.com/public/Ireland-201021.png> https://covid19ireland-geohive.hub.arcgis.com/
>
> See https://change.org/EndLockdownWA for more information.
>> Stephen Schumacher> Port Townsend, WA