Lots of things about the Ioannidis paper. A) This was published as a research paper but how much of a research paper was it? As mentioned, it selectively and f

Lots of things about the Ioannidis paper. A) This was published as a research paper but how much of a research paper was it? As mentioned, it selectively and fairly shallowly looked at some data (the Diamond Princess) while wholly ignoring other data (South Korea) without even providing a strong justification for its choices. It was more like "an essay with scholarly footnotes". B) This article wasn't simply offered to scientific community. You can find a huge swath of mainstream media reports describing this paper and another large number of popular articles with by Ioannidis himself defending the positions he staked out in his article. This was essentially a media campaign. C). The particular position Ioannidis staked out was just one of a series of positions one can find staked by a variety of figures, some real scientists, some right wing ideologues, some somewhat in between. Again, if you look, a well financed media campaign. Below is a series of link I've cobbled together I've cobbled together as documentation of this: The American Institute for Economic Research (libertarian/right wing think tank) give it's of "significant" article: https://www.aier.org/article/vital-information-that-is-falling-through-the-cracks/ https://www.aier.org/article/vital-information-that-is-falli... Essentially a web of articles united by the need to avoid undue action on the virus (IE, not cost money). A nice article describing the similarity of Covid-denial and Climate-change-denial: https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/04/coronavirus-doubters-follow-climate-denial-playbook/ https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/04/coronavirus-d... An article on the effort to spin the Santa Clara tests befor e they were even release: https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-circulating-california-2019-bunk.html https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-circulating... What's on with Ioannidis: https://undark.org/2020/04/24/john-ioannidis-covid-19-death-rate-critics/ https://undark.org/2020/04/24/john-ioannidis-covid-19-death-... Richard A. Epstein of the Hoover Institution, another Stanford Connected "minimizer" https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-contrarian-coronavirus-theory-that-informed-the-trump-administration https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-contrarian-corona... A summary of several related minimizers, with a similar program: https://arcdigital.media/what-the-federalist-doesnt-get-about-the-importance-of-life-1833c714f08f https://arcdigital.media/what-the-federalist-doesnt-get-abou... Aljazeera gives a broader discussion, why real scientist would do this: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/coronavirus-herd-immunity-eugenics-market-200414104531234.html https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/coronavirus-herd-i...