Pfizer board member and former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb used his influence to pressure Twitter to flag a tweet that cast doubt on Covid-19 vaccines, the latest in a series of “Twitter Files” shows.
Documents leaked to controversial reporter Alex Berenson claim that Dr. The social media company’s Scott Gottlieb relied on a relatively benign post that cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine and suggested that natural immunity was more effective.
The tweet – created by a former government health official – was later called “misleading” despite the immunity debate still dividing scientists to this day.
The revelations are part of the Twitter files, a cache of internal documents and correspondence that was recently made available to a select few journalists. Her goal is to shed light on a series of censorship decisions Twitter made before it was taken over by eccentric billionaire Elon Musk.
Dr. Gottlieb took the relatively harmless tweet of Dr. Giroir “corrosive” in internal email to company executives who appeared unaware of Gottlieb’s financial ties to Pfizer
The Twitter post was “caustic,” Gottlieb wrote, and worried it would “eventually go viral and expand in scope,” potentially threatening Pfizer’s profits.
Dr. Gottlieb is the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under President Trump and a member of Pfizer’s board of directors.
Documents show that Dr. On August 27, 2021, Gottlieb sent an email to Todd O’Boyle, a top lobbyist at Twitter’s Washington office, after seeing a tweet disparaging the Covid vaccines.
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The tweet was by Dr. Brett Giroir, another health official in the Trump administration, has touted the superiority of natural immunity over vaccine-conferred immunity.
Dr. Gottlieb, who currently has around 550,000 Twitter followers, campaigned for the tweet to be flagged as disinformation.
Dr. Gottlieb said in the email that the language for the nationwide Covid vaccination campaign could be “caustic”.
And while Twitter couldn’t conclusively prove that the tweet violated its disinformation policy, it was still flagged as “Misleading.”
Dr. Gottlieb himself never asked for the tweet to be labeled as such, but only complained that the caustic message would lead to “driving coverage” in a negative way.
Mr. Berenson argued that Dr. Gottlieb that the tweet blast cast doubt on the need for the vaccines was financial in nature. By saying that natural immunity against previous exposure to the virus is better than that from the vaccine, says Dr. Brett Giroir on Pfizer’s rising profits.
Dr. Gottlieb’s financial ties to Pfizer were not mentioned in internal emails that accompanied the tweet.
He was referred to as “the former FDA commissioner” by executives at the social media company, but not as a Pfizer stakeholder who would be affected by the declining vaccination rate.
Both Dr. Gottlieb as Mr. Berenson has major Twitter megaphones — 553,000 followers and 455,000 followers, respectively
In his Substack post, Mr Berenson wrote: “By noting that some people may not need Covid vaccinations, the tweet may raise questions about the injections. In addition to the fact that Gottlieb is a former FDA commissioner, ‘ A CNBC contributor and a prominent voice on Covid public policy, Gottlieb was also a senior board member at Pfizer, responsible for nearly half of its $81 billion in 2021 sales based on mRNA spikes. Pfizer that year paid Gottlieb $365,000 for his work.”
Alex Berenson, a former New York Times journalist and prolific novelist, has become one of Twitter’s most high-profile vaccine skeptics. One of his “hot takes” earned him a temporary ban from the platform last summer.
The tweet in question read: “It doesn’t stop the infection. Or transfer. Don’t think of it as a vaccine. At best think of it as a therapeutic with a limited window of action and a horrible side effect profile that needs to be dosed AGAINST DISEASE. And we want to make it mandatory? Frenzy.’
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
