Most of us don’t create a fake journal to cope with that.
Several doctors I’ve discussed previously, including Martin Kulldorff, Andrew Noymer, Jay Bhattacharya, Marty Makary, John Ioannidis, Scott Atlas, and Sunetra Gupta, recently started a new journal titled the Journal of the Academy of Public Health. Predictably, this line-up of unapologetic misinformation superspreaders, none of whom treated COVID patients, raised some eyebrows. According to the article New Journal Co-Founded by NIH Nominee Raises Eyebrows, Misinformation Fears:
It lacks a subscription paywall, posts peer reviews alongside published articles, and pays reviewers for their work. But other researchers have criticized the journal’s exclusivity and lack of quality control. Only members of a newly formed body, the Academy of Public Health, can submit articles, and all submitted articles are published. Skeptics worry the publication will be used to sow doubt about scientific consensus on matters such as vaccine efficacy and safety.
An article by Walker Bragman about these doctors’ financial backers titled A New Academic Publishing Model”: Right-Wing Dark Money Group Launches Fringe Medical Journal quoted Dr. Mallory Harris as saying:
As far as I can tell, many of the people involved with this project are close ideological allies operating far outside of the scientific community. They complain about censorship and gatekeeping but it is also the case that it is sometimes hard to publish shoddy work based on bad ideas. Most of us don’t create a fake journal to cope with that.
There is no doubt the “studies” in this journal will conclude that We Want Them Infected doctors were right about everything always; mitigation measure were an epic catastrophe while COVID was a harmless cold for everyone but grandma. No article there will conclude that they were wrong that the mass infection of unvaccinated people under age 60-70 would lead to herd immunity.
The vaccine is incredibly effective… And in many ways has defanged the epidemic, it’s taken away the the specter of death and hospitalization that comes with the disease for the older population to the extent that the older population is vaccinated.
Before we examine one of their articles, let’s review the data from the original mRNA vaccine trials, where severe COVID was a secondary outcome.
- Moderna: “Severe Covid-19 occurred in 30 participants, with one fatality; all 30 were in the placebo group.”
- Pfizer: “Among 10 cases of severe Covid-19 with onset after the first dose, 9 occurred in placebo recipients and 1 in a BNT162b2 recipient.”
Dr. Bhattacharya was rightfully impressed with these results in 2021. However he also promised the vaccines blocked transmission, totally eliminated severe disease, and had “defanged” the pandemic. In April 2021, he and Dr. Zubin Damania had the following exchange:
Dr. Bhattacharya: I mean, I think that the central problem right now I think is the fear that people still feel about COVID…
Dr. Damania: Now, you and I are both vaccinated. We shook hands. We don’t wear masks. We’re about three feet apart from each other. And in the early days of the pandemic that would’ve gotten us both hung. But now I can say with confidence because I’ve looked at the data, like our chances of giving each other COVID are-
Dr. Bhattacharya: Are zero.
Dr. Damania: Pretty much zero…
Dr. Bhattacharya: The vaccine is incredibly effective… And in many ways has defanged the epidemic, it’s taken away the the specter of death and hospitalization that comes with the disease for the older population to the extent that the older population is vaccinated…
Dr. Damania: Yeah, so why do we keep hearing that about like these new variants affecting young people more or concerns about mortality in, in the new case surges in a way that it is younger people. Maybe why are we still hearing about this when I have not seen good evidence that variants are more deadly or, you know, so on?
Dr. Bhattacharya: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s partly the fear, right? I think that it’s hard to let go of that. You’ve lived your, for a full year under it. It’s hard to let go. I’d say it’s, I mean in some ways you can understand it, right? It’s like we’ve been conditioned to be careful. And when the, when the danger is gone, we’re still careful.
Dr. Damania: Do you think the danger is gone? Where are we in that?
Dr. Bhattacharya: I mean, I think we’re close. I think we’re very, very close to that. I think that it, I mean, and in many places, it is gone, just be paid at a high cost of course, but it’s, but it’s very close to that.
Dr. Bhattacharya continued to over-hype vaccines and underestimate the virus in August 2021, telling Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “We have protected the vulnerable by vaccinating the older population“, right before the Delta wave ripped through the state causing record deaths including many young people. Dr. Bhattacharya was so confident about the vaccine’s ability to obviate severe disease, he launched his standard juvenile, unprofessional personal attacks against anyone who urged caution. In one interview, he said:
Dr. Fauci is probably the number one anti-vaxxer in the country in some sense, because he has modeled behavior that has made people think the vaccine won’t give you back your life, but it will. It’s an incredibly effective vaccine. You know, he was wearing a mask. He has been vaccinated, I don’t really understand what he’s trying to do here.
Key communicators told the public that the vaccine would prevent all Covid infections and transmission, perhaps even allowing the eradication of Covid disease from general circulation.
While the COVID vaccines remain the greatest scientific achievement of my lifetime, they weren’t the magic cure-all some people promised, and I was careful not to overhype them in spring 2021. I wanted to wait for more long-term data before spiking the football. One person who is now eager to lambast some people who oversold the vaccine is none other than Dr. Bhattacharya. His titled inaugural article in the Journal of the Academy of Public Health, written with Dr. Kulldorff, was titled The Covid Vaccine Trials: Failures in Design and Interpretation. They said:
For the Covid vaccines, the fundamental goal was not to prevent mild infections but to prevent deaths, hospitalizations, and transmission. Despite this, the randomized controlled trials evaluated short-term reduction in symptomatic Covid infections while failing to address important public health issues. This result was due to badly designed trials. Despite lacking key data, public health agencies made unsubstantiated vaccine claims, published unscientific vaccine recommendations, and imposed unethical vaccine mandates. As a result, vaccine hesitance has increased while the trust in public health has deteriorated…
When public health officials rolled out the vaccine campaign in December 2020 and January 2021, key communicators told the public that the vaccine would prevent all Covid infections and transmission, perhaps even allowing the eradication of Covid disease from general circulation. Officials made these claims even though the Covid vaccine trials did not include infection prevention or transmission-blocking as measured endpoints, and observational data were not yet available….
The consequence of the mismatch between what the randomized trials examined and what prominent public health officials said during the vaccine rollout is enormous… Misrepresentation of the vaccine data has led to an understandable distrust in public health authorities. When the public contrasted the waning efficacy of the vaccine, plainly visible to almost everybody who took the vaccine and then later became infected, against public statements by public health officials, public trust in public health about the Covid vaccine collapsed.
This distrust generalized to deteriorating trust in non-Covid vaccines. If public health was wrong about the Covid vaccine, maybe they are wrong about all vaccines, many members of the public may have reasoned. Estimates from CDC surveys demonstrate sharp declines in public confidence in basic childhood vaccines, such as the MMR vaccine, since the Covid vaccine rollout, leading to fears that there will be surges of these other infectious diseases that are preventable by vaccines that prevent disease transmission and infection
So let’s be clear what happened here. In the mRNA trials, 39 of the 40 severe cases occurred in the placebo group. While these were obviously amazing results, the vaccine and the virus were still brand new. Dr. Bhattacharya overhyped the vaccines, claiming they blocked transmission, obviated severe disease, and had “defanged” the pandemic. He mocked anyone who wisely took a more conservative approach.
Today, Dr. Bhattacharya, denies that the mRNA vaccines limit severe disease and wants them removed from the market. He excoriates others for his words, blaming them for vaccine-hesitancy and a loss of trust.
The one silver lining amongst these absurdities is that once Dr. Bhattacharya is confirmed to lead the NIH, he won’t be able to blame the “public health authorities” from the safety of his Stanford office. Moving forward, he’ll in charge, and if he feels we need new vaccine RCTs, it’s his job to do them. Meanwhile, from the safety of our offices, we all have the right to make endless demands of him, as he did with public health officials regarding COVID. If he fails to meet them all, we can blame and excoriate him, as he did with public health officials regarding COVID- “it was a failure of imagination on the part of public health“. He’s the medical establishment now, and he owns everything that’s going to happen.
Of course, it’s unlikely that Dr. Bhattacharya, working under RFK Jr., will perform the pristine vaccine RCTs he demanded of others. Instead, we are more likely to get more propaganda masquerading as science to further the MAGA/MAHA political agenda. Some of it will likely appear in the Journal of the Academy of Public Health, and everyone should recognize it for what it is.