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The ex-Pfizer scientist who became an anti-vax hero
Retired scientist Michael Yeadon. REUTERS Illustration/via YouTube
Michael Yeadon was a scientific researcher and vice president at drugs giant Pfizer Inc. He co-founded a successful biotech. Then his career took an unexpected turn.
By STEVE STECKLOW and ANDREW MACASKILL in LONDON
Filed March 18, 2021, 11 a.m. GMT
Late last year, a semi-retired British scientist co-authored a petition to Europe’s medicines regulator. The petitioners made a bold demand: Halt COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials.
Even bolder was their argument for doing so: They speculated, without providing evidence, that the vaccines could cause infertility in women.
The document appeared on a German website on Dec.1. Scientists denounced the theory. Regulators weren’t swayed, either: Weeks later, the European Medicines Agency approved the European Union’s first COVID-19 shot, co-developed by Pfizer Inc. But damage was already done.
Social media quickly spread exaggerated claims that COVID-19 jabs cause female infertility. Within weeks, doctors and nurses in Britain began reporting that concerned women were asking them whether it was true, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists. In January, a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a non-profit organization, found that 13% of unvaccinated people in the United States had heard that “COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to cause infertility.”
What gave the debunked claim credibility was that one of the petition’s co-authors, Michael Yeadon, wasn’t just any scientist. The 60-year-old is a former vice president of Pfizer, where he spent 16 years as an allergy and respiratory researcher. He later co-founded a biotech firm that the Swiss drugmaker Novartis purchased for at least $325 million.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first COVID-19 shot to be authorized for use in the European Union. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
“These claims are false, dangerous and deeply irresponsible,” said a spokesman for Britain’s Department of Health & Social Care, when asked about Yeadon’s views. “COVID-19 vaccines are the best way to protect people from coronavirus and will save thousands of lives.”
Recent reports of blood clots and abnormal bleeding in a small number of recipients of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine have cast doubt on that shot’s safety, leading several European countries to suspend its use. The developments are likely to fuel vaccine hesitancy further, although there is no evidence of a causative link between the AstraZeneca product and the affected patients’ conditions.
Yeadon didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article. In reporting this story, Reuters reviewed thousands of his tweets over the past two years, along with other writings and statements. It also interviewed five people who know him, including four of his former colleagues at Pfizer.
A Pfizer spokesman declined to comment on Yeadon and his stint with the company, beyond emphasizing that there is no evidence that its vaccine, which it developed with its German partner BioNTech, causes infertility in women.
References to Yeadon’s petition appear on the website of a group founded by influential vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scion of the American political dynasty, who recently was banned on Instagram because of his COVID-19 vaccine posts. Syndicated writer and vaccine skeptic Michelle Malkin reported Yeadon’s concern about fertility in a column last month under the headline, “Pregnant Women: Beware of COVID Shots.” And a blog with an alarmist headline – “Head of Pfizer Research: Covid vaccine is female sterilization” – was shared thousands of times on Facebook.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., pictured in 2016, was recently banned on Instagram because of his COVID-19 vaccine posts. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith
The visage and views of Yeadon, widely identified as an “Ex-VP of Pfizer,’’ can be seen on social media in languages including German, Portuguese, Danish and Czech. A Facebook post carries a video from November in which Yeadon claimed that the pandemic “fundamentally… is over.” The post has been viewed more than a million times.
In October, Yeadon wrote a column for the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail newspaper that also appeared on MailOnline, one of the world’s most-visited news websites. It declared that deaths caused by COVID-19, which then totaled about 45,000 in Britain, will soon “fizzle out” and Britons “should immediately be allowed to resume normal life.” Since then, the disease has killed about another 80,000 people in the UK.
Yeadon isn’t the only respected scientist to have challenged the scientific consensus on COVID-19 and expressed controversial views.
Michael Levitt, a winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, told the Stanford Daily last summer that he expected the pandemic would end in the United States in 2020 and kill no more than 175,000 Americans – a third of the current total – and “when we come to look back, we’re going to say that wasn’t such a terrible disease.” And Luc Montagnier, another Nobel Prize winner, said last year that he believed the coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab. Many experts doubt that, but so far there is no way to prove or disprove it.
Levitt told Reuters that his projections about the pandemic in the United States were wrong, but he still believes COVID-19 eventually won’t be seen as “a terrible disease” and that lockdowns “caused a great deal of collateral damage and may not have been needed.” Montagnier didn’t respond to a request for comment.
What gives Yeadon particular credibility is the fact that he worked at Pfizer, says Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an organization that combats online misinformation. “Yeadon’s background gives his dangerous and harmful messages false credibility.”
Michael Levitt, a winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, believes COVID-19 eventually won’t be seen as a terrible disease and that lockdowns “may not have been needed.” REUTERS/Stephen Lam
Dr. Luc Montagnier, who won a Nobel Prize for his part in discovering HIV, said last year he believes the coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
In a debate last fall in Britain’s House of Commons about the government’s response to the pandemic, parliamentarian Richard Drax called Yeadon an “eminent” scientist, and cited his view “that the virus is both manageable and nearing its end.” Drax didn’t respond to a request for comment.
More recently, David Kurten, a member of the London Assembly – an elected body – tweeted there is a “real danger” that COVID-19 vaccines could leave women infertile. “The ‘cure’ must not be worse than the ‘disease’,” Kurten wrote. He, too, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Why Yeadon transformed from mainstream scientist to COVID-19 vaccine skeptic remains a mystery. Thousands of his tweets stretching back to the start of the pandemic document a dramatic shift in his views – early on, he supported a vaccine strategy. But they offer few clues to explain his radical turnabout.
Some former colleagues at Pfizer say they no longer recognize the Mike Yeadon they once knew. They described him as a knowledgeable and intelligent man who always insisted on seeing evidence and generally avoided publicity.
One of those ex-colleagues is Sterghios A. Moschos, who holds degrees in molecular biology and pharmaceutics. In December, Yeadon posted on Twitter a spoof sign that said, “DITCH THE MASK.” Moschos tweeted back: “Mike what hell ?! Are you out to actively kill people? You do realize that if you are wrong, your suggestions will result in deaths ??”
A Twitter exchange between Michael Yeadon and a former Pfizer colleague from December 2020. Twitter/Screenshot
“It’ll all fade away”
Yeadon joined Twitter in October 2018 and soon became a prolific user of the platform. The thousands of his tweets reviewed by Reuters were provided by archive.org, which stores web pages, and FollowersAnalysis, a social media analytics company.
When the coronavirus pandemic reached the UK in March 2020, Yeadon initially expressed support for developing a vaccine. He tweeted: “Covid 19 is not going away. Until we have a vaccine or herd immunity” – natural resistance resulting from prior exposure to the virus – “all that can be done is to slow its spread.” A week later he tweeted: “A vaccine might be along towards the end of 2021, if we’re really lucky.”
When a fellow Twitter user said vaccines “harm many, many people,” Yeadon replied: “Ok, please refuse it, but do not impede its flow to neutrals or those keen to get it, thanks.”
After Mathai Mammen, the global head of research & development for Janssen, the pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson, posted on LinkedIn last summer that his company had started clinical trials of a vaccine, Yeadon responded: “Lovely to see this milestone, Mathai!” Mammen didn’t respond to a request for comment.
But as early as April, Yeadon had begun voicing unorthodox views.
Retired scientist Michael Yeadon. REUTERS Illustration/via YouTube
Michael Yeadon was a scientific researcher and vice president at drugs giant Pfizer Inc. He co-founded a successful biotech. Then his career took an unexpected turn.
By STEVE STECKLOW and ANDREW MACASKILL in LONDON
Filed March 18, 2021, 11 a.m. GMT
Late last year, a semi-retired British scientist co-authored a petition to Europe’s medicines regulator. The petitioners made a bold demand: Halt COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials.
Even bolder was their argument for doing so: They speculated, without providing evidence, that the vaccines could cause infertility in women.
The document appeared on a German website on Dec.1. Scientists denounced the theory. Regulators weren’t swayed, either: Weeks later, the European Medicines Agency approved the European Union’s first COVID-19 shot, co-developed by Pfizer Inc. But damage was already done.
Social media quickly spread exaggerated claims that COVID-19 jabs cause female infertility. Within weeks, doctors and nurses in Britain began reporting that concerned women were asking them whether it was true, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists. In January, a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a non-profit organization, found that 13% of unvaccinated people in the United States had heard that “COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to cause infertility.”
What gave the debunked claim credibility was that one of the petition’s co-authors, Michael Yeadon, wasn’t just any scientist. The 60-year-old is a former vice president of Pfizer, where he spent 16 years as an allergy and respiratory researcher. He later co-founded a biotech firm that the Swiss drugmaker Novartis purchased for at least $325 million.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first COVID-19 shot to be authorized for use in the European Union. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
In recent months, Yeadon (pronounced Yee-don) has emerged as an unlikely hero of the so-called anti-vaxxers, whose adherents question the safety of many vaccines, including for the coronavirus. The anti-vaxxer movement has amplified Yeadon’s skeptical views about COVID-19 vaccines and tests, government-mandated lockdowns and the arc of the pandemic. Yeadon has said he personally doesn’t oppose the use of all vaccines. But many health experts and government officials worry that opinions like his fuel vaccine hesitancy – a reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated – that could prolong the pandemic. COVID-19 has already killed more than 2.6 million people worldwide.“These claims are false, dangerous and deeply irresponsible.”
A spokesman for Britain’s Department of Health & Social Care
“These claims are false, dangerous and deeply irresponsible,” said a spokesman for Britain’s Department of Health & Social Care, when asked about Yeadon’s views. “COVID-19 vaccines are the best way to protect people from coronavirus and will save thousands of lives.”
Recent reports of blood clots and abnormal bleeding in a small number of recipients of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine have cast doubt on that shot’s safety, leading several European countries to suspend its use. The developments are likely to fuel vaccine hesitancy further, although there is no evidence of a causative link between the AstraZeneca product and the affected patients’ conditions.
Yeadon didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article. In reporting this story, Reuters reviewed thousands of his tweets over the past two years, along with other writings and statements. It also interviewed five people who know him, including four of his former colleagues at Pfizer.
A Pfizer spokesman declined to comment on Yeadon and his stint with the company, beyond emphasizing that there is no evidence that its vaccine, which it developed with its German partner BioNTech, causes infertility in women.
References to Yeadon’s petition appear on the website of a group founded by influential vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scion of the American political dynasty, who recently was banned on Instagram because of his COVID-19 vaccine posts. Syndicated writer and vaccine skeptic Michelle Malkin reported Yeadon’s concern about fertility in a column last month under the headline, “Pregnant Women: Beware of COVID Shots.” And a blog with an alarmist headline – “Head of Pfizer Research: Covid vaccine is female sterilization” – was shared thousands of times on Facebook.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., pictured in 2016, was recently banned on Instagram because of his COVID-19 vaccine posts. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith
The visage and views of Yeadon, widely identified as an “Ex-VP of Pfizer,’’ can be seen on social media in languages including German, Portuguese, Danish and Czech. A Facebook post carries a video from November in which Yeadon claimed that the pandemic “fundamentally… is over.” The post has been viewed more than a million times.
In October, Yeadon wrote a column for the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail newspaper that also appeared on MailOnline, one of the world’s most-visited news websites. It declared that deaths caused by COVID-19, which then totaled about 45,000 in Britain, will soon “fizzle out” and Britons “should immediately be allowed to resume normal life.” Since then, the disease has killed about another 80,000 people in the UK.
Yeadon isn’t the only respected scientist to have challenged the scientific consensus on COVID-19 and expressed controversial views.
Michael Levitt, a winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, told the Stanford Daily last summer that he expected the pandemic would end in the United States in 2020 and kill no more than 175,000 Americans – a third of the current total – and “when we come to look back, we’re going to say that wasn’t such a terrible disease.” And Luc Montagnier, another Nobel Prize winner, said last year that he believed the coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab. Many experts doubt that, but so far there is no way to prove or disprove it.
Levitt told Reuters that his projections about the pandemic in the United States were wrong, but he still believes COVID-19 eventually won’t be seen as “a terrible disease” and that lockdowns “caused a great deal of collateral damage and may not have been needed.” Montagnier didn’t respond to a request for comment.
What gives Yeadon particular credibility is the fact that he worked at Pfizer, says Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an organization that combats online misinformation. “Yeadon’s background gives his dangerous and harmful messages false credibility.”
Michael Levitt, a winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, believes COVID-19 eventually won’t be seen as a terrible disease and that lockdowns “may not have been needed.” REUTERS/Stephen Lam
Dr. Luc Montagnier, who won a Nobel Prize for his part in discovering HIV, said last year he believes the coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
In a debate last fall in Britain’s House of Commons about the government’s response to the pandemic, parliamentarian Richard Drax called Yeadon an “eminent” scientist, and cited his view “that the virus is both manageable and nearing its end.” Drax didn’t respond to a request for comment.
More recently, David Kurten, a member of the London Assembly – an elected body – tweeted there is a “real danger” that COVID-19 vaccines could leave women infertile. “The ‘cure’ must not be worse than the ‘disease’,” Kurten wrote. He, too, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Why Yeadon transformed from mainstream scientist to COVID-19 vaccine skeptic remains a mystery. Thousands of his tweets stretching back to the start of the pandemic document a dramatic shift in his views – early on, he supported a vaccine strategy. But they offer few clues to explain his radical turnabout.
Some former colleagues at Pfizer say they no longer recognize the Mike Yeadon they once knew. They described him as a knowledgeable and intelligent man who always insisted on seeing evidence and generally avoided publicity.
One of those ex-colleagues is Sterghios A. Moschos, who holds degrees in molecular biology and pharmaceutics. In December, Yeadon posted on Twitter a spoof sign that said, “DITCH THE MASK.” Moschos tweeted back: “Mike what hell ?! Are you out to actively kill people? You do realize that if you are wrong, your suggestions will result in deaths ??”
A Twitter exchange between Michael Yeadon and a former Pfizer colleague from December 2020. Twitter/Screenshot
“It’ll all fade away”
Yeadon joined Twitter in October 2018 and soon became a prolific user of the platform. The thousands of his tweets reviewed by Reuters were provided by archive.org, which stores web pages, and FollowersAnalysis, a social media analytics company.
When the coronavirus pandemic reached the UK in March 2020, Yeadon initially expressed support for developing a vaccine. He tweeted: “Covid 19 is not going away. Until we have a vaccine or herd immunity” – natural resistance resulting from prior exposure to the virus – “all that can be done is to slow its spread.” A week later he tweeted: “A vaccine might be along towards the end of 2021, if we’re really lucky.”
When a fellow Twitter user said vaccines “harm many, many people,” Yeadon replied: “Ok, please refuse it, but do not impede its flow to neutrals or those keen to get it, thanks.”
After Mathai Mammen, the global head of research & development for Janssen, the pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson, posted on LinkedIn last summer that his company had started clinical trials of a vaccine, Yeadon responded: “Lovely to see this milestone, Mathai!” Mammen didn’t respond to a request for comment.
But as early as April, Yeadon had begun voicing unorthodox views.
The ex-Pfizer scientist who became an anti-vax hero.
The ex-Pfizer scientist who became an anti-vax hero.
www.reuters.com
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