Twitter’s latest Files, which focuses on the tech giant’s response in the face of the pandemic, features Dr. Scott Gottlieb as a former FDA Commissioner and sitting board member at Pfizer, a prominent COVID vaccine manufacturer.
Alex Berenson is a vocal COVID contrarian, whose past comments on the vaccine have been scorned by critics but praised by fans. He was granted access to Elon Musk’s Twitter Files to share his findings on his newsletter “Unreported Truths”.
Berenson shared Gottlieb’s August 2021 email to Twitter’s senior policy manager Todd O’Boyle. It flagged a tweet by Dr. Brett Giroir who wrote “It’s now obvious #COVID19 naturally immunity is superior to #vaccine immune, by ALOT.” If a person has had an infection in the past, there is no scientific basis for #vax proof.
Gottlieb said to O’Boyle, “This is the type of stuff that’s destructive.” “Here he draws an inconclusive conclusion from a single retrospective study done in Israel that was not peer reviewed. This tweet will go viral and drive news coverage.
Berenson claims that O’Boyle forwarded Gottlieb’s email via Twitter’s “Strategist Respond” team. He wrote “Please see this report by the former FDA commissioner.”
Later, Giroir’s tweet was labeled “misleading” and banned from sharing or liking. He also told Twitter users that “Learn why most health officials recommend a vaccination for most people.”
Gottlieb, a CNBC contributor, was a prominent media pundit at the height of pandemic. He flagged another tweet in September 2021 from Justin Hart (substack writer, COVID policy critic), which said “Sticks, stones may break my bones, but a viral disease with a child death rate of 0% have cost our children almost three years of education.”
Berenson wrote that Gottlieb’s objection to Hart’s words was not clear. However, the Pfizer shot for children aged 5-11 would soon be approved. This would be another huge market for Pfizer if parents can convince Covid to be a real threat to their children.”
Berenson reported that Gottlieb had also targeted him before he was suspended permanently from Twitter. (Berenson was reinstated in July 2022 following a legal battle against the tech giant).
Gottlieb tweeted August 2021 that Berenson had criticised Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“This is what’s promoted on Twitter. “This is why Tony needs security detail,” Gottlieb said to Twitter at the time.
Gottlieb responded to the Twitter Files by creating his own thread arguing that the emails disclosed don’t tell all.
“In the past I have raised concerns with Twitter regarding the safety of myself and others and the threats being made on Twitter. These threats could be direct or specific. Gottlieb wrote Monday that sometimes it contained statements that I believed to be intentionally false and inflamatory. “The threat environment is exacerbated by the selective disclosure of private communications I have made with Twitter. It also encourages people to express their opinions with no restraint. This encourages more dangerous dialogue with potentially grave consequences.”
This was the 13th installment in the Twitter Files. It was shared by prominent independent journalists, including Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss as well as Michael Shallenberger, Lee Fang, David Zweig, Lee Fang, and Michael Shallenberger.
Twitter Files from previous years have covered many topics, including the suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop story during the 2020 election, internal pressure to ban ex-President Trump permanently, and efforts by government officials and the White House to suppress content.