{"id":247202,"date":"2021-12-18T08:30:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-18T08:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=247202"},"modified":"2021-12-20T08:24:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T08:24:41","slug":"covid-19-researcher-blows-the-whistle-on-data-integrity-issues-in-pfizers-vaccine-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=247202","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer\u2019s vaccine trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer\u2019s vaccine trial<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n

Open letter from The BMJ to Mark Zuckerberg<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dear Mark Zuckerberg,<\/p>\n

We are Fiona Godlee and Kamran Abbasi, editors of The BMJ, one of the world\u2019s oldest and most influential general medical journals. We are writing to raise serious concerns about the \u201cfact checking\u201d being undertaken by third party providers on behalf of Facebook\/Meta.<\/p>\n

In September, a former employee of Ventavia, a contract research company helping carry out the main Pfizer covid-19 vaccine trial, began providing The BMJ with dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings, and emails. These materials revealed a host of poor clinical trial research practices occurring at Ventavia that could impact data integrity and patient safety. We also discovered that, despite receiving a direct complaint about these problems over a year ago, the FDA did not inspect Ventavia\u2019s trial sites.<\/p>\n

The BMJ commissioned an investigative reporter to write up the story for our journal. The article was published on 2 November, following legal review, external peer review and subject to The BMJ\u2019s usual high level editorial oversight and review.[1]<\/p>\n

But from November 10, readers began reporting a variety of problems when trying to share our article. Some reported being unable to share it. Many others reported having their posts flagged with a warning about \u201cMissing context … Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people.\u201d Those trying to post the article were informed by Facebook that people who repeatedly share \u201cfalse information\u201d might have their posts moved lower in Facebook\u2019s News Feed. Group administrators where the article was shared received messages from Facebook informing them that such posts were \u201cpartly false.\u201d<\/p>\n

Readers were directed to a \u201cfact check\u201d performed by a Facebook contractor named Lead Stories.[2]<\/p>\n

We find the \u201cfact check\u201d performed by Lead Stories to be inaccurate, incompetent and irresponsible.<\/p>\n

— It fails to provide any assertions of fact that The BMJ article got wrong<\/p>\n

— It has a nonsensical title: \u201cFact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials\u201d<\/p>\n

— The first paragraph inaccurately labels The BMJ a \u201cnews blog\u201d<\/p>\n

— It contains a screenshot of our article with a stamp over it stating \u201cFlaws Reviewed,\u201d despite the Lead Stories article not identifying anything false or untrue in The BMJ article<\/p>\n

— It published the story on its website under a URL that contains the phrase \u201choax-alert\u201d<\/p>\n

We have contacted Lead Stories, but they refuse to change anything about their article or actions that have led to Facebook flagging our article.<\/p>\n

We have also contacted Facebook directly, requesting immediate removal of the \u201cfact checking\u201d label and any link to the Lead Stories article, thereby allowing our readers to freely share the article on your platform.<\/p>\n

There is also a wider concern that we wish to raise. We are aware that The BMJ is not the only high quality information provider to have been affected by the incompetence of Meta\u2019s fact checking regime. To give one other example, we would highlight the treatment by Instagram (also owned by Meta) of Cochrane, the international provider of high quality systematic reviews of the medical evidence.[3] Rather than investing a proportion of Meta\u2019s substantial profits to help ensure the accuracy of medical information shared through social media, you have apparently delegated responsibility to people incompetent in carrying out this crucial task. Fact checking has been a staple of good journalism for decades. What has happened in this instance should be of concern to anyone who values and relies on sources such as The BMJ.<\/p>\n

We hope you will act swiftly: specifically to correct the error relating to The BMJ\u2019s article and to review the processes that led to the error; and generally to reconsider your investment in and approach to fact checking overall.<\/p>\n

Best wishes,<\/p>\n

Fiona Godlee, editor in chief
\nKamran Abbasi, incoming editor in chief
\nThe BMJ<\/p>\n

Competing interests:
\nAs current and incoming editors in chief, we are responsible for everything The BMJ contains.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

[1] Thacker PD. Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial. BMJ. 2021 Nov 2;375:n2635. doi: 10.1136\/bmj.n2635. PMID: 34728500. https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/375\/bmj.n2635<\/a><\/p>\n

[2] Miller D. Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials. Nov 10, 2021. \u200b\u200bhttps:\/\/leadstories.com\/hoax-alert\/2021\/11\/fact-check-british-medical-jo…<\/a><\/p>\n

[3] https:\/\/twitter.com\/cochranecollab\/status\/1458439812357185536<\/a><\/p>\n

Competing interests: <\/strong>As current and incoming editors in chief, we are responsible for everything The BMJ contains.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The editors of The BMJ, one of the world\u2019s oldest and most influential medical journals, have called into question the integrity and objectivity of Facebook\u2019s Fact-Checkers. Are they really trying to verify what the media claims? Or are they actually trying to obscure the truth and protect Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s friends in big Pharma?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":194379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=247202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247203,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247202\/revisions\/247203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/194379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=247202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=247202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=247202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}