The latest Twitter files concerning the tech giant’s response to the pandemic focus on Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner and board member of well-known COVID vaccine maker Pfizer.
Alex Berenson, a vocal COVID opponent whose earlier comment on the vaccine was scorned by critics and praised by fans, was the latest to gain access to Elon Musk’s Twitter files and published his findings in his Unreported Truths substack newsletter.
Berenson shared an email Gottlieb sent to Todd O’Boyle, Twitter’s senior public policy manager, in August 2021, flagging a tweet by former Trump administration official Dr. Brett Giroir, who had written: “It is now clear that natural immunity from #COVID19 is equivalent to #vaccine immunity from ALOT. There is no scientific justification for #vax detection if a person has previously had an infection.”
“It’s the kind of stuff that sucks,” Gottlieb told O’Boyle. “Here he draws a comprehensive conclusion from a single non-peer-reviewed retrospective study in Israel. But this tweet will eventually go viral and drive coverage.”
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According to Berenson, O’Boyle forwarded Gottlieb’s email to Twitter’s “Strategist Response” team and wrote, “Please see this report from the former FDA commissioner.”
Giroir’s tweet was later labeled “misleading” and blocked any opportunity to like or share the tweet, telling Twitter users, “Learn why health officials are recommending a vaccine for most people.”
dr Scott Gottlieb is the latest character to appear in Elon Musk’s Twitter Files. (Portal/Eduardo Munoz)
Gottlieb, a CNBC contributor who was a prominent media pundit at the height of the pandemic, flagged another tweet in September 2021, one from Substack author and COVID policy critic Justin Hart, which read, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but a virus with a ~0% infant mortality rate has cost our children nearly three years of schooling.”
“Why Gottlieb protested Hart’s words is not clear, but the Pfizer shot would soon be legal for children aged 5 to 11, which represents another huge market for Pfizer if parents could be convinced that Covid was a real threat to children.” depicts her children,” Berenson wrote.
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Berenson noted in his report that Gottlieb also targeted him days before his permanent suspension from Twitter (Berenson was later reinstated in July 2022 following a legal battle with the tech giant).
In the August 2021 Gottlieb-flagged tweet, Berenson was critical of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“It’s being advertised on Twitter. That’s why Tony needs a security detail,” Gottlieb said on Twitter at the time.
dr Scott Gottlieb, a Pfizer board member and former FDA commissioner, has been prominent in media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. (Chris Usher/CBS via Getty Images)
In response to the latest Twitter files, Gottlieb posted his own thread, pointing out that the leaked emails don’t tell the whole story.
“In the past I have raised concerns on Twitter about my safety and others’ safety and threats on the platform. This included both direct and specific threats. Sometimes they contained statements that I felt were intentionally false and inflammatory,” Gottlieb wrote on Monday. “The selective disclosure of my private communications with Twitter fuels the threat environment. Likewise, actions that empower people who have shown little restraint when it comes to targeted malice. It instigates a more threatening dialogue with potentially dire consequences.”
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Gottlieb continued to share other emails he sent to Twitter to flag threatening tweets aimed at him and his family.
Alex Berenson, a former New York Times writer and vocal critic of COVID policies, was the latest to be tapped by Elon Musk to cover the “Twitter files.” (Fox News)
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This was the 13th installment of the Twitter Files, which went viral in the past month and was shared by prominent independent journalists including Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Michael Shallenberger, Lee Fang and David Zweig.
Previous Twitter files have covered a wide range of topics, from the suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop story during the 2020 presidential election, to the internal pressures it faces to permanently ban former President Trump, efforts by the White House and by government officials to suppress content, to the existence of shadow bans on prominent conservatives.
Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.