US: CDC Labelled Accurate Articles As Misinformation, Documents Show
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times
The top U.S. public health agency labelled multiple news articles as misinformation even though the articles were accurate, according to internal emails and experts.
The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added the misinformation labels to articles from sources in widely circulated internal messages, according to copies obtained by sources.
One of the articles reported in a peer-reviewed paper found heart inflammation, or myocarditis, was more common after COVID-19 vaccination than after COVID-19 infection.
Nordic researchers reviewed electronic health records and counted 109 cases of myocarditis following the COVID-19 infection, compared to 530 after vaccination. Their study was published by the British Medical Journal.
An internal CDC email said that the study “has been picked up by anti-vax proponents as evidence that vax was more likely to cause myocarditis than COVID-19 infection” and provided a hyperlink to The Epoch Times article.
The Feb. 7, 2023, email listed the article under “points of confusion/potential rumors/misinformation.”
The CDC did not list any data or other information supporting its label.
“The Epoch Times article should not be labelled as misinformation,” Dr. Tracy Hoeg, a physician-scientist at the University of California-San Francisco, told The Epoch Times via email.
Dr. Hoeg said the Nordic study aligned with earlier research, including a paper published by JAMA Cardiology that found myocarditis rates were higher among some populations after vaccination compared to after infection.
Another CDC email claimed a story reporting on how the U.S. government was receiving royalty payments from Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was inaccurate or misleading.
The Epoch Times article reported on how Moderna officials disclosed in an earnings call that the company entered a patent agreement with the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), sent a payment of $400 million, and would be paying additional royalties in the future.
“Anti-vax proponents question Moderna’s new patent agreement with NIAID, citing catch-up payments and royalties as a ‘conflict of interest,” the CDC email, dated March 1, 2023, stated.
An article from the source quoted Dr. Lawrence Tabak, the director at the time of the NIAID’s parent agency, as admitting royalty payments in general present “an appearance of a conflict of interest.”
The CDC defines employees taking part in matters in which they have a financial interest as a conflict of interest, while the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the parent agency of the CDC, says that financial conflicts of interest can compromise honesty “especially if the financial interests are significant.”
“It is certainly interesting that, confronted with possible ethics concerns, the CDC doesn’t address them but dismisses them as ‘misinformation,’” Michael Chamberlain, director of the nonprofit Protect the Public’s Trust, told sources via email.
The CDC also labelled the source’s video featuring a doctor describing data on COVID-19 vaccines negatively impacting gut health as misinformation, as the emails show, even though the video was based on published research.
“The information contained in these documents illustrates how federal health officials so rapidly squandered the trust of the American public, and it shows the danger of government setting itself up as an arbiter of truth,” Mr. Chamberlain said.
“The agency is quick to slap a derogatory label on any statements that don’t fit its preferred narrative and just as quick to impugn the motives of anyone who dares make those statements. This is not government working for the people; it is government acting as an adversary to the people.”
CDC Misinformation Emails by Zerohedge Janitor
