Now that most Americans have been vaccinated and many more have survived COVID with some natural immunity, the epidemic looks to be in the rear view mirror. COVID occupies much less air time on cable news. Their focus has shifted to other things.
This is probably a relief to most of us. People are tired of COVID and the relentless parade of pseudo-experts on TV who despite lacking credentials, have been thrust upon the public as authorities.
Dr. Robert Malone is the poster child for such pseudo-experts. Even though he never completed a clinical residency program, isn’t board certified or even board eligible, never did a clinical fellowship, has no hospital privileges or clinical experience, he was presented to the public as “the single most knowledgable expert” on COVID immunization.
Dr. Malone’s 15 minutes of fame ended several weeks ago as nearly all of his claims fell flat and people began to actually look at his resume. It’s clear now, he isn’t the expert he claimed to be.
So what will be his legacy? If you Google search on his name now, here is what comes up:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/technology/robert-malone-covid.html
The NY Times article above described Dr. Malone as “incredibly dishonest and morally bankrupt.”
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/robert-malone-targets-physician-who-alerted-medical-board-to-misinformation-69719
“Fact-checkers at Politifact, The New York Times, and elsewhere have repeatedly labeled Malone’s comments on these and other issues as false or misleading. His Twitter and LinkedIn accounts were suspended at the end of last year.”
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/jan/06/who-robert-malone-joe-rogans-guest-was-vaccine-sci/
“Malone has promoted several false and misleading claims about the COVID-19 vaccines and pandemic. His claim of being the mRNA vaccine inventor and his ability to speak fluidly in scientific terms have given him great appeal to anti-vaccine audiences.”
“His claims and suggestions have been discredited and denounced by medical professionals as not only wrong, but also dangerous. Twitter barred him for violating the platform’s coronavirus misinformation policy…”
https://www.businessinsider.com/dr-robert-malone-mrna-scientist-vaccine-skeptic-2022-2
“After getting kicked off Twitter in December for sharing some misleading interpretations of Pfizer's trial data, he's now largely confined to the extremist margins of the internet and society…”
“One target of Malone’s ire, the biochemist Katalin Karikó, has been featured in multiple news stories as an mRNA-vaccine pioneer. CNN called her work “the basis of the Covid-19 vaccine” while a New York Times headline said she had “helped shield the world from the coronavirus.” None of those stories mentioned Malone. “I’ve been written out of the history,” he has said. “It’s all about Kati.” Karikó shared with me an email that Malone sent her in June, accusing her of feeding reporters bogus information and inflating her own accomplishments. “This is not going to end well,” Malone’s message says.”
https://www.factcheck.org/person/dr-robert-malone/
“The approved and authorized COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. are effective at preventing severe disease, and experts say the benefits of vaccination for children outweigh any known or potential risk. But social media users have shared video of Dr. Robert Malone misleadingly asserting that the COVID-19 vaccines are “not working” and claiming without evidence that many children “will be hospitalized” and may experience brain damage and infertility due to the vaccines.”
https://www.factcheck.org/person/robert-malone/
“The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, though an emergency use authorization also remains in place. Dr. Robert Malone misleadingly said Americans are being offered the shot only under the latter and that it carried different liability ramifications. The liability protections, afforded under a public health law, are the same for the two.”
“Towards the end of the interview, Malone talked about mass formation psychosis, comparing the situation during the COVID-19 pandemic with the situation in Germany during the 20s and 30s. Several news outlets and fact-checking organizations covered his claim before (see articles by Reuters, AP News, PolitiFact). The term psychosis describes a state of mind that involves some loss of contact with reality. Jay Van Bavel, associate professor of psychology and neural science at New York University, told Reuters that the term mass formation psychosis “doesn’t exist as a real academic concept”.
Other psychologists refuted Malone’s claim as well. Steven Jay Lynn, a psychology professor at Binghamton University in New York, told AP News that the argument that a group can “literally become hypnotized and can be led anywhere” is based on a myth about hypnosis.
There is evidence that groups can influence an individual’s behavior. However, Chris Cocking, principal lecturer at the School of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences at the University of Brighton, explained to Reuters that “[t]he idea that crowds fall under a mass psychosis and are no longer responsible for their actions is a total myth that’s not supported by any credible evidence”.
There are hundreds of similar articles echoing similar themes. So how will Malone will be remembered?
In the final analysis, Dr. Malone had a tremendous opportunity to leave a positive legacy. He was extremely fortunate to have worked under Dr. Felgner, in his lab, on his mRNA transfection research. He could have chosen to have positioned himself as one of the many people who helped bring mRNA vaccination to fruition. Instead, because he didn’t get sole credit for it, he chose to do everything he could to destroy it.
Dr. Malone’s career can be characterized as an obscure underachiever who failed to make his mark in a positive way. So, he chose to go out with a blaze of glory, as the man who tried single handedly to undermine the vaccine he says he invented. Why? Because he didn’t get credit for inventing it.
Suffice it to say, his medical career is over. He may have a future as a political tool. But as a doctor, his legacy is forever destroyed.
I think you might learn something from this. https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/why-public-health-experts-never-want?r=wosn4&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Ann Bissett-Stahl, indeed. Lots of woo woo going on here.