(PM.) Alex Berenson dropped records from the Twitter Files on Monday, stating that a board member for Pfizer pressured Twitter to suppress and censor any posts questioning the efficacy of the company’s mRNA vaccine.
On August 27, 2021, Pfizer Board Member Dr. Scott Gottlieb emailed Todd O’Boyle, a Senior Manager of Public Policy at Twitter’s Washington, DC location, according to LinkedIn, and also Twitter’s point of contact with the White House, Berenson reported.
The email subject line contained a tweet from Dr. Brett Giroir, who had briefly served under Gottlieb in the Food and Drug Administration.
That tweet read: “It’s now clear that [Covid-19] natural immunity is superior to [vaccine] immunity, by ALOT. There’s no scientific justification for [vax proof] if a person had prior infection.”
2/ In August 2021, Gottlieb told Todd O’Boyle – a senior manager in Twitter’s public policy department – that a tweet from @drgiroir claiming CORRECTLY that natural immunity was superior to vaccine immunity was “corrosive” and might “go viral.”
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 9, 2023
The tweet added that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and President Joe Biden “must follow the science. If no previous infection? Get vaccinated!”
In response to the tweet, Gottlieb told O’Boyle, “This is the kind of stuff that’s corrosive. Here he draws a sweeping conclusion off of a single retrospective study in Israel that hasn’t been peer-reviewed. But this tweet will end up going viral and driving news coverage.”
O’Boyle forwarded Gottlieb’s email to the Twitter “Strategic Response” team through Jira, an internal system used by Twitter for managing complaints, according to Berenson.
The Strategic Response team is responsible “for handling concerns from the company’s most important employees and users,” Berenson wrote.
O’Boyle wrote in this forwarding email, “Please see this report from the former FDA commissioner,” leaving out that Gottlieb was a Pfizer board member, one of the companies manufacturing the mRNA vaccines used against Covid-19.
While a Strategic Response analyst found that the tweet didn’t violate Twitter’s rules on misinformation, the tweet was still flagged as “misleading.”
Gottlieb brought forth a tweet to O’Boyle again on September 3, 2021, written by Justin Hart, which stated, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but a viral pathogen with a child mortality rate of ~0% has cost our children nearly three years of schooling.”
Sticks and stones may break my bones but a viral pathogen with a child mortality rate of ~0% has cost our children nearly three years of schooling. 😡
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) September 4, 2021
4/ In October 2022, @scottgottliebmd claimed on Twitter and CNBC that he was not trying to suppress debate on mRNA jabs. These files prove that Gottlieb – board member at a company that has made $70 billion on the shots – did just that.
Full story here:https://t.co/UbHlmtjELP
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 9, 2023
In response to the latest Twitter Files drop, Twitter owner Elon Musk wrote, “Some conspiracies are actually true.”
Gottlieb also responded, writing in a Twitter thread, “In the past, I’ve raised concerns with Twitter related to the safety of me and others, and threats being made on the platform. This included direct as well as specific threats. Sometimes it included statements that I believed were purposely false and inflammatory.”
🧵In the past, I’ve raised concerns with Twitter related to the safety of me and others, and threats being made on the platform. This included direct as well as specific threats. Sometimes it included statements that I believed were purposely false and inflammatory 👇
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) January 9, 2023
Gottlieb said that “The selective disclosure of my private communications with Twitter stokes the threat environment.”
“So does actions that empower people who’ve shown little restraint when it comes to purposeful vitriol. It instigates more menacing dialogue, with potentially serious consequences,” he added.
If the goal of TwitterFiles is transparency, here’s some of the private e-mails I had with Twitter, related to threats and safety, which weren’t released; and which I repeatedly highlighted in my communications with the platform. Safety remains an existential concern for Twitter:
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) January 9, 2023
Gottlieb released additional emails in which he communicated with Twitter, adding that “safety remains an existential concern for Twitter,” and that “if the goal of TwitterFiles is transparency, here’s some of the private e-mails I had with Twitter.”
One of these emails to O’Boyle on October 1, 2021, said, “Todd, this doxxes me, invokes my wife. I have given it over to some security folks, but wanted to flag for you as well.”
In response, O’Boyle wrote, “Hi Scott – sorry to hear that. I’ll send it to our team right away.”
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) January 9, 2023
