Neitzel vs The World (of cranks and conspiracy theorists)

She finished med school, took on combating disinformation, made a few small mistakes on the way, and then they tried to silence her.

Some readers will be familiar with the work of US based Dr Allison Neitzel in combating disinformation, particularly in regards to anti-vax narratives and the connections between purveyors of alternative treatments.

Neitzel had been quiet for some time on social media and in her output for various outlets. On 30 March Neitzel put out a statement, correcting previous statements regarding the organisation FLCCC led by Dr Kory and Dr Marik.

If you read Neitzel's statement you'll see that the main issues include a few errors eg mixing up two papers by the same author, and a lack of clarity in some of her writing.

As also noted by David Gorski (more on his contribution to this topic later), it would appear by the language of this statement that Kory and Marik have pursued Neitzel with lawyers (most likely of the expensive kind), in an effort to shut down Neitzel’s work.

If Neitzel's statement is the result of legal pursuit, and these are the errors that she was made to address then it suggests that the details of the rest of her work is accurate.

The statement has been pounced on by many of the usual characters with a track record of disinformation, not errors like Neitzel but disinformation of the vaccines cause cancer and buy our vaccine detox products kind.

Thacker

One individual Paul Thacker (probably best known for his part in Elon Musk's selective Twitter Files), decided he’d try and spin the story further into a conspiracy theory by claiming Neitzel was falsely claiming to be a physician, using this claim to try and discredit her contributions to various media outlets. Neitzel is a qualified physician, she currently doesn’t have a licence due to focusing on her other work. This is also the case for Jay Bhattacharya who qualified but hasn’t practised and doesn’t also doesn’t hold a licence.

Thacker also contacted Gorski seeking to draw him into his conspiracy ramblings. The exchanges between Gorski and Thacker makes for entertaining reading,.Thacker included Gorski’s employers into the exchange in what appears to be an effort to intimidate him and then in his article misused a quote from Gorski in an incorrect context.

Gorski has written about the exchange and Thacker’s article. It’s worth a read to understand the dishonesty and lack of integrity demonstrated by Thacker in his attempt to smear Neitzel and anyone associated with her.

This is clearly an effort to silence Neitzel, it would appear that all a legal team could accomplish was a statement with a few corrections and so all that’s left to those who feel threatened by her work is smearing and intimidation.

How often have we read about how the pro-infection lobby was insulted and censored in articles where you might think they are the true victims of the pandemic?

Thacker then quietly corrected an error in his piece attacking someone for publicly correcting errors.

Thacker has a record for bad journalism.

Covered below by Gorski

Hoeg

It's also interesting that Thacker chose to approach Tracy Hoeg for comment, who proceeds to claim that Neitzel hasn't completed her training.

What makes Hoeg a particularly ironic choice to seek comment from, is that questions have been raised regarding how Hoeg advertises herself.

It would seem to be fair to say that Hoeg describing herself as an epidemiologist at UC Davis is being quite liberal with the truth, much more than a qualified physician describing herself as a qualified physician.

Based in the UK, I first encountered Hoeg when in 2021 she released a woeful pre-print VAERS dumpster dive. Curiously the same day the paper was released an article about it was published by the Telegraph newspaper. The author of the article was Camilla Turner who was named in the HARTleaks as having been in contact with the group UsForThem since mid 2020. UsForThem were campaigning against child vaccination as they had against every measure to protect children from infection. A spin off group Safer to Wait is now campaigning with RFK Jr’s Children’s Health Defense against the HPV vaccine.

Hoeg went on to join Urgency For Normal that followed the same campaigning narratives as UsForThem, she also became a member of The Norfolk Group and is now part of Ladapo’s Florida ethics committee.

When UC Davis ended Hoeg's unpaid non-academic appointment for research on knees she appeared on Jay Bhattacharya's podcast claiming she had lost her job due to her vaccine research.

Demonstrating the overlapping links between covid disinformation groups, it was HART and Pandata member Tess Lawrie who founded FLCCC’s UK sister organisation BIRD and then worked on questionable papers with Kory to back up his claims about ivermectin.

Attacks to Distract

The attacks on Neitzel don't change the facts her attackers wish to distract from, they are relying on a busted evidence base.

What may have started out as good intentions in a search for an effective treatment for covid has turned down a dark path. First there was hydroxychloroquine, all avenues were worth investigating but when trials began to show it was ineffective some just couldn’t accept the results and move on.

Link to article below

While some never managed to drop their infatuation with HCQ, ivermectin was pounced on as the next wonder drug.

Link to article below

There has also been a proliferation of alternative media promoting supplements and conspiracy theories, virtually all of which once again demonstrates the overlapping circles of individuals that makes up the disinformation ecosystem.

The Pile On

It's telling that so many high profile individuals involved in disinformation, who have complained so much about being censored and silenced despite having political and media support, have decided to engage in what appears to be a coordinated attack against a physician turned disinformation reporter who doesn’t have the backing of organisations with considerable financial resources or teams of lawyers.

As to be expected FLCCCs interpretation of Neitzel’s statement and Thacker’s hit piece is being regurgitated into repetitive pieces.

Why do such well connected individuals feel so threatened by a young physician like Neitzel?

Perhaps it's the same reason crank corner of social media produced and then repeatedly shared fake tweets they claimed had been written by another female physician?

As should be expected, and likely was expected by those who have chosen to attack her, Neitzel has become a target of abuse and calls for her execution.

I am reminded of Brownstone Institute's list of 101 people to “blame” for lockdown which also led to a wave of death threats and abuse towards those who were named, such violent imagery was acceptable at those now raging at Neitzel.

WhoWhatWhy have responded to the attack on Neitzel.

Others jumped into the attacks on Neitzel, doubled down and were left looking silly.

Thacker however, continues with his claims.

Neitzel has responded to Thacker’s attacks on her.

I Will Continue to Piss Off Men