Mainstream Doctors and Scientists Face Censorship and Suppression for Dissenting COVID Views: Study

A pharmacist prepares a dose behind a counter lined with vials of COVID-19 vaccines in Toronto on June 18, 2021. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

Mainstream doctors and scientists who expressed dissenting COVID-19-related views reported censorship and suppression by media and medical authorities in a recent study.

The study found “significant involvement of the media and the medical establishment in censorship and suppression of dissenters.”

The qualitative study, published by four Israelis and an Australian on Nov. 1 in the academic journal Minerva by Springer, included the subjective perceptions of 13 doctors and scientists from 7 countries: the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany, Israel, and the Czech Republic.

Nine participants hold an MD or a Ph.D. degree, and four hold both. Most of them are well-known in their fields, with proven research backgrounds and many academic publications. The participants remained anonymous.

The study found that COVID-19 censoring of doctors and researchers with flawless resumes and even senior academic or medical positions “has become a regular phenomenon.”

“The message is that no one is exempt from censorship and no academic or medical status, senior as it may be, is a guaranteed shield against it,” according to the study.

The study, called “Censorship and Suppression of Covid-19 Heterodoxy: Tactics and Counter-Tactics” found that both the media and medical authorities used a wide variety of censorship and suppressive tactics against the participants.

‘Derogatory Comments and Labels’

The media companies included both mainstream media and social media companies.

Tactics used by the media included “derogatory comments and labels, often using ostensibly independent ‘third-party’ sources such as anonymous ‘fact-checkers’ or other doctors, and online censorship involving the removal of their social media and internet contents and accounts,” according to the study.

Tactics used by medical authorities included “defamation and intimidation; retraction of scientific papers after publication; dismissal or adverse changes to employment contracts; aggressive actions aimed at sabotaging other significant roles of the individual, such as participating in important committees or serving as editors of scientific journals,” the study said.

Some of the participants reported being subjected to investigations and attempts to revoke their medical license in formal proceedings.

The participants believed that these tactics aimed to distract public attention from their message and deflect the discussion from their criticism or the allegations they raised.

The authors identified that the main limitation of the study is that the findings are based on subjective perspectives.

Dr. Robert Malone, one of the original inventors of the messenger RNA vaccine technology platform, called it a “stunning paper.”

“Having personally lived through what may be among the most intensive slander, defamation, and derision campaigns of the COVID crisis, none of what was described in this article surprised me,” wrote Malone on his Substack page.

McCullough

The lead author, Yaffa Shir-Raz is a health journalist and risk communication researcher.

Shir-Raz obtained a leaked video from a source and publicly released clips from it beginning in mid-August. The video, a recording of an internal meeting in June of researchers commissioned by the Israeli Ministry of Health to analyze adverse event reports, revealed new information about side effects following COVID-19 vaccination.

Shir-Raz also highlighted on Twitter the case of Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist in the United States.

A top medical board recently moved to strip McCullough, who has raised questions about the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines, of his certification.

McCullough, a former vice chief of internal medicine at Baylor University Medical Center in Texas and now the chief medical adviser for the Truth for Health Foundation, was previously banned by Twitter in early October.

“Twitter claimed that I violated the community rules after thousands of consistent posts on scientific abstracts, and manuscripts,” he told NTD’s “Capitol Report.”

McCullough said that he’s been providing updates on COVID-19 vaccines and related pandemic issues due to a feeling of responsibility.

“I felt I had the medical authority and professional responsibility to lead the nation. I’ve testified twice now in the U.S. Senate, multiple state Senates,” he said. “I’ve messaged the best I can through the peer-reviewed literature as well as with podcasts and now Substack formats.”

The Epoch Times confirmed that as of Nov. 7 McCullough remains banned on Twitter.

McCullough wrote on Gettr, a Twitter competitor, that the new study is an “unprecedented peer reviewed paper calling out censorship and reprisal by governments against clinical and academic physicians bringing the pandemic truth forward.”

Zachary Stieber and Steve Lance contributed to this report.