A little over a week ago, Dr. Allison Neitzel, a passionate young physician who had over the preceding three years become a leading voice combatting COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation posted Correction, Clarification, and Update to her website and Substack. If you go to her website now, this is what you will see on the splash page:
This post is not primarily about the substance of Dr. Neitzel’s apology, which very much “feels” forced. Rather, it’s how, after anti-GMO and COVID-19 antivax crank (as well as discredited “journalist” turned conspiracy mongering hack) Paul Thacker emailed me on Monday for “comment” before he posted an article on his Substack that, in essence, joined in on the pile-on with a highly deceptive article designed to falsely deny that Dr. Neitzel is a physician.
A forced “apology”? Probably. It’s also the first step in the attack.
Before I discuss how antivax quacks have targeted Dr. Neitzel, let me just discuss the language of her post. Read it for yourself and see if you don’t agree with me. The first thing I noticed reading her “apology” was that it has unmistakeable hallmarks of having been either crafted by lawyers or, at the very least, crafted with the heavy input of lawyers. Soon after this was posted to her website and Substack, I started noticing people whom I consider to be antivax quacks and grifters to the point that I’ve written about them myself multiple times posting about her apology, leading me to ask: Why might all this be be? As I’ve said before, I can’t know for sure given that there is no public document trail on legal databases that I have yet been able to find. However, given the language used in this “apology,” I immediately suspect that, most likely, Dr. Neitzel was threatened with legal action by the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care (FLCCC) Alliance and its two founding physicians whom I view as ivermectin-pushing COVID-19 antivax quacks Drs. Pierre Kory and Paul Marik.
I further speculate that the FLCCC probably targeted Dr. Neitzel because she is a young woman and fresh out of medical school. Also, not having done a residency or obtained a medical license, she cannot practice medicine (and, I’d be willing to bet, probably has accumulated significant medical school debt), which means that she almost certainly did not have the resources to defend against the lawsuit being threatened, which, I strongly suspect, was like catnip to those who engage in legal thuggery. Of course, I have to leave open the possibility that I might be mistaken in having detected the hallmarks of a “confession” coerced by legal thuggery by quacks, but, seriously, think about it for just a moment: Why else would Dr. Neitzel post such a carefully crafted apology other than because she was being threatened with legal action? As far as I can tell, there has as yet been no actual legal filing against her, but there didn’t need to be. Just the threat of a libel suit could easily have been enough, particularly against someone without the resources to defend herself. Again, I could be wrong, but don’t think that I am.
However Dr. Neitzel’s apology came about, though, the usual characters attacked immediately. On the same day that Dr. Neitzel posted her clarification, the FLCCC gloated about it on their Substack (where else?), further gloating about a similar “apology” from Australian physician and PhD candidate, Dr. Kyle Sheldrick, who had suggested that a 2017 Chest paper by Dr. Marik on vitamin C and sepsis had been fraudulent. Dr. Sheldrick, of course, had in the past teamed up with Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz to demonstrate that several of the clinical trials concluding that ivermectin is effective treating COVID-19 were likely fraudulent; so I guess his being forced to apologize for having criticized Dr. Marik’s prepandemic work was an added bonus to the ivermectin cultists.
I also noted that the rapidity with which the FLCCC and some of the usual suspects had published in essence a press release after Dr. Neitzel had apologized might lead one to believe that they knew when the apology was coming and were prepared for it. Soon after, a number of other cranks were gloating about her apology, as though it completely discredited her (it did not) and meant that the FLCCC were anything other but the bunch of grifting COVID-19 antivax quacks that I believe them to. be. One of these Substack posts was particularly annoying, dripping as it was, with overwrought Christian “forgiveness”:
I am glad she has had the courage to repent, essentially, of the misinformation she has purveyed; this is a large step for someone to take, humbling herself, and is a step in the right direction, without any doubt.
Considering how many lives the FLCCC protocols have saved, it is to be regretted that many more lives could have been saved if the media had not spread Dr Neitzel’s false statements abroad. It is indeed quite regrettable that Neitzel’s statements were used to make people doubt these protocols; ironically, considering the title of her substack, misinformation kills, it is quite likely that Neitzel’s misinformation has resulted in the death of many people, who might otherwise have been saved by the FLCCC protocols.
It is worth remembering that Jesus died for sinners: Dr Neitzel is one such sinner for whom Jesus died, as am I, as are you. Forgiveness is to found at the foot of the cross, for her sins, for your sins, for Dr Kory’s sins and Dr. Marik’s sins, and for my many sins also, dear reader, thank God. This Easter day I will be praying for Dr. Neitzel, Dr Kory, and Dr. Marik.
That’s nice, although in reality, if you’re going to pray for Drs. Marik and Kory, you should pray that they repent for the harm they have caused COVID-19 patients through their spreading of ivermectin misinformation. Dr. Neitzel did nothing wrong, other than maybe some rookie mistakes and overwrought language. Certainly, in my estimation, she has far more integrity than Drs. Marik and Kory are capable of.
Be that as it may, I notice that, surprisingly, most of these gloating posts didn’t gain nearly as much traction as I had feared they would; that is, until hack conspiracy “journalist” Paul Thacker posted his hit piece. In it, based on a highly legalistic definition of “physician” for purposes of defining who can practice medicine in Wisconsin (where Dr. Neitzel lives) he tried to argue that Dr. Neitzel is not a physician. Not only were Thacker’s arguments utter trash, but his research was clearly very sloppy as well, with him mixing up MedPage Today and Medscape, as well as mistakenly writing that I reside in Wisconsin when he should have known I reside in Michigan. Particularly amusing was how, instead of ‘fessing up to his screwup regarding my place of residence, he quietly fixed his text without a note that the text has been altered. I can’t resist posting again the before-and-after screenshots:
There’s no need for me to go over how I know from his email exchange, in which he cc’ed my medical school dean and department chair to try to intimidate me (or at least cause me trouble at work), as I wrote it all up in detail a couple of days ago. Go read it. I think it’s one of my better and funnier takedowns in a long time, if I do say so myself. Suffice to say that it was after Thacker’s hack hit job that the big names started to pile on, cleaning up his hackiness and making his reporting seem less sloppy than it was. Key to this effort is Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., “senior reporter” for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s antivax org Children’s Health Defense, whose PhD is not in any scientific or medical discipline, but in media studies and last seen in this blog regurgitating old antivax lies about the number of vaccines in a country’s childhood vaccine schedule correlating with infant mortality and falsely claiming that RSV vaccines are associated with excess death. Nevradakis posted to RFK Jr.’s antivax publication The Defender an article entitled ‘Misinformation Expert’ Who Attacked Doctors During COVID Apologizes for Some — But Not All — Comments. (The article was also published on one of the up-and-coming larger antivax propaganda sites, Vigilant News.)
The blurb approvingly cites Thacker, because of course it does:
In a March 29 tweet, Allison Neitzel, founder of “Misinformation Kills,” apologized for online posts she made in 2022 attacking doctors for their views on COVID-19. Investigative journalist Paul D. Thacker blamed the media for creating “experts” who have “no credibility.”
Thacker owes me another irony meter, given his charge against “experts” who have “no credibility.” Project much, sir? I have a hard time thinking of an antivax “journalist” with less credibility than you, other than, perhaps, Sharyl Attkisson. Maybe. It’s a tough call.
In any case, let’s dig in.
Repeating and amplifying Thacker’s misleading attacks on Dr. Neitzel
I’ve already documented at length and in depth how misleading—one might even say downright dishonest—and sloppy Thacker’s hit piece on Dr. Neitzel was. So let’s see where Nevradakis goes with it:
According to investigative journalist Paul D. Thacker, who reported the news this week in The Disinformation Chronicle, mainstream media outlets and science websites, including CNN, NBC, Mother Jones, MedPage Today and Medscape, frequently cited Neitzel as a “misinformation expert.”
According to Thacker, several outlets cited Neitzel not only as a “misinformation expert” but also as a physician — even though she “is not now, nor has she ever been, a physician,” at least according to the law in Wisconsin, her home state.
“We have accepted Dr. Neitzel’s apology and are glad to move on,” Marik, the FLCCC’s chief scientific officer, told The Defender.
“When physicians were coming together to face one of the most serious public health crises of our lifetimes, Dr. Neitzel used her time to accuse others of fraud and call them grifters,” Kory, FLCCC president and chief medical officer, told The Defender.
“Unfortunately, it happened, and we accept her apology and have put this distraction behind us,” Kory said.
How magnanimous. (Yes, that’s sarcasm.) Again, Dr. Neitzel’s apology has many hallmarks of having been coerced by legal threats. It’s very easy for Dr. Kory to sound magnanimous if, as I suspect, he used his vastly superior resources to force Dr. Neitzel to apologize.
Meanwhile, Thacker owes me another irony meter yet again:
Thacker said Neitzel’s story “encapsulates everything that went wrong during COVID when self-defined ‘disinformation reporters’ glommed onto anyone they tripped over on social media as an ‘expert’ they could deploy to castigate those refusing to bend the knee to Big Pharma.”
Thacker said the media creates these experts “because they have narratives they’re trying to push, and they need an expert that they can cite instead of pretending that they’re doing journalism, not just editorializing.”
Accordingly, they need to find an expert to be a voice in their stories, Thacker said. “What you find out is, a lot of times these experts, they’re not really an expert in anything. They’re experts created by the media,” Thacker said. “The way Neitzel became famous … was that she was able to say that she was a physician.”
The bullshit doth flow. No, the way Dr. Neitzel became (sort of) famous is because she is a physician (again, go back and read my post if you don’t believe me) and she did good work combatting the sort of misinformation spread by groups like the FLCCC and its PR machine made up of hacks like Thacker.
With these people, every accusation is a confession. Seriously. The vast majority of the fake experts enabled by the mainstream media were first created by COVID-19 conspiracy theorists. I’m talking, yes, people like Drs. Marik and Kory, both of whom are critical care specialists and neither of whom is an “expert” on viruses, epidemiology, or public health. Don’t even get me started on Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg, who before the pandemic was a sports medicine doctor but somehow managed to morph after COVID-19 hit into a faux public health “expert” on school reopening, despite her history of minimizing COVID-19 and advocating for “natural herd immunity”-like approaches to the pandemic.
Again, every accusation is a confession:
According to Thacker, Neitzel is one of many people the media “launched into prominence during the pandemic because they served as useful idiots for ‘disinformation journalists’ needing a quotable ‘expert’ to bash people who dared question conventional COVID wisdom.”
According to Orac, the physicians Thacker admires are some of many people the media “launched into prominence during the pandemic because they served as useful idiots for journalists needing a quotable ‘expert’ to bash Anthony Fauci and those who who dared promote conventional COVID public health measures and vaccines for COVID-19.
But, pray, go on, Mr. Thacker. I am amused:
What’s more, media outlets that quoted Neitzel as an expert “hadn’t bothered to do a modicum of due diligence before platforming her,” referring to her as a licensed physician when she wasn’t, Thacker wrote.
I believe that Thacker is very likely just plain lying here, as he knows better. If he’s not, then I’m sure he’ll be able to provide examples of mainstream media outlets referring to Dr. Neitzel as a “licensed physician” rather than just as a “physician.” No matter how much Thacker tries to conflate the two, as I discussed before, you don’t have to be licensed to be a physician. You just have to be licensed in a state if you want to be able to legally practice medicine and care for patients in that state. It’s very telling that, for all his ranting, Thacker has yet to produce a single example of a publication referring to Dr. Neitzel as not just a “physician” (which she is) but a “licensed physician” (which neither she nor anyone else claimed that she is).
However, as before, Thacker relies on legalistic pedantry to justify his lie:
Wisconsin law defines a physician as “an individual possessing the degree of doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathy or an equivalent degree as determined by the medical examining board, and holding a license granted by the medical examining board.”
Neitzel is not listed in the National Provider Identifier Standard, which lists all licensed physicians in the U.S.
“What makes Allison Neitzel unique,” Thacker wrote, “is that she was forced to retract and apologize for her lies and fake claims.”
“Forced to retract and apologize”? Thacker appears to have slipped up here and all but admitted that Dr. Neitzel apologized under threat of a libel suit, doesn’t he? Not very slick, is he? I mean, how else would Dr. Neitzel have been “forced to retract and apologize,” if not through legal threats by those to whom she was “forced” to “apologize”?
On Twitter, it’s even more obvious that Dr. Neitzel was being threatened and was therefore forced to “apologize”:
Thacker doesn’t appear too cautious about, more or less, admitting it, though:
Again, I challenge Mr. Thacker to produce even a single example to back up his claim that Dr. Neitzel was being represented in the press as a “licensed physician.” I’ll wait. I’ll even admit I was wrong if he can come up with an actual example. However, I suspect that he will not, because if there were an such an example that he was aware of you can bet he would have been all over it; yet there are no specific examples in his article.
The rest of Nevradakis’ article is largely a rehash of Thacker’s incompetent and misleading hit piece on Dr. Neitzel. I see little value in going through it any more, other than to point out that, as I documented, Thacker’s intent was clearly to produce a hit piece that the COVID-19 disinformation machine could use to misrepresent Dr. Neitzel as somehow “not a physician.” Did Thacker lie? I have no way of knowing, but from what I have observed thus far there really do appear to me to be only two possibilities. Either he deceived by intentionally conflating “physician” with “licensed physician,” in which case he is dishonest, or he actually believes the dreck that he’s publishing, in which case he is ignorant and deluded. Take your pick. Maybe it’s a bit of both. Who knows? Either way, the end result is the same, an attack on Dr. Neitzel that is truly facepalm-worthy. The problem is, unfortunately, that stupid and dishonest work.
An orchestrated attack?
One area in which the cranks, quacks, antivax grifters, and conspiracy theorists excel compared to our “pitiful little band” trying to stem the flow of the misinformation, quackery, and conspiracy theories spread by them is that they are very good at orchestrating attacks. First, one outlet publishes an attack, and then, almost before you know it, the whole quack crankosphere is singing the same tune and attacking the same target at the same time with variations of the same message. True, such attacks could be organic, given the nature of the COVID-19 misinformation network and how misinformation spreads in it, but in this case it “feels” guided. Think about it this way, given how fast the statement was posted after Dr. Neitzel’s apology, the FLCCC had clearly known about it and prepared a statement beforehand, and clearly its allies were ready to pounce, given how much gloating I saw.
More than ever, I’m now convinced that the FLCCC and Drs. Kory and Marik very likely orchestrated the attack that we are seeing on Dr. Neitzel. My best guess is that, seeing a threat to their business model selling ivermectin and other dubious (at best) treatments for COVID-19 coming from a young woman fresh out of medical school and likely lacking resources, they likely realized that she would be a fairly easy target to try to discredit. Their strategy, as far as I can tell, started first with legal threats designed to bully her into submission, so that she would be forced to compose and post her “apology” and take down some of the offending posts. They then appear to have used that apology to attack and further discredit her. When the attack didn’t gain traction fast enough, my guess is that they recruited hack “investigative journalist” Paul Thacker, to add to the pile-on and come up with an angle to cast doubt on her medical expertise. That angle turned out to be to deny that she is a physician, even though she clearly is, based on a bullshit reason. Unsurprisingly, being the hack that he is, Thacker appears all too eager to have assisted.
And Thacker might have come up with a much less obviously deceptive hit piece, too, if he had just been able to resist his temptation to attack me too by contacting me for comment and then cc:’ing two of my bosses in order to cause me trouble at work. Let’s just say that I don’t take kindly to such tactics, and, once Thacker did that, the die was cast. Orac was going to go all Orac, and Thacker was going to get a heapin’ helpin’ of very much deserved not-so-Respectful Insolence.
Better still, Dr. Neitzel is still standing, just as I was after Mike Adams came after me eight years ago. Hopefully, she will continue to stand. Many of us who have been combatting health misinformation are aging, and we can use all the young talent we can get to join us now and then be there to carry on the fight when the time comes that we can no longer continue.
Also, Paul Thacker and Michael Nevradakis: Like it or not, Dr. Neitzel is a physician. You two, on the other hand, are hacks.
28 replies on “Big antivax sites amplify Paul Thacker’s hit piece on Dr. Allison Neitzel”
Given that ‘qualification with a licence’ is the criteria Mr Thacker is using to define ‘doctorhood’, and that the lack of ‘doctorhood’ is being used as a club to smash credibility. Presumably, this also means that doctors who have retired or stopped practising to concentrate fully on selling supplements and unproven devices, whilst spouting anti-science rubbish, are also not doctors and have no credibility?
Right. SBM denialists used this to smear Dr Barrett who runs Quackwatch because he retired.
I’m not sure how Dr Mercola fits into these categories because:
–he doesn’t formally treat patients
— is a quack/ supplement salesman/ businessman
— not sure if he keeps his papers up- he used to show them at his site
I CORRECT MYSELF:
although his site has changed the display, he does show current state registration in both IL and FL until 2026.
Or Dr. Makis, who has no license.
Does Dr. Bhattacharya has a license? I don’t think so. I think Orac made that point in the last post.
We need political action to address the harms of bullying tactics by Antivaxers.
Thanks for your advocating & correction of misleading claims & misinformation
Anyone that the big money antivax freaks are gunning for must be all right. I support Allison Neitzel
Thacker’s partner is a doctor, I was told. Does anyone know what kind? And if that’s a conflict of interest, besides…. He never has to disclose who he works for. I asked BMJ to make him do so, and they said they wouldn’t.
Dr. Allison Neitzell tells her story: https://misinformationkills.substack.com/p/just-a-physician
Allison’s post is amazing and it clarifies a lot. She shows herself as a poignant, strong but vulnerable human being, with big issues stemming from her difficult childhood, as I guessed earlier.
As she complains, quite rightfully, about her mother’s “fulminant radicalization”, she should take a look in the mirror to see if, perhaps, the genes she inherited made Allison fulminantly radicalized – but in the opposite direction.
The exact direction is less important than the fact of radicalization.
I have come to the conclusion that we are too radicalized and that free-thinking, pro-human people like myself should try to contribute to reducing such radicalization (to which I contributed in the past which I thought was appropriate but no longer is)
We are human beings, we care a lot about humanity, we all need money to live on, etc. So let’s try to bring down the degree of paranoia, fear, and mutual dislike a bit.
You have previously attacked Allison with extreme allegations about her mental health. Rather than learn from your error, admit it and apologize, you are still smearing her.
It’s not Allison who is coming out badly from your discussion.
@ Prof Dorit:
I agree.
Perhaps Igor should analyse himself to find out why he needs to critique someone who has much more expertise in medicine- including mental health- than he has. If her support for SBM and reality-based journalism is based upon her “inheritance”, is his opposition to it also a genetic flaw?
Why doesn’t he attribute Orac’s position to “issues”? Because he’s a tall, middle-aged white guy? That fixes everything.
How about female sceptics? Are we all just problematic?
He didn’t study mental health or psychiatry/ psychology. It shows.
Without getting into family specifics, yes a lot of genetics is involved, nothing to be ashamed of really. Love of good science runs in my family. My grandparents: two doctors (genecologist and neurologist), one dentist and one scientist. Parents, both scientists. My mom was always politically active but with views differing from mine.
So, yes my love of science and desire to expose perversions of scientific process comes naturally to me.
Do not underestimate the effect of genetics. For example, a habit as odd as hoarding is genetic. IQ is heritable, so is the preference of smoking, etc etc
Narcissists and borderlines also run in families.
We are human beings and much of our behavior is determined by the 3 gigabytes of genetic code that we carry. Our job is to make the best of what we were given.
“Perhaps Igor should analyse himself to find out why he needs to critique someone who has much more…mental health- than he has.”
Couldn’t agree more.
The large tankers that spread liquid manure at the farms near here aren’t as full of shit as you are Igor.
Well perhaps Igor should not go to The Netherlands. We are already drowning in cowmanure without him.
What an effing idiot. No doubt Igor believes the “science” in the racist tome The Bell Curve is valid.
IKR? Also, Igor attributing his interest in science as genetic is risible to the point where it jeopardizes my intercostal muscles because it makes me laugh so hard.
I didn’t post that, so that a miserable, self-absorbed arsehole like you could grandstand over it. Dr. Allison Neitzel spent the pandemic saving lives. You aided and abetted the virus to end lives. Hang your head in shame and see if you can show at least a little respect by shutting your goddamn mouth for a change.
You’ll note that Dr. Neitzel actually wondered herself if she was too much like her mother and how she could avoid that fate. It is clearly a self-awareness that you desperately lack, as evidenced by…
Seriously. You came very close to owing me a new keyboard, because I just barely restrained myself from spitting out my coffee as I read your comment. You? “Free-thinking, pro-human”? Bullshit. You are anything but “free thinking.” Indeed, I’ve often pointed out that whenever I see the term “free thinker” in a social media bio, 99% of the time it’s a good indication that the person is anything but a free thinker, and often obnoxious and possessing a far too high opinion of himself. It’s an indicator that is rarely wrong, and that description clearly describes you. There’s damned near no conspiracy theory or misinformation with respect to COVID-19 that you don’t embrace and spread. You have been radicalized but lack the self-awareness to recognize it.
As for “pro-human”? Give me a break. Spreading misinformation about a disease that’s killed over 1 million Americans and millions more worldwide, the public health interventions to contain it, and the vaccines to prevent it is anything BUT pro-human. It’s pro-death.
OK, you do owe me a new irony meter, given what you’ve said about Dr. Neitzel.
What Igor does is not as much free-thinking, but fact-free fantasising.
“Free Thinking” ? “Pro-human”?
Sounds like the “pro-science”, “critical thinking” “sceptics” I read. Mike Adams of late is “pro-humanity” as opposed to supporting demons, globalists, groomers, Zionists, transhumanists, SBM et al.
They gather data and “interpret” it through “statistical analysis” to
uncover “hidden truths” like Naomi Wolf’s team at Daily Clout.
Occasionally, they make a statement that succinctly reveals their true level of observation:
A few days ago, Wolf ( Substack) describes her house rocking like a ship in a violent storm and a sound like a train passing through because of the earthquake. I’m much closer than she is** and it was barely noticeable as was the largest aftershock ( 4.8; 4.0). Also my cousin’s daughter lives very close to Wolf and reported nothing like that: that area wasn’t highlighted at all on news reports.
Attributing a person’s ability or challenges purely to genetics negates their own efforts and hard work or lack thereof. People who study the effects of genes on intelligence, mental illness or special abilities investigate the complexity of the issue. In addition, we study extremists’ work which enable racist attitudes as Idw56old notes.
Igor reveals his attitude clearly.
** yes, I know that quakes/ aftershocks can be unequal based on differences in underlying rock not solely distance
Yup, but my take from Igor’s latest spew is this: he named all the positive attributes he thinks has and lays them off to genetics, but continues to attach Dr. Neitzel by stating the negative things he claims she demonstrates can be blamed on the genes she got from her mother.
His lack of understanding of science, statistics, and lack of ability to think critically aside, Igor simply seems to be the sort of jackass who thinks women simply don’t deserve an iota of respect and are, uniformly, on a lower level than men.
Genetics is the “cards you are given”.
Your effort is what you DO with those cards.
I like weirdos in general and I like Allison also – glad she is coming around and laying off her extremist attitudes.
“I like this person. That’s why I made insinuations about her mental health and spoke disparagingly about her and said I avoided her because I thought she was ill.”
You do realize people can look up and see your early comments, where you implied she was dangerously mentally ill, right?
This doesn’t show you very well. It shows that in addition to being willing to make up things about people who correct your errors and criticize you, you are not honest.
Igor, your bullshit/fact free spew
is directly above. People can see that you have no clue about this new topic, yet are willing to use your ignorance to insult a woman who dares present facts that contradict your conspiracies. The fact that you’ve added this insult to her
simply triples down on your attacks on her under a weak attempt to cover with tots and pears.
re: Dorit’s
We’ve known igor isn’t honest since roughly the third post he ever made.
Dorit, the reason why I do not talk about her mental health is that I promised Orac not to.
In fact, my earlier message about her was spot on!
And no, I will not discuss details.
And yet you manage to slip in disparaging mention of her public health in anyway, even doubling down by saying that your earlier comment was “spot on.” Seriously, did you think I wouldn’t notice? You’re not that clever. In fact, you’re not clever at all. You’re painfully obvious.
[…] Care (FLCCC) Alliance, as well as much of the rest of the COVID-19 antivax quack crankosphere, amplified Thacker’s hack attack, as well as using Dr. Neitzel’s apology to the FLCCC in what appears to have been an […]