THE UNTOLD STORY

Halting the Pursuit of Knowledge

Steve Sailer November 22, 20231/2

This ought to be a golden age of the social sciences.

The immense reduction in the cost of DNA testing is allowing massive assaults on the most venerable conundrums of nature vs. nurture, such as whether the IQ gap between whites and blacks is smaller in more racially admixed African-Americans as the hereditarian theory would predict, a question that Margaret Mead found worth writing about how to examine a century ago. (Summary answer: yes.)

And Harvard economist Raj Chetty has made audacious breakthroughs in getting his hands on anonymized versions of confidential information, such as his database of 21 million Americans’ IRS tax returns across two generations. This allows us to know for the first time that black men around age 30 in 2010 were imprisoned three to ten times more than young white men whose parents had exactly the same incomes in the 1990s.

Of course, these findings do not prove once and for all what we might call the Bell Curve hypothesis that the sizable racial gaps in cognitive performance and law-abidingness are due to both nurture and nature rather than solely to social construction alone.

“There have been growing demands to censor scientific studies and stifle researchers who discover unpopular truths about politically privileged groups.”

But that’s how most scientific theories work: You can’t fully vindicate them, you can only refute them. In Albert Einstein’s 1916 paper on his theory of general relativity, the great theoretician said that while he couldn’t prove his audacious insight that gravity resulted from the curvature of space, he could offer potential ways for empiricists to disprove it (although, 107 years later, they still haven’t). Philosopher of science Karl Popper was impressed by how Einstein, unlike Marx or Freud, went out of his way to put his theory at risk of empirical falsification.

Similarly, these recent research findings didn’t demonstrate that both nature and nurture matter in explaining America’s racial gaps, but they could have debunked hereditarianism if they’d turned out the opposite.

Yet, they didn’t.

On the other hand, this scientific progress has been deeply upsetting to some scientists and many authority figures. There have been growing demands, especially among the younger generation and the female sex, to censor scientific studies and stifle researchers who discover unpopular truths about politically privileged groups.

Fortunately, a number of scientists have lately teamed up to strike back in defense of freedom of inquiry. This week, 39 leading academics signed on to a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences titled “Prosocial motives underlie scientific censorship by scientists: A perspective and research agenda.” The lead author is U. of Pennsylvania behavioral scientist Cory Jane Clark, and coauthors include Gregory Miller, Steven Pinker, Lee Jussim, J. Michael Bailey, David Buss, Glenn Loury, John McWhorter, Wilfred Reilly, Bo M. Winegard, and Philip E. Tetlock.

Scientific censorship appears to be increasing. Potential explanations include expanding definitions of harm, increasing concerns about equity and inclusion in higher education, cohort effects, the growing proportion of women in science, increasing ideological homogeneity, and direct and frequent interaction between scientists and the public on social media.

The new paper cites the growing body of research into the woke impulse to censor. Traditionally,

Censorship research typically explores dark psychological underpinnings such as intolerance, authoritarianism, dogmatism, rigidity, and extremism…. But censorship can be prosocially motivated.

In the now-famous Mitchell and Webb skit, one Nazi officer points to the death’s-head insignia on their black leather SS caps and asks the other, “Hans, are we the baddies?” But you can still effectively be the anti-science bad guys without wearing a skull. The authors explain:

Censorious scholars often worry that research may be appropriated by malevolent actors to support harmful policies and attitudes. Both scholars and laypersons report that some scholarship is too dangerous to pursue, and much contemporary scientific censorship aims to protect vulnerable groups…. In some contemporary Western societies, many people object to information that portrays historically disadvantaged groups unfavorably, and academia is increasingly concerned about historically disadvantaged groups….

https://www.takimag.com/article/halting-the-pursuit-of-knowledge/

>>19972867

2/2

That people are hamstringing humanity’s greatest benefactor, science, for reasons that make them feel better about themselves can help explain four oddities:

1) widespread public availability of scholarship coupled with expanding definitions of harm has coincided with growing academic censorship; 2) women, who are more harm-averse and more protective of the vulnerable than men, are more censorious; 3) although progressives are often less censorious than conservatives, egalitarian progressives are more censorious of information perceived to threaten historically marginalized groups; and 4) academics in the social sciences and humanities (disciplines especially relevant to humans and social policy) are more censorious and more censored than those in STEM.

Strikingly, there is remarkably little scientific evidence that publishing the scientific truth is likely to harm, say, blacks or transgenders, other than to wound the egos of elites. A few decades ago it was widely assumed that blacks must suffer from extremely low self-esteem and thus it would be sadistic to say anything frank. But it turned out instead that blacks have extremely high self-esteem.

The authors argue:

It may be reasonable to consider potential harms before disseminating science that poses a clear and present danger, when harms are extreme, tangible, and scientifically demonstrable, such as scholarship that increases risks of nuclear war, pandemics, or other existential catastrophes. However, the pursuit of knowledge has a strong track record of improving the human condition.

Indeed. As the motto of Faber College in Animal House reads, “Knowledge Is Good.”

Thus, it seems reasonable to balance knowledge risks against the costs of censorship (and resulting ignorance) by creating empirical and transparent measures of purported harms, rather than leaving censorship decisions to the intuitions and authority of small and unrepresentative editorial boards.

Their basic plan is Moneyball for academic journals. Publications should make available all their data on what they accept and what they reject for other scholars to analyze.

And researchers should submit bogus proposals to institutional review boards claiming to plan to research discrimination against black women or white men and see which ones get approved, the way that researchers have long submitted fake résumés to employers to find out if Darren Jackson gets more callbacks that D’Quantivious Jackson. (He does.)

Along those lines, Michael Bernstein and April Bleske-Rechek asked college students if they agreed with hate quotes by anti-Semite Adolf Hitler and by antiwhite Robin DiAngelo, but with their hate objects randomly switched. Over 50 percent of the college students agreed with the ideas of Hitler and DiAngelo when they were framed as defaming whites, but less than 20 percent agreed when they were asked if they agreed with the statements when they were cast as denouncing Jews or blacks.

Antiwhite hate is a huge and growing topic for brave social scientists to investigate.

https://www.takimag.com/article/halting-the-pursuit-of-knowledge/

Diverse group of Navy women had one job to do and they failed miserably…

November 24, 2023 (a day ago)

It’s a troubling sign when our military prioritizes diversity over defense. But sadly, this aligns with the progressive obsession for celebrating “firsts”—be it the first female president or the first cross-dressing, luggage-stealing Department of Energy employee. However, the problem with this unprofessional approach is the shift in focus from the actual job that has to get done to aimlessly promoting a laundry list of social issues. When you lose sight of the primary objective and concentrate on the superficial fluff, your mission is doomed. This is particularly true for the US military, where losing focus can mean death. They nearly learned this lesson the hard way, thanks to a diverse group of Navy women who missed the runway and ended up landing in the water.

USNI News:

A Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol airplane is in Hawaii’s Kaneohe Bay after attempting to land on a Marine Corps runway Monday afternoon, according to Marine Corps officials.

The P-8A reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft was on approach to land on the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu.

“The aircraft was landing and overshot” the runway, said 1st Lt. Hailey Harms, a Marine Corps Base Hawaii spokesperson, told USNI News.

The aircraft, assigned to the Whidbey Island, Wash.-based “Skinny Dragons” of Patrol Squadron (VP) 4″ landed at 1:59 p.m. local Hawaii time and ended up in shallow water just off the coast. The air station’s main runway runs in a northeast-to-southwest direction.

“At approximately 2 p.m. local (Hawaii), a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon overshot the runway on landing at Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, and ended up in nearby water,” reads a statement from U.S. 3rd Fleet.

“All personnel safely evacuated the aircraft. The crew, assigned to Whidbey Island, Wash.-based squadron VP-4 ‘Skinny Dragons,” were on a detachment in support of maritime homeland defense.”

Nine people were aboard the aircraft at the time but no immediate injuries were reported.

“They are still being medically assessed,” Harms said.

Base emergency services quickly responded to the scene, including federal firefighters, military police, air traffic control, fire rescue and waterfront operations, she said.

Thankfully, no one was injured, but this doesn’t excuse the fact that a very expensive U.S. aircraft is now a giant “floaty” in the water, thanks to the left’s obsession with diversity, not quality.

And when they’re confronted with this issue, they circle the wagons, deploying every measure to protect their twisted social experiments. A prime example of this happened with a popular X user known as “Amuse,” who commented on the Navy incident only to be immediately attacked by “Community Notes” without justification. This incident illustrates the lengths to which social media platforms will go to defend flawed diversity initiatives. Here’s what he shared in his post:

DIVERSITY:Shortly after a Navy P-8A overshot the runway and landed in Kaneohe Bay (everyone survived) I pointed out that the crew was diverse. For that I got a scathing community note saying it wasn’t true. The Navy is very proud of the fact that it’s P-8 fleet features the most diverse crews in military aviation. 1st Lt. Hailey Harms, a Marine spokesperson confirmed the crew was both diverse and alive. Because the MSM isn’t reporting the identity of the crew the community notes community decided my comment was wrong. Annoying and false. Before you apply a community note make sure you know what you’re talking about – your inability to confirm a statement isn’t proof it isn’t accurate. Note: This crew photo is just the one the Navy distributed to show how diverse its P-8 crews are. They did not share one of the P-8 crew that went for a swim.

Sadly, there have been countless incidents lately where women “teams” have wreaked major havoc, from taking over marketing departments and crushing major businesses like Bud Light and Target to accidentally starting devastating forest fires.

It’s commendable that women are eager to contribute, but the notion that ‘girl power’ alone is superior when managing global affairs is not only misguided but also potentially hazardous and profoundly unwise.

https://revolver.news/2023/11/diverse-group-of-navy-women-had-one-job-to-do-and-they-failed-miserably/

Geert Wilders Wins Bigly in Netherlands

November 23, 2023

It was Christmas 2009, when the Massachusetts Democrat party filled with hubris and complacency scoffed at the idea that the seat of Ted Kennedy would ever be challenged by Republicans. However, a group of patriots worked tirelessly and quietly throughout the holiday season to change the dynamic. No one saw it coming, Scott Brown won.

In 2023 another group in the Netherlands took the same quiet and deliberate approach. Again, no one saw it coming but Geert Wilders is now on track to be the next prime minister.

The Party for Freedom (PVV) won 37 seats in Parliament and now stand as the largest political force in the country.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders said Thursday that he is ready to join the next Dutch coalition government after he surged to a huge election victory that marked a stunning lurch to the far right for a nation once famed as a beacon of tolerance.

The result is sending shockwaves through Europe, where extremist nationalist ideology is putting pressure on democracies that now face the possibility of having to deal with the first far-right prime minister of the Netherlands.

“It is going to happen that the PVV is in the next Cabinet,” Wilders said, using the Dutch abbreviation for his Party for Freedom.

With nearly all votes counted, Wilders’ party was forecast to win 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, more than double the 17 the party secured in the last election.

[…]Wilders’ election program included calls for a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the European Union, a total halt to accepting asylum-seekers and migrant pushbacks at Dutch borders.

It also advocates the “de-Islamization” of the Netherlands. He says he wants no mosques or Islamic schools in the country, although he has been milder about Islam during this election campaign than in the past.

[…] In his victory speech, Wilders said he wants to end what he called the “asylum tsunami,” referring to the migration issue that came to dominate his campaign. “The Dutch will be No. 1 again,” Wilders said. “The people must get their nation back.” (read more)

[Friday is my travel day. I will see y’all on Saturday 😊]

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/11/23/geert-wilders-wins-bigly-in-netherlands/

Larry Schweikart: The Creation Of The Thanksgiving National Holiday And The Truth About Lincoln's Christian Faith

22:54

https://rumble.com/embed/v3v12ej/?pub=4

Man Pleads Guilty to Firebombing Wisconsin Pro-Life Organization

Katherine Hamilton24 Nov 2023

A man pleaded guilty this week to the 2022 firebombing of a Wisconsin pro-life organization — an attack which occurred just days after someone leaked the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the invented constitutional “right” to abortion.

Madison resident Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury, 30, signed a plea agreement on November 20, admitting to attacking the Madison headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action. Roychowdhury signed the agreement in exchange for the recommendation he not receive a maximum punishment of 20 years behind bars, LifeSite News reportedWednesday. A judge is set to review the plea deal on December 1.

The fiery attack occurred early in the morning on May 8, 2022. Law enforcement responded to an active fire at the organization’s building and found the remnants of two mason jars, one of which was singed but had not successfully caught fire. The outside of the building was spray-painted with, “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either,” as well as a large “A” and the number “1312” a derogatory acronym that numerically stands for “ACAB” (All Cops are Bastards).

According to the DOJ, law enforcement identified Roychowdhury as a possible suspect in March 2023. Local police officers observed Roychowdhury dispose of food in a public trash can and were able to recover it and collect DNA from the food. On March 17, 2023, a forensic biologist tested the two DNA samples and found that they matched and were likely from the same person.

That same month, law enforcement arrested Roychowdhury at the Boston Logan International Airport, where he was planning to fly to Guatemala City. He was charged with one count of attempting to cause damage by means of fire or an explosive, which carries a mandatory minimum penalty of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison, according to officials.

The firebombing was one of dozens of attacks against pro-life organizations and churches following the leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. According to trackers kept by CatholicVote, 88 pro-life organizations and pregnancy centers have been attacked since the decision was leaked, along with 214Catholic churches. Even so, Roychowdhury is one of the few pro-abortion extremists who have been arrested, as the DOJ continues to go after pro-life activists under FACE Act charges.

“Roychowdhury’s crime was not the only incident that Wisconsin Family Action endured, either,” LifeSite reported. “Following the attack, the group received a series of angry and threatening voicemails from pro-abortion radicals, including ‘Burn, little Jesus freaks’ and other death wishes, a declaration that the arsonist was a ‘true American patriot,’ obscenities, general expressions of contempt, and a suggestion that pro-abortion violence was some sort of logical progression from abortion activists unsuccessfully ‘trying for years to deal with this nonviolently.”‘

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/11/24/man-pleads-guilty-firebombing-wisconsin-pro-life-organization/

The Errors, The Lie, and The Cover-Up in Georgia’s 2020 Election — Part I

by Jim Hoft Nov. 24, 20231/3

The information in this article was provided by Georgia citizen Joseph Rossi, originally appeared on JoeHoft.com, and was republished with permission.

Material errors were embedded in Georgia’s 2020 Election recount efforts in Fulton County. The Secretary of State and his team initially lied about these errors, and then they worked with the Attorney General’s office and the State Elections Board to exonerate the Secretary of State.

Summary

After the 2020 Election, a Risk Limiting Audit (RLA) was carried out by Georgia’s Secretary of State’s (SOS’s) Office. The results of this exercise confirmed the 2020 Election results.

However, thanks to the efforts ofGeorgian Joseph Rossi, 36 errorswere found in the Fulton County data in the RLA report posted on the SOS website.

Rossi doggedly went after those in authority in the state to review his data. He was turned down and ignored numerous times. But eventually after a series of events,Rossi was able to get these errors in front of members of Governor Kemp’s office.

As a result of Rossi’s work, the Georgia State Elections Board (SEB) initiated an investigation into the Fulton County data from the RLA report. This investigation was labeled SEB2021-181. Eventually the SEB identified violations and errors in the recounts of the 2020 Election in Fulton County.

** Our next article in this series will show that the SOS’s office lied about the accuracy of the recounts in Georgia.

** Our third article will show that with their backs to the wall post-Governor Kemp’s validation letter from November 17, 2020 – the SOS’s office, the AG’s office, and the Georgia SEB worked andcontinue to work to this day to exonerate the SOS of any responsibilityfor these numerous errors and violations.

And, by the way, there is an open inquiry before the Georgia SEB (SEBBI2023-001), regarding Election Code Violations committed by the SOS.

[Remember that the 2020 results were certified for Biden three days after the election. This was after he overcame President Trump’s 200,000 vote lead on election night to steal the election by less than 12,000 votes in Georgia. – See The Steal – Volume II: The Impossible Occurs for more information.

Note also that the investigations in this series were independent of two court cases that took place in Georgia after the 2020 Election.At least three individuals involved in a recountthat occurred in the state after the electionidentified 148,000 ballots that appeared to have been created by a machine and to be fraudulent. Fulton county and state are still preventing access to these ballots even though the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs have the right to audit these ballots.

In addition, a separate audit of voting machines was initiated after the 2020 Election which was finally released years later which showed that the systems used in Georgia had security issues and bad actors could hack into them and change the results of an election.]….

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/errors-lie-cover-up-georgias-2020-election-part/

>>19973017

2/3

The Errors

A Risk Limiting Audit (RLA) was prepared of the results from the 2020 Election in Georgia. The report of this audit is still available at the wayback machine here. The report concluded:

Following the November 2020 General Election, the Secretary of State selected the presidential contest for a statewide risk limiting audit (“RLA”). Due to the tight margin of the race and the principles of risk-limiting audits, this audit was a full manual tally of all votes cast. The audit confirmed that the original machine count accurately portrayed the winner of the election.

[These RLAs are garbage “audits” as they only count ballots which may be fraudulent after the election.]

Attached to the RLA was a supplemental report with results from the 2020 Election in each Georgia County. One individual in Georgia by the name of Joseph Rossi decided to review the numbers included in this report specifically related to Fulton County and he found numerous errors in the process. Rossi identified 36 errors that resulted in a net of 4081 false absentee by mail votes counted for Joe Biden in the 2020 Election.

After numerous tries, Rossi was able to reach Gabriel Sterling of the SOS’s office who admitted to errors in the report in an email dated February 26, 2021 when the complainant pointed out 1 of the 36 errors to him. “It appears that Fulton made a data entry error.”

Rossi continued to press forward with his observations and eventually Georgia Governor Brian Kemp got involved. His team reviewed Rossi’s work and per a letter from Governor Kemp to the Georgia SEB dated November 17, 2021 validated the errors identified by Rossi.

The 36 inconsistencies noted by Mr. Rossi are factual in nature…To determine whether it was appropriate to refer Mr. Rossi’s claims to you, my office tested the veracity of his work by independently repeating the research.”

Furthermore, the Governor’s letter, explicitly calls out that the errored RLA Report was posted publicly on the SOS website.

The data that exists in public view on the Secretary of State’s website of the RLA report does not inspire confidence. It is sloppy, inconsistent…”

Governor Kemp was sure to say that these errors did not dispute the outcome of the 2020 Election.

SEB Letter 11.17.21.01 by Joe Ho on Scribd

Along with the governor’s report was a review of the inconsistencies in the RLA performed across the state.

Review of Inconsistencies in the Data Supporting the Risk Limiting Audit Report by Joe Ho on Scribd

On December 16, 2021, SOS Investigator Vincent Zagorin confirmed that the errors existed within the RLA Report posted on the SOS website. At the 00:31:39 mark of this meeting with the complainants, Zagorin referred to the length of time it took the complainant to find the errors and then adds that he found the errors quickly. “I can see it took you 15 minutes. It took me four.”

See the transcript of this meeting below:

Im Going to Turn in Warner Robins (From Aliceapp.ai) by Joe Ho on Scribd

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/errors-lie-cover-up-georgias-2020-election-part/

>>19973027

3/3

By March of 2022, Fulton County Attorney Ringer admitted to errors during the March 16, 2022 hearing on investigation SEB2021-181. Ringer stated when referring to the errored RLA Report, “Fulton County did not have the time to go back and fix the errors…”

After the March SEB hearing – the Board voted 3:1, in agreement that the RLA Report had errors, and to send the case to the Attorney General’s office for further investigation.

The attorney for SOS Raffensperger was Ryan Germany. He was also on the phone call with Raffensperger and President Trump after the 2020 Election. In an email dated July 9, 2022, Germany acknowledged to Rossi that errors existed in the RLA report posted on the SOS website.

…our investigators looked at the alleged allegations, and found that Fulton did make mistakes in the audit counting/reporting.”

We also know that errors existed in Fulton County because the Attorney General’s Consent order for Fulton County confirmed errors exist in the RLA Report and that Fulton violated a SEB audit rule.

By failing to enter all of the audit batch sheet data accurately, Respondent violated SEB Rule 183-1-15-.04 regarding audits.”

Signed_Consent Order SEB 2021-181 and 2022-025 (Fulton County) With Exhibit A_Redacted by Joe Ho on Scribd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) performed an internal review of the errors found in the RLA Report for Fulton posted on the SOS website and confirmed the existence of errors.

A rough estimate by the AJC indicates the errors identified by investigators amounted to about 3,000 too many absentee votes counted for Biden during the audit…”

Note that the AJC review of the errors was not as extensive as the reviews completed by the complainants and the Governor’s team, hence the “rough estimate,” reported by the AJC.

Also, regarding Machine Count2 for Fulton County, a complaint was filed July 8, 2022. The complaint specifically called out 3125 duplicate ballot counts and 17,852 votes counted that do not have a corresponding ballot image. This complaint resulted in investigation SEB2023-25. This investigation is complete and the results of this investigation will be presented to the SEB on December 19, 2023. This complaint has been categorized by the Board as “violations found.”

SEB202325violationsfoundcategory – Copyby Joe Ho on Scribd

SOS Raffensperger and his gang claimed there were no issues in the 2020 Election. This was not true. Next,we will show how the SOS’s office lied and then work with others to cover this all up.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/errors-lie-cover-up-georgias-2020-election-part/

WATCH: DeSantis Camp Releases BRUTAL Ad Exposing Nikki Haley’s Ties to Clinton

Ben Bartee November 23, 2023

I actually didn’t know before watching this how many times, and how hard, Nikki Haley has sucked up to Clinton on the public stage. I would never have voted for her at all, but, if it’s possible, I hold her in lower regard now than I did before.

Let’s be honest, though; it wasn’t possible to hold her in lower regard before. That was just rhetorical.

Via NBC News:

The 30-second ad takes past Haley quotes about Clinton out of context. It is the latest instance of pro-DeSantis groups’ targeting Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, who has been rising in both early-state and national polls, threatening DeSantis' long-established second-place standing in the Republican presidential primary campaign.

“Crooked Hillary,” the ad intones, as an animated stone bust of Clinton is introduced on the screen. “But to Nikki Haley, she’s her role model. The reason she ran for office.

The ad features brutal back-to-back clips in Haley’s own voice of the candidate praising Hillary Clinton and honoring her as the reason she got into politics. It concludes with a nail-on-chalkboard sound bite of Clinton’s infamous hyena-like cackle.

Why any Republican, even twenty years ago, would have thought that sucking up to Hillary Clinton, of all people, was a solid political move is beyond me.

Haley’s been playing the Yass Slay Queen third-wave feminist card aggressively lately, including referring to her heels cryptically as “ammunition,” a declaration that literally no one has been able to decipher, perhaps including Haley herself. I think she just assumed mixing the right’s appreciation for guns with a healthy injection of feminism would somehow equal a rhetorical windfall.

While entertaining, this ad is actually really sad. It would be an effective ad if Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis weren’t fighting over second place.

What kind of a political moron makes an ad attacking his competition that’s polling at around 10% when the Big Guy has a 40+% lead on the entire field?

Of course, in Nikki Haley’s case, she’s not actually running for president, so it makes sense that she’s not gunning for Trump. Maybe she gets a VP slot; or maybe, much better, she cashes in her warmongering for a fat MIC check at a think tank or Raytheon.

DeSantis appears to have been earnest in his bid, which makes him spending money to attack Haley inexplicable.

https://pjmedia.com/benbartee/2023/11/23/watch-desantis-camp-releases-brutal-ad-exposing-nikki-haleys-ties-to-clinton-n4924186

==Moderna is spying on you

New documents reveal its attempts to control the vaccine debate==

Novak Djokovic’s victorious return to the US Open this year was heralded as the triumph of an “ageless” athlete. His “greatness”, The Guardian reported, “has been defined by his ability to rise from difficult losses stronger than before”. But for the pharmaceutical giant Moderna, it came as something of a blow.

“Djokovic Crowned Anti-vaccine Hero after US Open Win,” howled the title of an internal report. It continued: “The optics of Djokovic, whose vaccine opposition barred him from competing in the 2022 US Open, returning to and winning the Moderna-sponsored competition bolsters anti-vaccine claims that vaccines — and mandates — are unnecessary.”

The report rated news surrounding Djokovic as “high-risk”, noting that “vaccine opponents are celebrating” the tennis champion and that some on social media “mockingly point out that Moderna is a US Open sponsor”. Other alerts, produced by a partnership blending marketing executives with former FBI and Secret Service analysts, also cited concerns around drug industry profits as a source of misinformation.

Far from viral deception, much of the content flagged by Moderna as “misinformation” and a supposed danger to public health was nothing of the sort, it was legitimate discussion of vaccine-related issues. But the Moderna misinformation reports, reported here for the first time, reveal what the pharmaceutical company is willing to do to shape public discourse around its marquee product. And, even affect policy-making.

Moderna did incredibly well out of the pandemic. It was shot from a fledgling biotech firm to a household name, having created one of the most effective vaccines during the outbreak. The mRNA Covid-19 vaccine catapulted the company to a $100 billion valuation and minted five new billionaires, including the chief executive, Stéphane Bancel, its chairman, Noubar Afeyan, co-founder Robert Langer, president Stephen Hoge, and Timothy Springer, a Harvard Medical School professor and early investor.

But as demand for its vaccinations has diminished, inevitably, so too have its earnings. This year, its only marketable product lies unused and the company has recorded steep losses. Moderna has also been forced to pay royalty payments to NIAID, the US government agency that helped produce the basic research that underpins the mRNA vaccine technology. As a result, in January, Bancel announced a price hike of up to $130 a dose, far higher than the $15-26 for American federal contracts, according to the Wall Street Journal. “We’re expecting a 90% reduction in demand,” Bancel said, when he was asked to defend the decision. “As you can see, we’re losing economies of scale.”

With its profits evaporating, Moderna embarked on a flashy new marketing campaign that features a child chasing a red string that transforms into a ribbon, which the narrator explains is an mRNA strand that could unlock cures for all types of diseases. And its latest television advert depicts the company’s coronavirus vaccine as emblematic of a healthy lifestyle. Over some cool music, the narrator says, “make vaccination against Covid-19 a part of your health routine: Spikevax that body”.

The most important thing for Moderna is that people keep having their jabs. Smart ads are part of that. But more important is to push back aggressively against any prevailing anti-vax narrative and engage where possible in any discussions around vaccine policy. That’s where the Moderna disinformation department comes in.

Behind the scenes, the marketing arm of the company has been working with former law enforcement officials and public health officials to monitor and influence vaccine policy. Key to this is a drug industry-funded NGO called Public Good Projects. According to documents we have seen, PGP works closely with social media platforms, government agencies and news websites to confront the “root cause of vaccine hesitancy” by rapidly identifying and “shutting down misinformation”. A network of 45,000 healthcare professionals are given talking points “and advice on how to respond when vaccine misinformation goes mainstream”, according to an email from Moderna.

Moderna’s disinformation arm is perpetuating the public discourse wars that have been raging since early in the pandemic, aimed at shutting down anything that might undermine Covid-19-related policies, including lockdowns and efforts to encourage mass vaccinations. These documents provide a new window into the process that has roiled speech debates over the last three years.

Long article…..

https://1ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Funherd.com%2F2023%2F11%2Fmoderna-is-spying-on-you%2F