Happy Nice Mall

While Morris believes that all claims regarding vaccine safety should be duly examined, “Could there be another rare side effect of vaccines that we haven’t been able to figure out yet? Yes, it’s possible,” he told me – he also told me that he saw Kirsch regularly manipulating the evidence, thereby supporting claims that were actually unfounded. In fact, he was unwittingly the source of one of Kirsch’s figures.

In September, Kirsch emailed Morris asking him to estimate the maximum number of deaths caused by vaccines. “Who knows,” Morris replied. “But not 150K. And it’s not zero.”

Kirsch immediately communicated the change to me and other journalists. “BOMBSHELL: Top biostats professor admits we don’t have # people KILLED by COVID vaccines,” he wrote. “He thinks # people killed by Vax could be between 0 and 150,000 dead.”

Those who know Kirsch say it’s a typical tactic. He is adept at arguing, quickly changing the premise of a conversation to put the other person on the back foot.

“He may not be a good scientist, but he’s smart,” says WVU’s Feinberg. “He’s very convincing. He could be a good snake oil salesman.”

I experienced this myself when we discussed several studies in a phone call. Kirsch told me that “meta-analyses are a higher level of evidence than randomized controlled trials.” When I said that meta-analyses were only as good as the data on which they were based, he said, “I want to understand your source on this because I can’t find a source that says the phase 3 trial is the bigger proof.” better than a meta-analysis.”

“When you characterize me, you have to say that Steve Kirsch didn’t get a majority vote on interpreting the data.”

Steve Kirsch

While combining the results of several well-designed trials can strengthen an argument or reveal patterns not seen in smaller samples, a meta-analysis is just the sum of its parts; Any well done experiment is more useful than combining the results of several badly done experiments. However, at that moment his question threw me off and I stuttered.

Perhaps Kirsch’s most effective tactic is the willingness to outlast anyone else. During our first conversation, which turned into a several-hour Zoom session, Kirsch paced the rooms of his cavernous home, holding the phone at chest level, rarely looking at the camera. Thirty minutes after the end of our scheduled time, he dropped his phone in Tesla’s cup holder so he could continue talking while he was doing some errands.

“When you have to characterize me, you have to say that Steve Kirsch didn’t go with the majority vote in interpreting the data,” he said. “If you want to find someone to argue with me for ten thousand dollars or a thousand dollars, I’d be happy to do it just for your sake.”

Finally, a listening press agent, David Satterfield, turned up his microphone to suggest we end our conversation by email. After we finished the Zoom meeting, Satterfield called me and apologized for interrupting us. “I was just getting tired,” he said, before wanting to speak off the record.

a network of influences

None of this would really matter if Kirsch’s views on vaccines were private or shared with a limited audience. But as Kirsch clashed with the experts he initially surrounded himself with, he became increasingly close to others who shared his perspectives on vaccines—which gave his claims about a fluvoxamine conspiracy a wide and open audience.

His appearance in part anti-covid vaccine, pro-ivermectin pundit Alongside Bret Weinstein’s DarkHorse podcast Robert MaloneA leading source of vaccine misinformation, Kirsch has since introduced him to followers of the “intellectual dark web” who have embraced him as a truth teller. He also made several videos and podcasts. Vladimir ZelenkoThe conspiracy theorist who convinced Trump to take hydroxychloroquine.

While YouTube has repeatedly taken down the full video of the DarkHorse episode, various clips have been viewed over 4 million times and the full audio remains available on Spotify.