Earlier this month, The Gateway Pundit published an article about the study conducted by the renowned Cleveland Clinic, ranked as the second-best hospital in the world, which found that the higher number of COVID-19 vaccine doses one receives, the higher the risk of infection with COVID-19.
The study can be found now in the June 2023 edition of Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Volume 10, Issue 6. The study is published at Open Forum Infectious Diseases (OFID), wherein the studies are fully peer-reviewed.
The research was conducted with a large sample size within the US healthcare system.
Participants in the trial were all Cleveland Clinic Health System employees working at any Cleveland Clinic facility in Ohio on September 12, 2022, the first day the bivalent vaccine was first made accessible to staff and lasted over 180 days.
From the study: “The risk of COVID-19 also varied by the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses previously received. The higher the number of vaccines previously received, the higher the risk of contracting COVID-19.”
The study added: “The multivariable analysis also found that the more recent the last prior COVID-19 episode was, the lower the risk of COVID-19, and the greater the number of vaccine doses previously received, the higher the risk of COVID-19.”
Our report at The Gateway Pundit went viral—with almost 24,000 shares on Instagram alone—to such an extent that it was covered in its entirety by Joe Rogan on his show, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” where he was joined by former Navy SEAL Andy Stumpf.
After it gained so much attention, Health Feedback organization fact-checked our post almost two weeks later. The website claimed that the “Cleveland Clinic study didn’t find that taking more COVID-19 vaccine doses causes increased COVID-19 risk; association alone doesn’t imply causation.”
From Health Feedback’s bogus fact-check:
The claim that a Cleveland Clinic study found taking more COVID-19 vaccine doses increases a person’s risk of COVID-19 went viral in early June 2023. An article by the Gateway Pundit containing this claim received more than 5,800 engagements on Facebook and Twitter, according to the social media analytics tool CrowdTangle.
The Gateway Pundit has a history of publishing inaccurate information and conspiracy theories, including falsely alleging that the Parkland high school shooting victims were “crisis actors”. Podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan made the same claim on his podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” on 8 June 2023, citing the Gateway Pundit article as evidence.
However, the Cleveland Clinic study doesn’t provide sufficient evidence to support the claim and several other published studies contradict the claim, as we will explain.
Health Feed editor Flora Teoh, whom we’ll be discussing in more depth below, reached out to the lead author of the study, infectious disease physician Nabin Shrestha, who clarified in an email that “association is not causation” and that “Any claim that our study shows a causal relationship between getting more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and higher risk of infection is false”.
Note that the phrase “association is not causation” was not explicitly mentioned in their published study. Including such a statement can help to avoid misinterpretation and misuse of the study’s findings, particularly for readers who are not experts in the field. Scientists often use this phrase to remind readers and the public that correlational findings do not confirm causality.
Our attorney at The Gateway Pundit, John Burns, wrote Health Feedback and demanded an immediate retraction for Flora Teoh’s “fact check” that was published on June 13, 2023.
From the letter, Burn states:
“In your “fact check” of June 13, 2023, you defame TGP by stating that TGP falsely claimed that Parkland High School shooting victims were “crisis actors.” TGP never made any such statement. Had you fact-checked this allegation, you would know that. Please issue a retraction immediately. Moreover, you smear TGP with other false and stale insults. We also demand that you issue a retraction of your entire “fact check” article.”
“Far from evaluating the credibility of media reports as Science Feedback claims as its mission, your “fact check” of TGP’s coverage of the Cleveland Clinic study is a textbook study in propaganda. As a threshold matter, I note that Science Feedback is a member of the World Health Organization’s (“WHO”) “Vaccine Safety Net,” which essentially exists to spin and discredit any study, any entity, or anyone who suggests that vaccines might not be absolutely safe.”
“You may object to this characterization, but thanks to the past three years of COVID-19 insanity, the world better understands the WHO’s relationship with Big Pharma and Bill Gates: which is to say, Big Pharma and Bill Gates dominate the WHO. It’s also true that Big Pharma, though numerous means, not the least of which is its revolving door at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, dominates research and publications on vaccines. Vaccines are big business, and all of these entities have a very large interest in maintaining the profitability of their vaccine products,” Burn said.
“Science Feedback’s membership in the “Vaccine Safety Net” shines in your “fact check.” You portray your article as objective, but you present your own opinions as objective truth. For example, within the first few paragraphs, you state:
KEY TAKE AWAY: COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at reducing the risk of severe disease and death. Bivalent vaccines were developed in order to counter the more contagious Omicron variant, which was first detected in November 2021. As the protection provided by vaccination wanes over time, as does naturally acquired immunity, booster doses have been recommended by various public health authorities, particularly for those at high risk of severe COVID-19, as a way to maintain protection against the virus.”Burns added, “The rest of your article is a desperate attempt to downplay the staggering findings of the Cleveland Clinic study through wordsmithing, for the purpose of promoting COVID-19 “vaccines.” Rather than attempt to combat the study’s findings with data, you engage in rank speculation, postulating all of the reasons the study might be wrong.”
Our Counter-Argument
The Health Feedback article sought to challenge the following purported statements by The Gateway Pundit:
Health Feedback Claim: “Higher Number Of COVID Vax Received, Higher RISK Of COVID”; “People Who Get More COVID Vaccines More Likely to Get the Virus, New Study Shows”
TGP Response: Since Science Feedback trades in fact-checking and accuracy, I regret to inform you that you’ve misquoted my client: those statements – which you have represented and presented as direct quotes – appear nowhere in my client’s article. TGP did, however, state: “A groundbreaking study conducted by the renowned Cleveland Clinic, ranked as the second-best hospital in the world, has found that a higher number of COVID-19 vaccine doses received increases the risk of infection with COVID-19.” (Emphasis added).
Is that what the Study actually found? Yes, that is literally what the study found. TGP’s statement was an accurate synopsis of a key finding of the Study. How do we know this? Because the Study said so:
The risk of COVID-19 varied by the phase of the epidemic in which the study participant’s last prior COVID-19 episode occurred. In decreasing order of risk were those never previously infected, those last infected during the pre-Omicron phase, and those last infected during the Omicron phase (Figure 1). The risk of COVID- 19 also varied by the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses previously received. The higher the number of vaccines previously received, the higher the risk of contracting COVID-19.
TGP went on to extensively quote the Study. As you will see, the study is neither mischaracterized, nor is it misquoted. So, are you suggesting that the Study itself mischaracterizes its own findings? So, by framing the “FULL CLAIM” as you did, you set up a straw man at the outset of your article, and you fully misrepresented my client’s statements to advance your own propaganda.
Health Feedback Claim: TGP “downplayed” or “omitted” “any mention of the main finding of the study: that bivalent boosters increase protection against COVID-19.”
TGP Response: Gateway Pundit did not omit any reference to effectiveness, and there was nothing positive in the Study’s findings to “up play.” The study found overall negative effects in getting one, and especially more, boosters. The study found 29% overall effectiveness with SARS-CoV-2, and no significant protective effect against XBB lineages.
According to the WHO, the general threshold for a vaccine to be considered effective ca at least 50% for vaccines for diseases like influenza. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initially set a benchmark of 50% efficacy for COVID-19 vaccines. To win approval, any vaccine must be at least 50% more effective than placebo in preventing the disease.
Given the abysmal performance of the “vaccines” in the Study, TGP did not downplay anything. The Study found that, whatever the modest “benefit” of the bivalent “vaccine,” a booster or multiple boosters increased the risks of contracting some version of COVID-19. Accordingly, it remains to be seen what there was, if anything, to “up-play.”
Health Feedback Claim: “While the Cleveland Clinic study’s results being at odds with other published studies doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong … with the study or that it should be dismissed, the fact that its results weren’t reproduced by other studies and are unexpected does call for caution when interpreting its results.” (Internal citations omitted).”
TGP Response: While the fact-checker discussed different studies with results differing from the Study, they failed to mention that the Study itself discussed multiple, large-scale studies that came to similar conclusions.
Following our official retraction request, Health Feedback backtracked on its fact-check to our Instagram post from “False Information” to “Partly False Information.”
You can read our full argument below:
Who is Health Feedback Author Flora Teoh?
In 2020, Flora Teoh fact-checked one of Gateway Pundit’s articles on two California doctors of immunology and owners of a Bakersfield Urgent Care facility. The two doctors suggested only the sick and immuno-compromised individuals must be quarantined, not healthy people. The two doctors who see patients daily also suggested the virus has spread widely in their California community. This phenomena has also been reported in Boston, Miami, Santa Clara, Chicago and several European countries.
Nearly a month after our reporting, Flora Teoh, who is not a medical doctor, claimed that the Bakersfield doctors were promoting false information. Flora Teoh concluded the US doctors were not telling the truth. Flora is not even from the United States. She does not live in the United States. Yet, she believes it is her right to censor our speech even if she is completely wrong!
The Gateway Pundit, through the help of Yaacov Apelbaum, founder and CEO at XRVision, did a deep dive into Ms. Flora Teoh, and this is what we found.
Flora Teoh is a contributor to several ‘fact-checking’ organizations such as Maldita.es, International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), and the International Data Verification Network, which aims to promote “good” journalistic practices by fighting the dissemination of what they term “fake-news”. IFCN is an offshoot of the Poynter Institute for media studies that was created in 2015. Poynter gets the majority of its funding grants from entities such as: Google, the MacArthur Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation.
Teoh’s affiliated organizations are part of an international ‘progressive’ data verification network supported by the Open Society Foundations (George Soros) and the Omidyar Network (Pierre Omidyar). Omidyar is also funding Defeat Disinfo, an AI information warfare platform designed to fight president Trump’s Covid-19 messaging. Both Soros and Omidyar have sponsored The Intercept, a publication that released documents stolen by Snowden. In 2018, they also helped launch the Luminate platform that has since distributed over $314 million to finance progressive journalistic projects around the world. Health Feedback is one of these projects.
Bio wise, Teoh is a native Chinese speaker with professional and family ties in mainland China. She had a privileged upbringing in a wealthy family in Singapore. She is a globetrotter (often via first/business class and in luxury hotels). In 2016-2020, she visited and lived in Europe with the grand tour costing a small fortune. Beside the luxury accommodations she also managed to live life to the fullest and attend gourmet cooking schools like the Le Cordon Bleu.
Teoh got her B.Sc, in 2012 and her Ph.D. in 2017 from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In October of 2017, she started her post-doc at the Singapore Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR). Her area of specialty is candidiasis (Yeast infection). She left after ten months. In July of 2018, she joined the Asian Scientist Magazine as an intern, but, left after two months.
Academically, she seems to be an under performer. Her grade history shows that she almost flunked a test (scored 60%) in “Monitoring of Clinical Trials by Industry Sponsors”, which ironically, is the basis of her proclaimed expertise for some of her critical fact checks.
In November of 2018, Teoh joined Science Feedback. Her main assignments for 2020 have been to:
- Monitor and control political discourse related to science
- Gate keep and censor ‘conservative’ scientific content
- Promote media that is aligned with ‘progressive’ thought
So it turns out that the arbitrator of truth that controls our free speech in the US is a Chinese woman from Singapore who is living a life of luxury in Europe, all expenses paid by her wealthy family back in Asia. No siree, Bob! You can’t make up this stuff even if you wanted to.
If you are still trying to figure out how to get around the social media ‘truth’ police, you may be interested to know that Flora Teoh is advertising her freelance writing services emphasizing her ability to “produce compelling narrative.“ Why not ping her and get her to review/write your next post? If you’re lucky, you may be able to catch her between gourmet meals while advocating hermetic quarantine for the rest of us in the US. Her complete lack of expertise in your domain is not an issue, she is more than happy to write about “unfamiliar” topics. I also hear her rates are quite reasonable, last advertised she was only charging $30 per hour.
Over the past two weeks there have been a number of publications that aggressively promote the medicine Remdesivir and attack the usefulness of Hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of Covid-19. These publications have been now officially adapted by the social media censors as the new standard in suppressing any content that challenges their conclusions.
Ms. Teoh is the typical far-left “Fact checker” used by entities like Google and Facebook.
She has a sketchy record and connections to China, George Soros, and the Gates Foundation.
There was no way that two California doctors of immunology were going to get a fair assessment from Ms. Teoh, Facebook, George Soros or the Gates Foundation. Today we know their assessment was correct and Miss Teoh was completely wrong. But she was able to smear them and censor their voices. And she did this from overseas!
Facebook is now openly using far-left operatives with links to China and Soros to silence US Doctors in the field!
This should not be legal.
You can read the rest here.
Research and data provided by Yaacov Apelbaum
