Topic: WorldNetDaily
Misrepresenting studies regarding COVID vaccines is a major pastime at WorldNetDaily, and Art Moore added another one to the list in a Dec. 19 article:
A new study by the Food and Drug Administration confirms the concerns of many physicians worldwide of a link between blood clots and the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
The researchers examined data covering 17.4 million elderly Americans who had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. They found that the incidents of pulmonary embolism, or blood clotting in the lungs, met the initial safety signal, meaning further investigation is warranted, the Epoch Times reported.
After a more thorough evaluation, the statistical signal continued to meet the criteria. Researchers said three other outcomes initially raised red flags but did not meet the statistical threshold: a lack of oxygen to the heart, a blood platelet disorder called immune thrombocytopenia, and another type of clotting called intravascular coagulation.
The FDA, however, said it will not act on the results because they don't prove the vaccines cause any of the four outcomes. The agency said the findings, published by the journal Vaccine, "are still under investigation and require more robust study."
Without citing any evidence, the authors said the FDA "strongly believes the potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the potential risks of COVID-19 infection."
But as a more responsible and fact-based media outlet reported:
Social media users are misinterpreting a study published this month in the journal “Vaccine,” to falsely claim it proves that the FDA has admitted that Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot causes blood clots.
“So the FDA finally came out and said that Pfizer’s Covid shot causes blood clots? Only 2 years late!” wrote one Twitter user who received more than 37,000 shares and 168,000 likes on the post.
Other social media users shared a link to a post from a conservative publication that has spread vaccine misinformation in the past. While the article more accurately conveys the results of the study, the contents are behind a paywall and its headline left out key context, stating: “Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine Linked to Blood Clotting: FDA.”
But the FDA made no such an announcement, and the claims take the study’s findings out of context, according to experts.
[...]
Dr. Jeffrey Olin, a cardiologist and professor at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine in New York, reiterated that the paper found a “signal,” but emphasized that this is not the same as causation.
“There was a slightly increased signal in that vaccine compared to the other ones they tested,” said Olin, who is also the director of vascular medicine at Mount Sinai’s center for cardiovascular health. “So you can’t assess causation. All you can say is there’s an association. And then if you want to assess causation you need to have a much more sophisticated study.”
Olin noted that the group who received the Pfizer vaccine were older, more likely to be in nursing homes and had more comorbidities that would put them in the hospital — all things that are associated with blood clotting.
“It’s impossible to sort out those things as the cause versus the vaccine,” he said.
That's not the only thing Moore and WND have mislead about. He wrote in a Nov. 23 article:
President Biden repeatedly has scolded Americans who choose not to take the experimental mRNA COVID shots under emergency use authorization, charging they are responsible for a "pandemic of the unvaccinated."
On Wednesday, however, the administration's reliable media ally, the Washington Post, reported "a majority of Americans dying from the coronavirus received at least the primary series of the vaccine."
The report came a day after Biden's top health adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and his COVID coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, declared the data "overwhelmingly" show the effectiveness of the vaccines in preventing hospitalization and death.
[...]
The Post reported the latest data show 58% of COVID-19 deaths in August 2022 were from people who were vaccinated or boosted.
Some argue that with 68% of Americans fully vaccinated, a higher percentage of the unvaccinated are dying.
But Moore skipped the part in the Washington Post article pointing out that vaccine efficacy wanes over time and that regular booster shots are needed. He also censored other reasons behind the finding: More people have received at least one vaccination, and older people are more likely to die from COVID regardless of vaccination status.
Moore is deliberately misleading is readers. That's bad journalism, and yet another reason why WND is barely surviving these days.
