Joel Hirschhorn Can't Stop Misinforming

Despite the occasional visit to reality, the WorldNetDaily columnist continues to baselessly fearmonger about COVID vaccines.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 5/1/2023

Joel Hirschhorn

The greatest failure of the public health establishment has arrived. Public revolt is now urgently needed.

Of all the many insane aspects of the pandemic, nothing compares to what is now going on: The federal government and public health establishment is pushing COVID vaccines for infants, young children and adolescents. Parents succumbing to this are either grossly uninformed or just plain victims of pro-vaccine propaganda.

Two key questions are paramount: Do infants and children really face such high COVID risks that they need vaccination? Are parents well-informed about the many known and unknown negative side effects of COVID vaccines?

[...]

Yet another sad aspect of this lunacy is how nearly all physicians have succumbed to the pro-vaccine dogma and propaganda. Every parent with a doctor embracing vaccination of their children should question that doctor's competence and independence.

Hirschhorn spent his July 11 column discussing long COVID in a way that was surprisingly medically accurate (by his standards, anyway). He tried to blame vaccines again for long COVID, but even he had to concede that any link between them happens only in rare cases and that vaccines may offer some protection against getting long COVID after an infection.

Hirschhorn's Aug. 4 column was spent enthusing over the boosting vitamin D to ward off a COVID infection -- again, not a bad idea since many people have vitamin D deficiencies. Still he felt the need to undercut his surprisingly sound advice with a conspiracy:

Here is the big point: If public health agencies had pushed the wide use of vitamin D early in the pandemic, especially 5,000 units or more daily, there surely would have been virtually no pandemic. And no big need for COVID vaccines. It is a disgrace that governments worldwide have not promoted use of D and that physicians have not urged their patients to take it. All this is inexplicable, unless you recognize the evil influence of Big Pharma. All the U.S. government officials who pushed vaccines over vitamin D, especially Tony Fauci, should be criminally prosecuted.

Hirschhorn was back to unsound conspiracies in his Aug. 12 column, fretting about the summer increase in COVID deaths without once mentioning that the Omicron variant, against which current vaccines offer less protection. Still, he ranted:

The main propaganda line is that vaccines and boosters are "safe and effective" and prevent severe illness and death. These are lies, as shown by the data.

COVID propaganda lies set a record in the history of the human race. The propaganda has killed millions of people.

[...]

Why are more people dying from COVID?

Because what hospitals are doing is ineffective. It's not working.

Have the vaccines and boosters wrecked the immune systems of many people? As the transmission of the virus continues, people are getting sick enough to die.

[...]

Another explanation may be the vast numbers of illegal aliens coming across the southern border. Many likely have poor immune systems and have not been vaccinated. But hospitals are not reporting whether such people are dying from COVID.

As much as Hirschhorn wants it to be, undocumented immigrants are not to blame for a summer COVID surge. But he had a new conspiracy to peddle, that the vaccines cause cancer:

A researcher who queried the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) discovered a 10,661.4% increase in cancer reports as a result of experimental COVID-19 gene-based vaccines as compared with all FDA-approved vaccines over the last 30 years.

It's important to always remember that VAERS likely only reports as little as 1% of actual impacts because it is voluntary and burdensome reporting most doctors and others do not take the time to use.

Brian Shilhavy, who is the editor of Health Impact News, traced his steps in the search, providing links to documentation of his various findings.

Shilhavy and his website network have been exposed as COVID misinformation superspreaders, so there's no reason for Hirschhorn -- or anyone else -- to trust his research. But Hirschhorn had one more misinformer to promote:

In March 2021, board-certified pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole reported that he was seeing a massive "uptick" in various autoimmune diseases and cancers in patients who have been COVID-vaccinated, LifeSiteNews reports.

There are still many unknowns, but one is becoming clear: There is a connection between COVID and CANCER!

Cole's claims have been discredited, and LifeSiteNews was kicked off Facebook for spreading COVID misinformation.

Hirschhorn misinformed again in his Sept. 5 column:

WARNING: If you have had a COVID vaccine/booster shot, what this article presents may cause you stress and anxiety.

Two key recent medical research articles, one from Italy and one from Germany, have been used to document what may be the most important research finding during the entire COVID pandemic period.

Blood damage that has been detailed through sophisticated research methods is the "missing link" to explain many negative health conditions ranging from heart problems, cancers, reduced immunity and death. Blood damage is the key biologic explanation for harmful vaccine impacts. Note that I am using the word "vaccine" but fully recognize that COVID vaccines/boosters are not real vaccines, but a form of genetic treatment that, unlike real vaccines, do not actually and truly prevent or cure COVID.

As to deaths, data from Europe, New Zealand, Australia and Canada on total excess mortality countrywide in 2022, greater than in 2020 and 2021, are best explained by widespread COVID vaccine use in 2022 and not COVID infection deaths.

Please understand that ordinary blood testing you may get from your physician laboratory orders are not the same as the research techniques used to document vaccine induced blood damage. Do not let cognitive dissonance stand in the way of your acceptance of these frightening research results.

In both research publications, closely examine the many photographs given to prove blood damage; it is infeasible to reproduce them here. It will take time and patience to closely read these two studies, but there is no alternative if you truly want to understand how blood damage has been proven in a compelling way.

The first study Hirschhorn cited was published in the International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice and Research -- an anti-vaxxer journal no credible medical researcher takes seriously -- one scientist observed that publishing something there "seems to be no different than self-publishing a book on Amazon Kindle." The second is titled "German Researchers Examine Covid 'Vaccines' and Vaccinated People's Blood and Say Stop Vaccinations," and the fact that it puts "vaccines" in scare quotes should be enough to note its anti-vaxxer nature. It's also not a study in the sense that it was published in a respected peer-reviewed journal; it's a report from something called the "German Working Group for Covid-19 Vaccine Analysis," whatever that is, and it appeared on someone's Substack site.

Nevertheless, Hirschhorn wants you to think this is all serious, credible stuff -- and yet another excuse to indulge his weird obsession with Anthony Fauci:

The blood damage caused by COVID "vaccines" is best seen by the public as the key "missing link" that can explain what I and many others have been reporting on for many months – namely, the multitude of adverse health impacts and deaths from what the medical and public health establishment, the mainstream media and government agencies are still pushing on the public.

Eventually, history will show that all the powers forcing COVID "vaccines" on the public do not have the courage and integrity to admit that the "vaccines" were a dangerous and false pandemic solution that ultimately will explain millions of deaths. They can be seen as part of the biowar forced upon humanity – a true crime against humanity. The principal force that created the phony vaccine movement was Anthony Fauci, whose prosecution as a criminal is sorely needed.

Hirschhorn used his Oct. 4 column to try and gaslight his readers, blaming declining trust in doctors on anything but right-wing anti-vaxxer lies and falsely insisting that he's the one who's doing the "truth telling":

Losing trust in doctors and the medical establishment is a sad consequence of the COVID pandemic. Doctors have not done all they should have to better serve their patients.

After truth telling in my writings for about two years, I remain saddened that the vast majority of the public remains victimized by propaganda in favor of vaccines and boosters while ignoring the many truths I and others have been shouting.

It now seems important for all of us who know the truth to put much of the blame on regular doctors people ordinarily see. The very sad fact is that nearly all of them are a combination of being ignorant (about COVID, vaccines and their alternatives), cowards for being unwilling to risk their jobs and prestige, and just plain biased – supporting what government agencies and medical establishment forces have hit the public with.

We need a public uprising against prevalent physician beliefs and behaviors.

When doctors are all wrong about COVID, then it is rational to doubt their overall performance in keeping their patients healthy by using the best medicines, tests and medical knowledge. Are they following medical research on many, many topics other than COVID?

Hirschhorn then served up "a series of questions (just examples) to ask your doctor," which he claimed are "structured to allow a simple answer so that minimal time is needed." But many of the questions try to advance anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories:

• Are you aware that considerable data show many people are dying about five months after being vaccinated?
• Have you stayed informed about proven alternatives to the vaccines that some doctors have been using with great success since the pandemic began?
• Are you aware of high rates of excess mortality (that has only happened after wide vaccine use) all over the world, that they cannot be explained by COVID infection and that many believe result from COVID vaccines damaging immune systems and blood?
• If I tested positive for COVID and begged you for a prescription for ivermectin, would you provide it?

Hirschhorn added:

If you are truly well-informed about the pandemic and COVID, then you should know what really good or bad answers are for these questions.

Similarly, if you had the opportunity to have time with one of the great doctors, like Peter McCullough in Texas or George Fareed in California, you can imagine how they would answer these questions.

Yes, we can. McCullough is a discredited COVID misinformer, while Fareed, as ConWebWatch noted the last time Hirschhorn brought him up, claims to have developed an ivermectin-centric treatment that normal doctors have disavowed.

Hirschhorn concluded by demanding that his fellow misinformers continue pushing that misinformation: "If you find this topic of great importance, then share all this with those you know who still are brainwashed by the propaganda from the many authoritarian forces pushing all the wrong information about COVID. Think of Anthony Fauci as the leader of those awful forces. Tell those people what good and correct answers are to the above questions."

The only person we see who has been "brainwashed" by "propaganda" is Hirschhorn.

Hirschhorn ranted in his Oct. 13 column:

The COVID pandemic has two new forms, in addition to continuing preventable deaths from viral infection – nearly 3,000 a week in the U.S. One is increasing levels of long COVID that does not kill, but ruins quality of life. I have already published articles on this. Here I explore the second new manifestation, namely excess deaths not due to infection but resulting from vaccines. How are vaccines killing large numbers of people? In brief, the vaccines ruin immune systems and damage blood. So people are dying from various ailments and diseases, including cardiac problems.

Government agencies have played many games to hide vaccine-induced excess deaths.

A large body of medical literature continues to evolve on these excess deaths showing death rates in 2021 and 2022 significantly above rates prior to the pandemic. And many studies have linked vaccines to these high excess death rates. Below I cite several sources where details have been published. Though it takes time, reading these sources will enlighten you about vaccine induced deaths.

Mathew Crawford, a great analyst, said that, "Vaccine deaths were seemingly classified as COVID-19 deaths, [and] my estimation of the death toll quickly grew. Now I personally suspect that over 100,000 Americans have been killed by the experimental vaccines. Others I know think the number may be as large as a quarter of a million." Based on my extensive reading I think the latter is likely.

Crawford's claims about excess deaths caused by vaccines were discredited long ago -- which tells his Hirschhorn's standards for a "great analyst" are severely flawed. Hirschhorn also promoted dubious claims from anti-vaxxers like Steve Kirsch and Daniel Horowitz, as well as a bogus poll commissioned by Kirsch claiming that "More than twice as many Americans have lost a household member to a COVID vaccine injury as have lost one to COVID." Hirschhorn concluded by rehashing his conspiracy theories:

In the U.S. and worldwide many people who obeyed public health agencies and got COVID shots are dying from them. This is how the pandemic lives on by killing people from the supposed "solution" to COVID. And authorities are still pushing vaccines. This is tragic. Also tragic is that most excess deaths are of relatively young people, considered working age, not the elderly. Finally, this is what CDC says: "Reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare." Keep in mind that the pandemic could have been better addressed by strongly pushing use of high dose vitamin D and even nasal saline sprays. COVID vaccines were always a terrible strategy but a great moneymaker for Pfizer.

For a pre-election column on Nov. 3, Hirschhorn tried to turn his discredited conspiracy theories into a campaign issue:

As someone who closely follows the news, I have found it amazing that no stories about the issues important to midterm voters include pandemic and COVID failures, especially vaccines. They have caused more than 30 million adverse health impacts and deaths; these are far greater than all the harm caused by crime, opioid and fentanyl misuse, and other factors ruining lives. Over a million Americans have died from COVID, and hundreds more die every day because the vaccines do not work and all the wrong, useless protocols still are used in hospitals.

There should be not doubt that the Biden administration and Democrats have totally screwed up pandemic management. If Americans want major changes, then they should vote for Republicans over Democrats.

[...]

Now is the time for all smart, sensible and informed Americans to think about the need to NOT vote for Democrats in House and Senate races. This view may not persuade far-left, radical Democrats and liberals, but I hope that moderate Democrats, independents and others who see pandemic truth will vote for much needed change in our medical and public health system and restore public trust in it.

Nobody is going to find "pandemic truth" by listening to Hirschhorn's conspiratorial rantings.

Hirschhorn served up more ranting in his Nov. 30 column:

By now millions of Americans well-informed about the pandemic know that the cheap, safe and effective generic medicine ivermectin (IVM) was blocked for wide-scale use from the very beginning by the federal government. It was a critical but medically wrong tactic within the wait-for-the-vaccine strategy. Preventing early use of IVM has surely killed and harmed hundreds of thousands of Americans. A few courageous doctors have successfully been using IVM during the pandemic, but most feared punishment as they lost their medical freedom.

Now comes a mind-boggling statement from an attorney defending the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a lawsuit brought by three doctors. The following statement should be copied and used by both doctors and individuals to freely prescribe and use IVM in the earliest stage of COVID infection as an antiviral. It always should have been seen as an alternative to experimental, unsafe and ineffective COVID vaccines.

Here are the amazing words of the federal attorney:

"The cited statements were not directives. They were not mandatory. They were recommendations. They said what parties should do. They said, for example, why you should not take ivermectin to treat COVID-19," Isaac Belfer, a lawyer defending FDA, told the court. "They did not say you may not do it, you must not do it. They did not say it's prohibited or it's unlawful. They also did not say that doctors may not prescribe ivermectin."

Imagine that! So, let truth prevail. Let national access to IVM begin!

As ConWebWatch has pointed out, the doctors who brought the lawsuit were never actually barred from prescribing ivermectin (despite the fact that there's little credible evidence that it works on COVID) and that the FDA lawyer's statement does not constitute a change in position.

Nevertheless, Hirschhorn managed to twist this to his own person anti-Fauci obsession: "No matter what is now being said as some type of excuse for killing people, what should remain a priority is criminally prosecuting Anthony Fauci."

Hirschhorn had more bogus claims to peddle in his Dec. 12 column:

Dr. Eric Nepute is the very first doctor the federal government has come after, accusing him of violating the 2020 COVID Consumer Protection Act. His case takes the form of civil action by the Federal Trade Commission.

According to the commission's complaint, Nepute and his company marketed vitamin D and zinc products under the brand name "Wellness Warrior" and claimed they were as effective – or more – than vaccines that are currently available.

The FTC said among Nepute and Quickwork's bogus claims were that "COVID-19 patients who get enough vitamin D are 52% less likely to die," those who get enough vitamin D are 77% less likely to get the disease and that his Wellness Warrior vitamin D product is more effective at preventing COVID-19 than approved vaccines.

It's not until the seventh paragraph of his column that Hirschhorn mentions in passing one significant issue (not that he sees it as one, of course): Nepute is a chiropractor, not a medical doctor. Hirschhorn never asks any anyone should take advice on infections from a chiropractor whose field of study has nothing whatsoever to do with treating COVID. Meanwhile, here in the real world, actual medical doctors say zinc and vitamin D by themselves cannot prevent or treat COVID, though maintaining recommended levels of them may help reduce disease severity.

Further, Hirschhorn's overly narrow focus on what Nepute said about vitamin D and zinc (though no evidence is provided to back up the numbers they cite) hides the fact that Nepute has spread other lies as well. According to FactCheck.org, Nepute has falsely claimed that the Delta variant was not more contagious than original COVID (it was twice as contagious), falsely claimed that children were being taken from their parents in Australia over COVID safety and spread misinformation about mask mandates and masks themselves.

If Nepute is willing to lie and mislead about so many other things, why should anyone trust that his pills work against COVID? Hirschhorn didn't answer that, of course; instead, he called for readers to read the FTC complaint against Nepute, adding: "See how your government works so hard to defend COVID vaccines against effective and safer alternatives. What a disgrace. Meanwhile, COVID vaccines will keep harming and killing people."

Of course, linking to the complaint doesn't exactly help Nepute's (or Hirschhorn's) cause, given how it documents how the claims he makes about his pills aren't supported by the evidence. Hirschhorn also made no mention of the fact that Nepute is in further trouble because he continued to make false claims about his pills despite having previously agreed in a consent decree with the FTC not to claim his pills could treat or cure COVID.

Then again, when has Hirschhorn ever been constrained by facts and reality?

A momentary return to facts

Given Hirschhorn's history of COVID misinformation, it was a bit of a shock to see him actually address the subject in a more straightforward and factual way. His Jan. 19 column didn't start out promising, though:

Regular readers of this truth-telling publication already are well-informed about the many ill effects of COVID vaccines. But there is always more to understand as medical research keeps unfolding.

First, to summarize the ugly reality it is important to recognize what the great Dr. Peter McCullough has noted. Roughly 15% of vaccine recipients develop a health problem after taking a COVID-19 vaccine. Compared to decades of previous vaccines, that is a huge number that previously would have caused the government to take such a shot off the market.

What followed, however, was a surprisingly straightforward summary of a study published in an actual, credible, peer-reviewed medical journal examining why some people, mostly young men, suffer myocarditis after receiving the vaccine, which the study attributed to spike proteins that evade detection. He did try to fearmonger a bit at the end:

Here is the key point: The spike protein they had in their bodies had evaded the apparently sufficient library of antibodies (from the vaccine or previous infection) that were supposed to neutralize it. Thus, it is possible that some persons do not make specific neutralizing antibodies after injection, and thus, the spike protein is able to circulate and damage the body, specifically the heart muscle and possibly other organs, including the brain. Other research has found that harmful impacts can happen many weeks or months after booster shots. Scars in heart muscle could explain serious impacts and deaths.

Meanwhile, an actual medical expert (which Hirschhorn is not) was much less alarmist about the issue, pointing out that the study had a "relatively small number of participants" and that "these conclusions need to be confirmed in large cohorts."

That expert also noted that "myocarditis has also been observed in response to other vaccines, such as vaccines against influenza and smallpox, and non-mRNA vaccines against COVID-19." Which tells you that the whole myocarditis thing is just a ginned-up scare tactic from anti-vaxxers.

Congratulations, though, to Hirschhorn for actually trying to stick to established facts. It didn't last long, of course, and he was back to his own factually questionable tricks in his Feb. 23 column:

All the new research on vaccine impacts comes from just two years of vaccine use. Thus we still do not have good information on the long-term health impacts. There is a reasonable probability that the negative health impacts will become even worse as time for impacts on bodies and for research goes on.

Another point is that even though the percentage of people impacted may seem quite low, it is important to remember that there are huge numbers of people vaccinated, hundreds of millions of people, in fact. This means that very large numbers of people may be impacted by a host of diseases that at first seem minor.

Lastly, it is possible that some people may become victims of several vaccine-caused health problems. Just another factor to consider when high excess death rates continue to be observed nearly everywhere.

There has been limited analysis and data on cancers being caused by the COVID mRNA vaccines. Now comes a creative new analysis by Ronald Kostoff. The article title is: "Are COVID-19 Vaccine-Induced Cancer Rare Events?"

The key word here is "creative," meaning that he's making stuff up. In fact, COVID vaccines do not and cannot cause cancer. Still, Hirschhorn served up another "innovative" fearmongering analysis:

A very innovative analysis is presented in the new article: "Age-stratified COVID-19 vaccine-dose fatality rate for Israel and Australia." What is noteworthy is that the detailed analysis for Israel and Australia leads to a generalization applicable to the United States. The paper points out that "it is not unreasonable to assume an all-population global value of vDFR = 0.1 % [vaccine dose fatality rate]." This is for vaccine doses. For the U.S., 670 million doses have been given, so the estimate is 670,000 people have been killed by the COVID vaccines in the U.S.

There is little about this study online besides the usual anti-vaxx suspects promoting it, but it's worth noting that a anti-vaxx-promoted study on purported vaccine deaths in Australia that came out a few weeks later has been discredited.

Hirschhorn followed with a case study of psychosis possibly linked to the vaccine and another study trying to link cases of shingles to it (though that doesn't appear to be a real issue) as well as another one trying to link cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children to the vaccine. He concluded by ranting: "When it comes to the legitimacy of the COVID vaccines, the worst is yet to come. The intensity and range of bad health impacts will become a horror story in coming years."

Hirschhorn spent his March 16 column ranting against the vaccines:

A new Harvard study shows enormous federal spending to develop and distribute a deadly COVID vaccine that makes billions for drug companies.

This is truly a medical establishment publication. The title is "U.S. public investment in development of mRNA covid-19 vaccines: retrospective cohort study."

Here is the most outrageous statement:

"These public investments translated into millions of lives saved and were crucial in developing the mRNA vaccine technology that also has the potential to tackle future pandemics and to treat diseases beyond covid-19."

The great Dr. Peter McCullough has correctly noted:

"While [the study] falsely claims mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have saved millions of lives, the reality is just the opposite with estimates of U.S. vaccine casualties topping half a million deaths usually within the first few days of taking the shot." Half a million deaths! And just in the short term.

The fact that Hirschhorn thinks a repeatedly discredited COVID misinformer like McCullough is "great" tells you all you need to know about Hirschhorn. Still, he seized upon the article to manufacture a conspiracy theory:

Bottom line: There has been a massive, expensive and criminal fraud perpretrated by the United States government. Looks like until now the government has spent more than $50,000 per person killed to make two big drug companies a fortune. All this shows the wisdom of the adage "follow the money."

Hirschhorn used his April 5 column to hype a biased poll:

Looks like there has been massive under-counting of COVID and vaccine deaths.

A new poll by Rasmussen has some data that validates what many of us already believe, namely that the vaccines are dangerous, not "safe and effective" and need to be pulled from the market immediately.

The survey of 1,078 American adults was conducted March 27-29, 2023, by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

A key finding is that nearly as many Americans believe someone close to them died from side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine as died from the disease/infection itself.

Hirschhorn didn't mention that Rasmussen polls are highly biased, raising questions about their accuracy and motives. And Hirschhorn made sure to peddle his own anti-vaccine propaganda:

Please keep in mind that it is now widely accepted by those who follow the data that the COVID vaccines available in the United States do not prevent infection, replication, or spread of SARS-CoV-2, and do not prevent either hospitalized disease or death from COVID-19. Given these facts, references to these biologic medical products as "vaccines" is merely propaganda. They clearly do not "vaccinate" in the classic sense. But they make billions of dollars for vaccine makers.

[...]

More than three years after "15 days to slow the spread" of COVID-19, most voters have less trust in government health experts – and in the news media, too.

And Hirschhorn has been doing his part to manufacture that mistrust. All he's doing here is being happy his narrative has traction -- which has nothing to do with whether it has any basis in fact.