Online Medical Journal Censored By Facebook's 'Fact-Checkers' Over Story Regarding Vaccine Whistleblower

The British Medical Journal is a peer-reviewed site dedicated to informing readers on the most up-to-date analysis regarding the COVID-19 vaccines and other medical subjects. Like most online outlets, readership for the site is funneled through top platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, or Google — which can lead to misinformation designations that could censor or conceal facts entirely. 

Several editors from the online journal — Fiona Godlee and Kamran Abbasi — are taking a hard stance against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook in a battle against censorship. The outlet published an article on a whistleblower claiming that expedited experimentation on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is worth noting as a potential hazard for all jab recipients.

At the center of the story is the research company Ventavia, who allegedly fired a regional director voicing concerns to the FDA when the trial process overlooked some risks.

According to the whistleblower's account:

... The company falsified data, unblinded patients, employed inadequately trained vaccinators, and was slow to follow up on adverse events reported in Pfizer's pivotal phase III trial. Staff who conducted quality control checks were overwhelmed by the volume of problems they were finding. After repeatedly notifying Ventavia of these problems, the regional director, Brook Jackson, emailed a complaint to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Ventavia fired her later the same day. Jackson has provided The BMJ with dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings, and emails.

After publishing their article on Facebook, BMF's staff was made aware of a misinformation angle tagged on the story. Soon, the exposé was being treated as a falsified report altogether, which the online outlet believes is a response from Facebook to block data portraying the vaccine in a negative light — an action frequently seen through Twitter's algorithm or Google's search engine that redirects users the same lineup of websites touting the vaccine without any noted faults. 

Included in the BMJ's letter to Facebook's former CEO were assertions that the article was being misrepresented under the title, "Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials."

The letter insisted, "We hope you will act swiftly: specifically to correct the error relating to The BMJ's article and to review the processes that led to the error; and generally to reconsider your investment in and approach to fact-checking overall."

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