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 Even bolder was their argument for doing so: They speculated,
without providing evidence, that the vaccines could cause
infertility in women.
The document appeared on a German website on Dec.1. Scientists
denounced the theory. Regulators weren't swayed, either: Weeks
later, the European Medicines Agency approved the European Union's
first COVID-19 shot, co-developed by Pfizer Inc. But damage was
already done.
Social media quickly spread exaggerated claims that COVID-19 jabs
cause female infertility. Within weeks, doctors and nurses in
Britain began reporting that concerned women were asking them
whether it was true, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians
& Gynaecologists. In January, a survey by the Kaiser Family
Foundation (KFF), a non-profit organization, found that 13% of
unvaccinated people in the United States had heard that "COVID-19
vaccines have been shown to cause infertility."
What gave the debunked claim credibility was that one of the
petition's co-authors, Michael Yeadon, wasn't just any scientist.
The 60-year-old is a former vice president of Pfizer, where he spent
16 years as an allergy and respiratory researcher. He later
co-founded a biotech firm that the Swiss drugmaker Novartis
purchased for at least $325 million.
In recent months, Yeadon (pronounced Yee-don) has emerged as an
unlikely hero of the so-called anti-vaxxers, whose adherents
question the safety of many vaccines, including for the coronavirus.
The anti-vaxxer movement has amplified Yeadon's skeptical views
about COVID-19 vaccines and tests, government-mandated lockdowns and
the arc of the pandemic. Yeadon has said he personally doesn't
oppose the use of all vaccines. But many health experts and
government officials worry that opinions like his fuel vaccine
hesitancy a reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated that could
prolong the pandemic. COVID-19 has already killed more than 2.6
million people worldwide.
"These claims are false, dangerous and deeply irresponsible," said a
spokesman for Britain's Department of Health & Social Care, when
asked about Yeadon's views. "COVID-19 vaccines are the best way to
protect people from coronavirus and will save thousands of lives."
Recent reports of blood clots and abnormal bleeding in a small
number of recipients of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine have cast
doubt on that shot's safety, leading several European countries to
suspend its use. The developments are likely to fuel vaccine
hesitancy further, although there is no evidence of a causative link
between the AstraZeneca product and the affected patients'
conditions.
Yeadon didn't respond to requests for comment for this article. In
reporting this story, Reuters reviewed thousands of his tweets over
the past two years, along with other writings and statements. It
also interviewed five people who know him, including four of his
former colleagues at Pfizer.
A Pfizer spokesman declined to comment on Yeadon and his stint with
the company, beyond emphasizing that there is no evidence that its
vaccine, which it developed with its German partner BioNTech, causes
infertility in women.
References to Yeadon's petition appear on the website of a group
founded by influential vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scion
of the American political dynasty, who recently was banned on
Instagram because of his COVID-19 vaccine posts. Syndicated writer
and vaccine skeptic Michelle Malkin reported Yeadon's concern about
fertility in a column last month under the headline, "Pregnant
Women: Beware of COVID Shots." And a blog with an alarmist headline
"Head of Pfizer Research: Covid vaccine is female sterilization"
was shared thousands of times on Facebook.
The visage and views of Yeadon, widely identified as an "Ex-VP of
Pfizer," can be seen on social media in languages including German,
Portuguese, Danish and Czech. A Facebook post carries a video from
November in which Yeadon claimed that the pandemic "fundamentally
is over." The post has been viewed more than a million times.
In October, Yeadon wrote a column for the United Kingdom's Daily
Mail newspaper that also appeared on MailOnline, one of the world's
most-visited news websites. It declared that deaths caused by
COVID-19, which then totaled about 45,000 in Britain, will soon
"fizzle out" and Britons "should immediately be allowed to resume
normal life." Since then, the disease has killed about another
80,000 people in the UK.
Yeadon isn't the only respected scientist to have challenged the
scientific consensus on COVID-19 and expressed controversial views.
Michael Levitt, a winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry, told the
Stanford Daily last summer that he expected the pandemic would end
in the United States in 2020 and kill no more than 175,000 Americans
a third of the current total and "when we come to look back,
we're going to say that wasn't such a terrible disease." And Luc
Montagnier, another Nobel Prize winner, said last year that he
believed the coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab. Many experts
doubt that, but so far there is no way to prove or disprove it.
Levitt told Reuters that his projections about the pandemic in the
United States were wrong, but he still believes COVID-19 eventually
won't be seen as "a terrible disease" and that lockdowns "caused a
great deal of collateral damage and may not have been needed."
Montagnier didn't respond to a request for comment.
What gives Yeadon particular credibility is the fact that he worked
at Pfizer, says Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for
Countering Digital Hate, an organization that combats online
misinformation. "Yeadon's background gives his dangerous and harmful
messages false credibility."
In a debate last fall in Britain's House of Commons about the
government's response to the pandemic, parliamentarian Richard Drax
called Yeadon an "eminent" scientist, and cited his view "that the
virus is both manageable and nearing its end." Drax didn't respond
to a request for comment.
More recently, David Kurten, a member of the London Assembly an
elected body tweeted there is a "real danger" that COVID-19
vaccines could leave women infertile. "The 'cure' must not be worse
than the 'disease'," Kurten wrote. He, too, didn't respond to a
request for comment.
Why Yeadon transformed from mainstream scientist to COVID-19 vaccine
skeptic remains a mystery. Thousands of his tweets stretching back
to the start of the pandemic document a dramatic shift in his views
early on, he supported a vaccine strategy. But they offer few
clues to explain his radical turnabout.
Some former colleagues at Pfizer say they no longer recognize the
Mike Yeadon they once knew. They described him as a knowledgeable
and intelligent man who always insisted on seeing evidence and
generally avoided publicity.
One of those ex-colleagues is Sterghios A. Moschos, who holds
degrees in molecular biology and pharmaceutics. In December, Yeadon
posted on Twitter a spoof sign that said, "DITCH THE MASK." Moschos
tweeted back: "Mike what hell ?! Are you out to actively kill
people? You do realize that if you are wrong, your suggestions will
result in deaths ??"
"IT'LL ALL FADE AWAY"
Yeadon joined Twitter in October 2018 and soon became a prolific
user of the platform. The thousands of his tweets reviewed by
Reuters were provided by archive.org, which stores web pages, and
FollowersAnalysis, a social media analytics company.
When the coronavirus pandemic reached the UK in March 2020, Yeadon
initially expressed support for developing a vaccine. He tweeted: "Covid
19 is not going away. Until we have a vaccine or herd immunity"
natural resistance resulting from prior exposure to the virus "all
that can be done is to slow its spread." A week later he tweeted: "A
vaccine might be along towards the end of 2021, if we're really
lucky."
When a fellow Twitter user said vaccines "harm many, many people,"
Yeadon replied: "Ok, please refuse it, but do not impede its flow to
neutrals or those keen to get it, thanks."
After Mathai Mammen, the global head of research & development for
Janssen, the pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson, posted on
LinkedIn last summer that his company had started clinical trials of
a vaccine, Yeadon responded: "Lovely to see this milestone, Mathai!"
Mammen didn't respond to a request for comment.
But as early as April, Yeadon had begun voicing unorthodox views.
While Britain was still in its first lockdown last spring, he
declared: "there is nothing especially virulent or frightening about
covid 19
it'll all fade away
Just a common & garden virus, to
which the world overreacted." And he predicted in a subsequent tweet
that it was "unlikely" the death toll in the UK would reach 40,000.
By September 2020, Yeadon's statements were attracting attention
beyond Twitter. At the time, a movement had emerged in Britain
against lockdowns and other restrictions meant to curb the disease.
He co-authored a lengthy article on a website called Lockdown
Sceptics. It declared that the "pandemic as an event in the UK is
essentially complete." And, "There is no biological principle that
leads us to expect a second wave." Britain soon entered a much more
deadly second wave.
On Oct. 16, he wrote another lengthy article for the same website:
"There is absolutely no need for vaccines to extinguish the
pandemic. I've never heard such nonsense talked about vaccines. You
do not vaccinate people who aren't at risk from a disease."
[to top of second column] |
 In November, Yeadon appeared in
a 32-minute video for the anti-lockdown group,
Unlocked, sitting in a shed with a motorbike
behind him. A shorter version appeared on
Facebook titled, "The pandemic is over."
Yeadon called for an end to mass testing and
claimed that 30% of the population was already
immune to COVID-19 even before the pandemic
started. By the time of the recording, he said,
there was little scope for the virus to spread
further in the UK because most people had
already been infected or were immune.
Those views ran counter to the findings of the
World Health Organization. In December nine
months after declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a
pandemic the agency said testing suggested
that less than 10% of the world's population had
shown evidence of infection.
Yeadon's petition to the European Medicines Agency to halt vaccine
trials followed on Dec. 1. The agency didn't respond to requests for
comment for this article.
It's impossible to measure the impact of Yeadon's claim that
COVID-19 vaccines could cause female infertility. Anecdotally,
though, many women have bought into it.
Bonnie Jacobson, a waitress in Brooklyn, New York, can't recall
where she first heard about the fertility issue. But she told
Reuters that it has made her hesitant to take a vaccine, as she'd
like to have children "sooner than later." "That's
my main concern," she said. "Let more research come out." After
recently declining to get vaccinated, she said, the tavern where she
worked fired her. Jacobson's employer didn't respond to a request
for comment.
A GOOD SCIENTIST
According to Yeadon's LinkedIn profile, he joined Pfizer in 1995;
the company had a large operation then in Sandwich in southern
England. He rose to become a vice president and head of allergy and
respiratory research.
Many former colleagues say they are baffled by his transformation.
Mark Treherne, chairman of Talisman Therapeutics in Cambridge,
England, said he overlapped with Yeadon at Pfizer for about two
years and sometimes had coffee with him. "He always seemed
knowledgeable, intelligible, a good scientist. We were both trained
as pharmacologists
so we had something in common."
"I obviously disagree with Mike and his recent views," he said.
Treherne's company is researching brain inflammation, which he said
could be triggered by coronaviruses. "This does not sound like the
guy I knew 20 years ago."
Moschos, the ex-colleague who took issue with one of Yeadon's
tweets, said he considered him a mentor when they worked together at
the drugmaker from 2008 to 2011. More recently, Moschos has been
researching whether it's possible to test for COVID-19 with breath
samples. He said Yeadon's views are "a huge disappointment." He
recounted hearing Yeadon in a radio interview last year.
"There was a tone in his voice that was nothing like I ever
remembered of Mike," Moschos said. "It was very angry, very bitter."
John LaMattina, a former president of Pfizer Global Research and
Development, also knew Yeadon. "His group was very successful and
discovered a number of compounds that entered early clinical
development," LaMattina told Reuters in an email. He said Yeadon and
his team were let go by Pfizer, however, when the company made the
strategic decision to exit the therapeutic area they were
researching.
LaMattina said he had lost touch with Yeadon in recent years. Shown
links to Yeadon's video declaring the pandemic over and a copy of
his petition to halt COVID-19 clinical trials, LaMattina replied:
"This is all news to me and a bit of a shock. This seems out of
character for the person I knew."
"CHUTZPAH"
After losing his job at Pfizer in 2011, Yeadon set up a biotech
company called Ziarco with three Pfizer colleagues. They wanted to
continue researching promising therapies that targeted allergies and
inflammatory diseases, ideas Pfizer had been developing but were at
risk of being abandoned. Yeadon served as Ziarco's chief executive.
"I simply showed chutzpah and asked the senior-most people up the
research line" at Pfizer to support the venture, Yeadon later
recalled in an interview with Forbes. "And they said, 'OK, assuming
you raise private capital.'"
In 2012, Ziarco announced it had initially secured funding from
several investors, including Pfizer's venture capital arm. Other
investors later joined, including an Amgen Inc corporate venture
capital fund. Amgen didn't respond to a request for comment.
"The intensity of effort took me away almost completely from my
family and other interests for almost five years and you get only
one life," Yeadon told Forbes.
On Twitter, Yeadon said he is married and has two adult daughters,
and described a tough childhood he said his mother committed
suicide when he was 18 months old and his father, a doctor,
abandoned him when he was 16. He said he was saved by a local social
worker and adopted by a Jewish family whose "open handed love turned
my life around."
While at Ziarco, Yeadon also worked as a consultant for several
years at two Boston-area biotech companies, Apellis Pharmaceuticals
and Pulmatrix Inc. Both firms said he no longer advises them. A
spokeswoman for Apellis said, "His views do not reflect those of
Apellis." She didn't elaborate.
The hard work at Ziarco paid off. In January 2017, Novartis acquired
the company for an upfront payment of $325 million, with the promise
of $95 million more if certain milestones were met, according to
Novartis' 2017 annual report. Novartis was betting on the promise of
a Ziarco drug, known as ZPL389, that had the potential to be a
"first-in-class oral treatment for moderate-to-severe eczema," a
common and sometimes debilitating rash.
Reuters wasn't able to determine how much money Yeadon made from
Novartis' purchase of Ziarco. But in January 2020 he tweeted: "Oddly
enough, I made millions from founding & growing a biotech company,
creating many highly paid jobs, using my PhD & persuasion around the
world."
Last July, Novartis disclosed it had discontinued the ZPL389
clinical development program and had taken a $485 million write
down. A Novartis spokesman said the company decided to terminate the
program after disappointing efficacy data in an early-stage clinical
trial.
"I'LL SOON BE GONE"
Earlier this year, a group of Yeadon's former Pfizer colleagues
expressed their concern in a private letter, according to a draft
reviewed by Reuters.
"We have become acutely aware of your views on COVID-19 over the
last few months
the single mindedness, lack of scientific rigour
and one sided interpretation of often poor quality data is far
removed from the Mike Yeadon we so respected and enjoyed working
with."
Noting his "vast following on social media" and that his claim about
infertility "has spread globally," the group wrote, "We are very
worried that you are putting people's health at risk."
Reuters couldn't determine whether Yeadon received the letter.
On Feb. 3, Yeadon's Twitter account had a message for his 91,000
followers: "A tweet recently appeared under my ID, which was
horribly offensive. As a result my account was locked. I of course
deleted it. I want you to know of course that I didn't write it." A
Twitter spokesman declined to comment.
Yeadon didn't make clear what tweet he was referring to. But shortly
after, several Twitter users and a blog called Zelo Street posted
screenshots of numerous offensive anti-Muslim tweets from Yeadon's
account from about a year ago. Many were captured at the time by
archive.org.
The next day, on Feb. 4, Yeadon cryptically mentioned in a tweet,
"I'll soon be gone."
Two days later, he was off Twitter. His followers were greeted with
this message: "This account doesn't exist." His LinkedIn profile
also soon changed, now stating that he is "Fully retired."
Clare Craig, a British pathologist, compared Yeadon's treatment on
Twitter where some users derided his views as nonsense and
dangerous to medieval societies burning heretics at the stake.
"There is no other way to see it than the burning of the witches,"
said Craig, who has criticized lockdowns and COVID-19 tests.
"Science is always a series of questions and the testing of those
questions and when we are not allowed to ask those questions, then
science is lost."
She said she spoke to Yeadon after he closed his Twitter account.
"He will have a think about how he will contribute in the future,"
she said.
((Reporting by Steve Stecklow and Andrew MacAskill; Edited by Janet
McBride))
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