{"id":928466,"date":"2021-10-27T12:58:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T16:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=928466"},"modified":"2021-10-27T12:58:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T16:58:56","slug":"nih-director-violated-agency-policy-by-intentionally-misrepresenting-natural-covid-immunity-study-watchdog-alleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nih-director-violated-agency-policy-by-intentionally-misrepresenting-natural-covid-immunity-study-watchdog-alleges\/","title":{"rendered":"NIH Director Violated Agency Policy By \u2018Intentionally\u2019 Misrepresenting Natural COVID Immunity Study, Watchdog Alleges"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnih-director-violated-agency-policy-by-intentionally-misrepresenting-natural-covid-immunity-study-watchdog-alleges%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=928466&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A watchdog group filed a complaint Wednesday alleging that National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins misrepresented the findings from an August study on people with natural immunity from COVID-19 in violation of the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 scientific integrity policy.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Multiple health experts criticized the study and said Collins\u2019s characterization of its conclusion was misleading.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cGiven the substantive intellectual criticism of the CDC and NIH\u2019s public statements, there is an increasing public perception that the agency\u2019s credibility has been undermined and its intellectual honesty placed in doubt,\u201d Protect the Public\u2019s Trust said in its complaint.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins \u201cintentionally misrepresented\u201d the conclusions of an August study on people with natural immunity from COVID-19 in violation of his agency\u2019s scientific integrity policy, a watchdog group alleged in a complaint Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The watchdog group, Protect the Public\u2019s Trust, alleged in its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.protectpublicstrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Request-for-Investigation-HHS-Scientific-Integrity.pdf\">complaint<\/a> that Collins violated his agency\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nih.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/about-nih\/nih-director\/testimonies\/nih-policies-procedures-promoting-scientific-integrity-2012.pdf\">policies and procedures<\/a> when he said on Fox News on Aug. 12 that the study, which reviewed infection rates among Kentucky residents during May and June, proved definitively that people who have natural immunity from COVID-19 are more than twice as likely to become reinfected than those who have received the COVID-19 vaccination.<\/p>\n<p>Protect the Public\u2019s Trust also alleged that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention violated its scientific integrity policy by promoting a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/media\/releases\/2021\/s0806-vaccination-protection.html\">similar conclusion<\/a> from the study. The group urged the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct an investigation into the statements from Collins and the CDC.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple health experts criticized the study and said Collins\u2019s characterization of its conclusion was misleading. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/08\/28\/natural-immunity-covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine-israeli-study\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED:&nbsp;\u2018Natural Immunity Is Really Better\u2019: New Israeli Study Fuels Debate On Vaccination Versus Natural Immunity) <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn natural immunity, @NIHDirector Francis Collins is misleading the public,\u201d Harvard Medical School epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff tweeted in reaction to Collins\u2019s statement on Fox News. \u201cKentucky study shows less reinfections after COVID disease plus vaccine than COVID only (both very low). He falsely claims less reinfections after vaccine than after COVID disease.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" readability=\"9.2751479289941\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">On natural immunity, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NIHDirector?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@NIHDirector<\/a> Francis Collins is misleading the public. Kentucky study shows less reinfections after COVID disease plus vaccine than COVID only (both very low). He falsely claims less reinfections after vaccine than after COVID disease.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RBaGf8Rr54\">pic.twitter.com\/RBaGf8Rr54<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Martin Kulldorff (@MartinKulldorff) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MartinKulldorff\/status\/1426607041406251009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 14, 2021<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And John Hopkins University surgical professor Marty Makary accused the study of \u201cfishing\u201d for its desired conclusion by cherry-picking data from just one state during a limited timeframe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe rate of getting a subsequent infection in those with natural immunity was 0.09%. Those who were vaccinated in that time period it was 0.03%. The conclusion is it\u2019s extremely rare in both groups,\u201d Makary said on Fox News. \u201cNot that it\u2019s higher among those with natural immunity by 2.3-fold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy did they pick Kentucky? They\u2019ve got data on all 50 states,\u201d Makary added. \u201cThey only reported Kentucky because they were using a statistical method called \u2018fishing\u2019 where you run the data on all 50 states and the one state that gives you the signal that\u2019s consistent with what you want to say is the state you report out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The study itself noted that its findings are hampered by its limited scope.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a retrospective study design using data from a single state during a 2-month period; therefore, these findings cannot be used to infer causation. Additional prospective studies with larger populations are warranted to support these findings,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/70\/wr\/mm7032e1.htm?s_cid=mm7032e1_w\">study<\/a> states.<\/p>\n<p>Makary later noted in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/outlook\/2021\/09\/15\/natural-immunity-vaccine-mandate\/\">Washington Post op-ed<\/a> that more than 15 studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of natural immunity against COVID-19, including a 700,000-person study from Israel that found that those with prior infections were 27 times less likely to come down with a second symptomatic infection than vaccinated individuals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven the substantive intellectual criticism of the CDC and NIH\u2019s public statements, there is an increasing public perception that the agency\u2019s credibility has been undermined and its intellectual honesty placed in doubt,\u201d Protect the Public\u2019s Trust said in its complaint filed Wednesday. \u201cTo be clear, scientific integrity policies cannot always prevent a violation from occurring; however, they should always be relied on to police those violations that have been identified. This appears to be such an occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe request that you open an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the public communications highlighted in this letter,\u201d the complaint added. \u201cPart of the inquiry should explore the decisions by agency officials to continue promoting what appears to be a scientifically unsound conclusion given the relevant data and academic literature available, along with the Kentucky study\u2019s methodological infirmities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The NIH and CDC did not immediately return requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A watchdog group filed a complaint Wednesday alleging that National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins misrepresented the findings from an August study on people with natural immunity from COVID-19 &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-928466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}