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By Steve Stecklow and Andrew MacAskill
LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Late last year, a semi-retired
British scientist co-authored a petition to Europe's medicines
regulator. The petitioners made a bold demand: Halt COVID-19
vaccine clinical trials.
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."
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.
