Twitter forced to reinstate scientist who shared vaccine study

For at least the second time this month, Twitter was forced to reinstate a user it suspended for sharing information critical to the COVID-19 vaccines. 

In this case, the user was world-renowned scientist Dr. Andrew Bostom, whom Twitter suspended after he posted a recent peer-reviewed study showing the COVID-19 vaccine impairs sperm count in men. Bostom had over 47,000 followers. 

An affiliate of Brown University Center for Primary Care and Prevention, Bostom completed the largest randomized controlled trial ever conducted in chronic kidney transplant recipients. He has published 115 peer-reviewed studies on epidemiology and clinical trials. He recently submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in a vaccine mandate case. And until last year, he was Associate Professor of Medicine and Family Medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University since 1997. His CV lists further accomplishments.  

In short, Dr. Andrew Bostom is the quintessential medical expert.  

Last month, Bostom shared the link to a scholarly peer-reviewed study of young Israeli men which showed that “Covid-19 vaccination BNT162b2 temporarily impairs semen concentration and total motile count among semen donors”.  

Above the link, Bostom wrote, “Primary Covid-19 BNT162b mRNA vaccination impairs semen concentration...total motile account among semen donors, with apparent rebound by ~5 mos, but no data on boostering effect. Does boostering yield another decline?, followed by??”  

Twitter notified the epidemiologist that his account was suspended for “Violating our policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. You may not use Twitter’s services to share false or misleading information about COVID-19 which may lead to harm.” 

The suspension elicited a fierce backlash, including a report published by America’s Frontline News, and Bostom’s lawyer threatened Twitter with legal action. 

“Dr. Bostom did not violate Twitter’s policy,” attorney James Lawrence III wrote in a July 14th letter to the social media giant, according to The Epoch Times. “At a minimum, nothing in our client’s tweet was ‘demonstrably false or misleading,’ nor was it ‘likely to impact public safety or cause serious harm.’” 

“Dr. Bostom tweeted findings from a peer-reviewed study, and he summarized its content within the 280 character limit Twitter’s platform allows,” he added. 

Lawrence pointed out that Twitter was violating its own “Five Strikes” policy, which allows users “five strikes” before their accounts are suspended, and cited Twitter’s recent loss against journalist Alex Berenson for the same infraction. 

As reported by America’s Frontline News earlier this month, Twitter admitted it was wrong to suspend journalist Alex Berenson after the two parties reportedly settled a lawsuit, Berenson shared recently. The social media giant booted Berenson from the platform in August 2021 for contradicting official COVID-19 messaging in a tweet, despite it being factually accurate.   

“It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission,” Berenson’s offending tweet read. “Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it – at best – as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity.”