Facebook Censors Wall Street Journal Over ‘Fact Checked’ Coronavirus Op-Ed by Johns Hopkins Surgeon

Facebook’s fact-checkers have come for the Wall Street Journal, causing the mainstream newspaper to be censored on the world’s largest social network, after the Journal published an op-ed from a Johns Hopkins surgeon who argued that the United States is likely to achieve herd immunity to the COVID-19 virus by April.

The surgeon, Dr. Marty Makary, argued that a failure to take natural immunity as well as vaccine immunity into account was leading some to underestimate when herd immunity could be achieved. Citing a 77 percent decline in cases over the past six weeks, Makary called for “contingency planning for an open economy by April.”
Makary also said that other medical experts privately agreed with him, but that they recommended remaining quiet to avoid a premature relaxation of precautionary measures.

“Some medical experts privately agreed with my prediction that there may be very little Covid-19 by April but suggested that I not to talk publicly about herd immunity because people might become complacent and fail to take precautions or might decline the vaccine,” wrote Makary. “But scientists shouldn’t try to manipulate the public by hiding the truth.”

Makary’s op-ed was subsequently “fact-checked” by Health Feedback, a project tied to the World Health Organization and an affiliate of Science Feedback, a group focusing on “fact-checking” skepticism of the man-made climate change theory, a position mainly held by conservatives.

Health Feedback tagged the Wall Street Journal op-ed with the label “missing context” and “misleading,” causing Facebook to censor the article by reducing its distribution across the platform.

“Once we have a rating from a fact-checking partner, we take action by ensuring that fewer people see that misinformation,” Facebook confirmed to the WSJ.

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