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Robert Wallace Malone is an American virologist and immunologist. His work has focused on mRNA technology, pharmaceuticals, and drug repurposing research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has been criticized for promoting misinformation about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.

Early life and education

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Robert Malone received his BSc in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis in 1984, his MSc in biology from the University of California, San Diego in 1988, and his MD from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 1991. He attended Harvard Medical School for a year-long postdoctoral studies program.

Career

In the late 1980s, while a graduate student researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California, Malone conducted studies on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology, discovering that it was possible to transfer mRNA protected by a liposome into cultured cells to signal the information needed for the production of proteins. In 1987, Malone performed a landmark experiment on transfection of RNA into human, rat, mouse, Xenopus, and Drosophila cells, published in 1989. A follow-up study also published in 1989 found that frog embryos absorbed such mRNA. A 1990 paper, in collaboration with Jon A. Wolff, Dennis A. Carson, and others, first suggested the possibility of synthesizing mRNA in a laboratory to trigger the production of a desired protein. These studies are recognized as among the earliest steps towards mRNA vaccine development. Malone claims to be the inventor of mRNA vaccines, and while Stan Gromkowski, an early mRNA vaccine researcher and cellular immunologist, views Malone as "an underappreciated pioneer" who could be in contention to win a Nobel Prize for his work, credit for the distinction is more often given to later advancements by Katalin Karikó or Derrick Rossi, and was ultimately the result of the contributions of hundreds of researchers, including Malone.

Malone has served as director of clinical affairs for Avancer Group, a member of the scientific advisory board of EpiVax, assistant professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore school of medicine, and an adjunct associate professor of biotechnology at Kennesaw State University. He was CEO and co-founder of Atheric Pharmaceutical, which in 2016 was contracted by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to assist in the development of a treatment for the Zika virus by evaluating the efficacy of existing drugs. Until 2020, Malone was chief medical officer at Alchem Laboratories, a Florida pharmaceutical company.

COVID-19

In early 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Malone was involved in research into the heartburn medicine famotidine (Pepcid) as a potential COVID-19 treatment following anecdotal evidence suggesting that it may have been associated with higher COVID-19 survival. Malone, then with Alchem Laboratories, suspected famotidine may target an enzyme that the virus (SARS-CoV-2) uses to reproduce, and recruited a computational chemist to help design a 3D-model of the enzyme based on the viral sequence and comparisons to the 2003 SARS virus. After encouraging preliminary results, Alchem Laboratories, in conjunction with New York's Northwell Health, initiated a clinical trial on famotidine and hydroxychloroquine. Malone resigned from Alchem shortly after the trial began and Northwell paused the trial due to a shortage of hospitalized patients.

Malone received criticism for propagating COVID-19 misinformation, including making unsupported claims about the toxicity of spike proteins generated by some COVID-19 vaccines; using interviews on mass media to popularize medication with ivermectin; and tweeting a study by others questioning vaccine safety that was later retracted. He said that LinkedIn temporarily suspended his account over a post stating that the Chairman of the Thomson Reuters Foundation was also a board member at Pfizer, and other posts questioning the efficacy of some COVID-19 vaccines. Malone has also claimed that the Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines could worsen COVID-19 infections.

With another researcher, Malone successfully proposed to the publishers of Frontiers in Pharmacology a special issue featuring early observational studies on existing medication used in the treatment of COVID-19, for which they recruited other guest editors, contributors, and reviewers. The journal rejected two of the papers selected: one on famotidine co-authored by Malone and another submitted by physician Pierre Kory on the use of ivermectin. The publisher rejected the ivermectin paper due to what it stated were "a series of strong, unsupported claims" which they determined did "not offer an objective nor balanced scientific contribution." Malone and most other guest editors resigned in protest in April 2021, and the special issue has been pulled from the journal's website.

Malone has also been criticized for falsely claiming that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had not granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine in August 2021.

Misinformation Controversy

On December 29, 2021, Twitter permanently suspended Malone from its platform, citing "repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy".

On December 30, 2021, Malone claimed on the The Joe Rogan Experience podcast that American society was developing "mass formation psychosis" due to the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing parallels to the rise of Nazi Germany. Malone said that in the Germany of the 1920s and 1930s, there was a "very intelligent, highly educated population, and they went barking mad. And how did that happen? The answer is mass formation psychosis. When you have a society that has become decoupled from each other, and has free floating anxiety, in a sense that things don’t make sense. We can’t understand it. And then their attention gets focused by a leader or series of events on one small point, just like hypnosis. They literally become hypnotised and can be led anywhere."

Video clips of the podcast episode were removed by YouTube from their platform. In order to circumvent what he said was censorship by social media, on January 3, 2021 Congressman Troy Nehls entered a full transcript of the Joe Rogan Experience interview with Malone into the Congressional Record.

References

1. ^ Bartlett, Tom (August 12, 2021). "The Vaccine Scientist Spreading Vaccine Misinformation". The Atlantic. Retrieved January 3, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
2. ^ Jacob, Manon (July 13, 2021). "Flawed study misrepresents Covid-19 vaccination fatality rate". Agence France Presse. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
3. "Flawed scientific papers fueling Covid-19 misinformation". France 24. July 30, 2021.
4. ^ "Fact Check-COVID-19 vaccines are not 'cytotoxic'". Reuters. June 18, 2021. Archived from the original on July 25, 2021. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
5. "License Number: D55466 Dr. Robert Wallace Malone". Physician Profile Portal. Maryland Board of Physicians. Retrieved January 2, 2022.
6. Malone, Robert. "Robert Malone". Linkedin.com. Robert W. Malone.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
7. Carr, Julie (December 18, 2021). "mRNA Vaccine Inventor Dr. Robert Malone to Hold Global COVID Summit on Saturday in Gallatin". The Tennessee Star. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
8. ^ Nogueira, Mariana (July 20, 2021). "Robert Malone é o inventor das vacinas de mRNA?". Visão (in Portuguese). Retrieved July 29, 2021.
9. ^ Dolgin, Elie (September 14, 2021). "The tangled history of mRNA vaccines". Nature. 597 (7876): 318–324. doi:10.1038/d41586-021-02483-w.
10. Robert Malone; Philip L. Felgner; Inder Verma (August 1, 1989). "Cationic liposome-mediated RNA transfection". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 86 (16): 6077–6081. Bibcode:1989PNAS...86.6077M. doi:10.1073/PNAS.86.16.6077. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 297778. PMID 2762315. Wikidata Q34295651.
11. Monroe, Linda (March 23, 1990). "Biotech Firm Takes the Simple Route to Gene Therapy Success". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
12. Rein Verbeke; Ine Lentacker; Stefaan C. De Smedt; Heleen Dewitte (October 2019). "Three decades of messenger RNA vaccine development". Nano Today. 28: 100766. doi:10.1016/J.NANTOD.2019.100766. ISSN 1748-0132. Wikidata Q107862731.
13. Shuqin Xu; Kunpeng Yang; Rose Li; Lu Zhang (September 9, 2020). "mRNA Vaccine Era-Mechanisms, Drug Platform and Clinical Prospection". International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 21 (18). doi:10.3390/IJMS21186582. ISSN 1422-0067. PMC 7554980. PMID 32916818. Wikidata Q99359093.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
14. Wang, Yang; Zhang, Ziqi; Luo, Jingwen; Han, Xuejiao; Wei, Yuquan; Wei, Xiawei (2021). "mRNA vaccine: a potential therapeutic strategy". Molecular Cancer. 20 (1): 33. doi:10.1186/s12943-021-01311-z.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
15. "From COVID to Malaria: The potential of mRNA vaccines". Deutsche Welle. July 28, 2021. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
16. ^ Kertscher, Tom (June 16, 2021). "The COVID-19 vaccines' 'spike protein is very dangerous, it's cytotoxic.'". Politifact. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
17. "The development of mRNA vaccines was a collaborative effort; Robert Malone contributed to their development, but he is not their inventor". Health Feedback. August 26, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
18. Perlman, William (March 8, 2016). "Zika Countermeasure Options Explored". Contagion. MJH Life Sciences. Archived from the original on August 6, 2021.
19. "The Team". atheric.com. Atheric Pharmaceutical LLC. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017.
20. Mandell, Josh (December 11, 2016). "The War on Zika". The Daily Progress.
21. Chang, Ailsa (May 12, 2016). "White House Request For Emergency Zika Funding Hits Roadblock In Congress". WBUR-FM. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
22. Szabo, Liz (May 5, 2016). "Researchers look to repurpose approved drugs to treat Zika virus". USA Today. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
23. Anwar, Sarah (March 3, 2017). "Repurposing Licensed Drugs for Use Against the Zika Virus". Contagion. MJH Life Sciences. Archived from the original on October 28, 2020.
24. ^ Lardner, Richard (July 23, 2020). "Pepcid as a virus remedy? Trump admin's $21M gamble fizzled". Washington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
25. ^ Borrell, Brendan (April 26, 2020). "New York clinical trial quietly tests heartburn remedy against coronavirus". Science. doi:10.1126/science.abc4739. S2CID 219040361.
26. "Feinstein Institutes responds to inaccuracies in Associated Press reports". feinstein.northwell.edu. Northwell Health. July 31, 2020.
27. ^ Offord, Catherine (April 28, 2021). "Frontiers Pulls Special COVID-19 Issue After Content Dispute". The Scientist. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
28. "【誤導內容】Robert Malone是mRNA疫苗發明者？" [ Robert Malone is the inventor of the mRNA vaccine?]. factchecklab.org (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). Factcheck Lab 事實查核實驗室. August 28, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
29. Karlis, Nicole (August 9, 2021). "How anti-vaxxers weaponized Ivermectin, a horse de-wormer drug, as a COVID-19 treatment". Salon.com. Archived from the original on August 10, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
30. "Thomson Reuters Foundation Chairman is also board member at Pfizer". Diverge Media. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
31. D'Angelo, Peter (July 4, 2021). "Usa, uno degli scienziati dell'Rna messaggero denuncia: "Censurato da Linkedin" dopo aver espresso preoccupazione sulla trasparenza del governo rispetto ai potenziali rischi dei vaccini. La polemica con Reuters". Il Fatto Quotidiano (in Italian). Retrieved July 29, 2021.
32. Gorski, David (August 30, 2021). "Yes, the FDA really HAS given full approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine". sciencebasedmedicine.org. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
33. Goforth, Clare (January 1, 2022). "Conservatives think the U.S. is experiencing a 'mass formation psychosis' because an anti-vaxxer doctor told Joe Rogan so". The Daily Dot.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
34. ^ "YouTube takes down anti-vax Joe Rogan interview with Dr Robert Malone". news.com.au. January 4, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
35. Fenton, Tom (January 4, 2022). "YouTube takes down Joe Rogan interview which likened vaccines to mass psychosis". The Independent. Retrieved January 5, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
36. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2022/01/02/what-is-mass-formation-psychosis-robert-malone-makes-covid-19-vaccine-claims-on-joe-rogan-show/?sh=6dbf1d7b1d4c
37. "JRE-Rogan-Malone-Transcript Download" (PDF).
38. "Joe Rogan Experience #1757 – Dr. Robert Malone, MD Full Transcript". Congressman Troy Nehls. January 3, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.

External links

• Official website

• Living people
• 20th-century American physicians
• 21st-century American physicians
• American medical researchers
• American virologists
• Feinberg School of Medicine alumni
• University of California, Davis alumni
• COVID-19 misinformation