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Following @TBIJ story, what we suspect:
Shadowy network of @BloombergDotOrg funded folks throwing out lazy accusations to muddy debate about tobacco harm reduction
The big questions:
Is it coordinated?
Who’s pulling the strings?
Why?
To find out more, let's dive a little deeper into the story.
Let's have a look at the funding sources of the people who were quoted in the piece.
Let's start with this as the baseline:
@TBIJ is funded by Vital Strategies
thebureauinvestigates.com/about-us/our-f…
Vital Strategies is funded by @BloombergDotOrg
vitalstrategies.org/programs/tobac…
Now, what about those public health people quoted in the story?
Dr. Vinayak Prasad works for the WHO
WHO receives funding from @BloombergDotOrg and Mr. Bloomberg is also WHO Global Ambassador for Non Communicable Diseases.
who.int/about/finances…
Pascal Diethelm works for Oxysuisse
Oxysuisse is a member of the Framework Convention Alliance
The Framework Convention Alliance receives funding from @BloombergDotOrg and @VitalStrat
oxysuisse.ch/apropos
fctc.org/about-us/
Prof. Johanna Cohen is Bloomberg Professor of Disease Prevention at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Rather unsurprisingly, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health receives funding from @BloombergDotOrg
bloomberg.org/program/founde…
Tess Legg works for the University of Bath
The University of Bath receives funding from @BloombergDotOrg
bath.ac.uk/announcements/…
Matt Myers works for Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids @TobaccoFreeKids
Turns out that…
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids receives funding from @VitalStrat and @BloombergDotOrg
vitalstrategies.org/wp-content/upl…
tobaccofreekids.org/what-we-do/glo…
This means almost three-quarters of public health commentators quoted in the story have connections to @BloombergDotOrg 💰
Call me skeptical, but with so many Bloomberg-funded folks in an “independent” @TBIJ piece…
Sounds fishy to me
#JustSayin
To quote one commentator “the 'bureau' got nearly everything wrong”.
You decide:
Is it coordinated?
Who’s pulling the strings?
Why?
If you want to read the facts:
pmi.com/media-center/n…