The account of Dr. Robert Malone, a veteran vaccine researcher and a prominent voice of skepticism on the issue of universal inoculation against Covid-19, has been suspended by Twitter.
Malone’s account had over 516,000 followers when the platform silenced him on Wednesday. It remains unclear if the suspension was automatic or done by a human. Twitter gave no immediate comment.
Malone reacted to the news on his other social media, saying it meant that he “must have been on the mark, so to speak.”
“It also means we lost a critical component in our fight to stop these vaccines being mandated for children and to stop the corruption in our governments, as well as the medical-industrial complex and pharmaceutical industries,” he wrote, encouraging people to tune in to his interview on the Joe Rogan podcast later on Thursday.
Malone is a veteran virologist and vaccine developer, who is credited for significantly contributing to the invention of the mRNA technology, the foundation of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against Covid-19. Amid the pandemic he emerged as a prominent critic of many of the policies taken in response to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
He advocates vaccinations for people in high risk groups, like elderly people or those with comorbidities, and said he personally got vaccinated due to his age. But he believes the risks of vaccination in healthy young people, and especially children, outweigh the benefits of the protection against the virus.
Many policies, like vaccine mandates or hoarding of vaccines by wealthy countries, are not based on science, Malone believes. He also speaks critically about the influence that large pharmaceutical companies and wealthy individuals like Bill Gates have on global health affairs.
Critics accused Malone of spreading misinformation about vaccines and encouraging anti-vaxxers with his skeptical statements. Like other US-based social media, Twitter has policies against health misinformation on its platform.