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1. 2020-07-10 08:00 Robert F. Garry
   > @SteveKrak - got to admit this guy is good - curefinder, Laurie Garrett and bonus Richard Preston..NBC tracked their medical expert's "coronavirus battle" - but he never had it > > "Joining me now [is] virologist Joseph Fair, who recently recovered from COVID-19 himself," said Chuck Todd on Meet The Press on June 14. "Dr. Fair, let me start with you because I would like you to share a little bit about your recovery from COVID-19. What should Americans take away from your experience?">> "I don't have any of those underlying conditions, I'm 42 years old. So you wouldn't think, clinically, that I wouldbe one of those people that would get so very ill. I can say that that seven to eight days prior to me hospitalizingmyself when I was doing the self-treatment, that was the worst I've ever felt. I probably spent 23 out of 24 hours inbed," said Dr. Fair, who joined NBC as a science contributor in March as the coronavirus pandemic hit. "Those people that are young and think they're invincible or people that just don't think it's going to affect them that greatly even if they do get it, I can say that my own experience was the complete opposite.">> What Todd didn't tell the audience that day, and Dr. Joseph Fair didn't offer up either, was that Fair had already had at least five negative coronavirus tests. Two days ago on Twitter, Dr. Fair revealed the results of his antibody test - negative again. He never had COVID-19. And that's just the beginning of the troubling story.In this newsletteron June 17, I detailed the full backstory of this strange media situation - from the changing symptoms as his TVappearances went on, to NBC and MSNBC initially telling viewers the caveat about the negative tests, to ultimatelyabandoning that key part of the story.>> The circumstances were odd to begin with - Dr. Fair appeared on the Today show, and told his story. As avirologist and coronavirus expert, he took every precaution he could. But he said he likely contractedcoronavirus through his eyes on an airplane. "If it can take me down, it can take down anybody," he said in that May14 appearance.>> Dr. Fair has a long history as a "virus hunter" and virologist - and seems to have as long a history of gettingpublicity. On Meet The Press, he described the first week of supposedly having COVID-19 as "the worst I've ever felt." In replying to a Twitter follower this week, he said "It was only the second time I have been hospitalized in mylife and I am someone who rarely gets ill.">> But a colleague and fellow TV coronavirus expert, Laurie Garrett, who frequently appears on CNN, tweeted inMay that Dr. Fair, "has been in many epidemics, contracted #Ebola in West Africa." He contracted Ebola?>> While I couldn't find any reference to Fair surviving Ebola, I did find Fair featured in a book about Ebola, "Crisisin the Red Zone," published just last year. The book describes Fair in 2006 when he was a graduate student, and itdescribes a time he "got sick" - very sick. "A devout Catholic, Fair asked a priest at the center to give him his finalconfession and the last rites," writes author Richard Preston. "'I think I'm passing,' Fair whispered." In the end, Fair took some antibiotics and made a miraculous recovery. But COVID-19 was worse than this experience?>> In 2014, Fair was profiled in the Washington Post, under the headline "A virus hunter faces the big one: Ebola."It began: "Joseph Fair hunts viruses. That's his thing. The 37-year-old American loves chasing dangerous pathogens, studying them in secure labs or searching for them in jungles where the microbes lurk." The whole story details Dr. Fair's work with Ebola - no mention of the supposed near-death experience from 2006, however.>> And now we know Dr. Fair never had coronavirus, despite nearly a dozen appearances on NBC and MSNBC where he talked about having it or recovering from it. In the end, NBC's viewers were left with two very alarming -and false - impressions. First, that an expert virologist can take every precaution but can still catch COVID-19 through his eyes. False. Second, that tests can be so untrustworthy that you can have multiple negative tests and still have coronavirus. Craig Melvin described them as "false negative tests" in that initial report on May 14. HodaKotb said, "every time it came back negative, but clearly you have it." False. Anti-science. And truly damaging.>> In articles and TV segments, millions of NBC readers and viewers are today left with the impression that Dr.Joseph Fair, a 42-year-old "virus hunter" (with the handle @CureFinder on Twitter) came down with a case ofCOVID-19 through his eyes that was so severe he was hospitalized in ICU for several days and that at least five "false negative" tests couldn't trace it. This pandemic is scary enough without this false storyline introduced into the news picture.>> So what really happened? We don't know. I asked several medical experts, and it's unclear what the story reallyis. In one later MSNBC appearance, Fair discussed having a "panic attack" right before going to the hospital. But wedon't know. Fair did not respond to repeated requests for comment. NBC has declined to comment on the record throughout the past month.>> Fair has been regularly appearing on NBC and MSNBC, but has not been on the air since his tweet revealing the antibody test results on Tuesday. Shortly after I began making inquiries related to this story, Fair appeared onthe Today show June 17 and was described as having recovered from a "possible covid-19 related illness." In that appearance, he said he would "absolutely" keep viewers posted on the results of the antibody test.>> So far, there have been no on-air corrections. Or online -this NBC News story is still uncorrected, for example. The Today show website wrote a brief story, where they now describe what he had as a "severe illness.">> For his Twitter followers, and likely NBC's viewers, many still believe Fair had coronavirus, despite the fact thathe clearly didn't. Said one: "Your experience only makes me more determined to stay quarantined. We still don't have a clear path on testing, accuracy, treatments and most of all any understanding on why some are so impactedand others are not!"
2. 2020-07-10 08:00 Robert F. Garry open

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