A pharmaceutical industry public relations (PR) executive who serves on an influential National Institutes of Health (NIH) board and is an academic colleague of Dr. Anthony Fauci leaked criticism of the agency’s new vaccine injury clinic to The New York Times — which reported the criticism without disclosing the PR executive’s industry ties, according to The Disinformation Chronicle.
Jack Leslie, a senior adviser and former chairman of Weber Shandwick, the world’s second-largest public relations firm, chairs the NIH Clinical Center Research Hospital Board. Weber Shandwick represents several major pharmaceutical companies.
The hospital board oversees the NIH Clinical Center in Maryland, which will house the agency’s new Vaccinology and Immunology Center (VIC). The center will focus on researching and treating vaccine injuries. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced its launch earlier this month.
Last week, the Times reported that the NIH hospital board unanimously approved a statement criticizing the new center and Kennedy, accusing him of undermining public trust in the hospital’s work.
According to The Disinformation Chronicle, Leslie leaked the statement to Times health policy correspondent, Sheryl Gay Stolberg. The newspaper published her story within hours but did not disclose Leslie’s ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
Paul D. Thacker, investigative reporter and author of The Disinformation Chronicle, told The Defender that he believes the Times published the story to discredit Kennedy and people who say vaccines have injured them.
“Everyone knows the pharma industry hates RFK Jr. So, it’s beyond perplexing that a New York Times reporter saw ‘news’ when PR man Jack Leslie said something denigrating about him, and spit on people harmed by their products. That’s what Big Pharma pays Weber Shandwick to do,” Thacker said.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the NIH, defended the new center in a statement to The Defender.
The VIC “reflects the Trump Administration’s commitment to restoring gold-standard science, transparency, and accountability to our public health institutions,” the spokesperson said.
“This work will help ensure that people who experience health problems following vaccination are taken seriously and studied with the same scientific rigor applied to other medical conditions,” the spokesperson added.
Pediatrician Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, who attended the center’s launch event earlier this month, called the VIC “long overdue.” She accused Leslie of using his “PR skills” and “background doing public relations for multiple vaccine manufacturers” to undermine an initiative intended to study and help people who have been injured by vaccines.
