Attorney James Lawrence’s tweet, 8/6/22 PM, including letter, with threat of lawsuit: https://twitter.com/jlawrencenc/status/1556113445094920192?s=21&t=0z0kNp-SOiR2U_NxiEQ0gw
My evidence-based appeal of the “offending” tweet, which twitter rejected.
Link to full pdf of letter: Follow-Up Lt to Twitter re Dr. Andrew Bostom 4887-2184-9645 v.1
Text of 8/6/22 letter:
Dear Ms. Gadde,
As you know, we represent Andrew G. Bostom, M.D., M.S. We are writing again to demand that Twitter, Inc., immediately reinstate Dr. Bostom’s account, @andrewbostom, which your company suspended on July 27, 2022 in violation of its own COVID-19 misinformation policy.
This latest suspension occurred less than two weeks after our July 14, 2022 letter, upon receipt of which Twitter reinstated Dr. Bostom’s account and simultaneously acknowledged that the earlier June 22, 2022 suspension of his account was made in error.
In its suspension notice on July 27, 2022, your company claimed that Dr. Bostom had violated Twitter’s “policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.” Twitter identified the July 26 tweet, shared below, as the sole cause for Dr. Bostom’s suspension.
This tweet does not, in fact, violate Twitter’s own COVID-19 misinformation policy. In the tweet, Dr. Bostom shared the summary of recent randomized, controlled trials (“RCT”). His comments can be substantiated by actual pediatric and adult data. This is not “misinformation” by any means, but rather a restating of actual scientific analysis of the data from clinical trials of Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. Bostom’s first comment, “The only RCT data we have from children reveals zero hospitalizations prevented by vaccination,” is supported by a June 15, 2022 FDA filing document that reports the data from Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine RCT in 6-month to 23-month children, showing that the RCT resulted in zero hospitalizations of children in the placebo arm. In contrast, the only severe COVID-19 case to result in a hospitalization actually occurred in a child who had received two doses of the tested mRNA vaccine. See Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Meeting, https://www.fda.gov/media/159195/download (last visited August 2, 2022).
Dr. Bostom’s second comment, “The RCT data from adults shows more SAEs (serious adverse events) caused by [Covid-19] [vaccination] than [Covid-19] hosps [hospitalizations] prevented,” is also supported by scientific evidence. In a secondary analysis of serious adverse events reported in the Phase III RCTs of Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, using blinded SAE tables, reviewers independently judged whether each SAE type was caused by an adverse event of special interest. The reviewers determined that “the excess risk of serious adverse events of special interest surpassed the risk reduction for COVID-19 hospitalization relative to the placebo group in both Pfizer and Moderna trials.” Serious Adverse Events of Special Interest Following mRNA Vaccination in Randomized Trials, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4125239 (last visited August 2, 2022).
As we know, Twitter’s “COVID-19 misleading information policy” sets forth the specific events that must occur before Twitter shall take disciplinary action against an account. In particular, the policy states that accounts that accrue five strikes shall be permanently suspended. Not only did this particular tweet not violate Twitter’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, Twitter has failed to provide any indication whatsoever regarding what it considers to be the other “strikes” against Dr. Bostom’s account.
Dr. Bostom did not violate Twitter’s policy, nor did he violate Twitter’s stated five-strikes rule. The only party that is in violation here is Twitter, which has breached its contract with Dr. Bostom by failing to comply with its own COVID-19 misinformation policy. Dr. Bostom is interested in continuing to engage in public conversation regarding his scientific and research interests, and he asks that Twitter immediately reinstate his account with zero strikes, its entire history and his following. We ask for the account to be reinstated by 5PM PT on August 12, 2022.
While Dr. Bostom hopes that litigation will be unnecessary in this case, he is prepared to sue Twitter if necessary. You must know that Dr. Bostom is not alone in his increasing frustration with Twitter’s misdeeds. He stands with a growing number of similarly situated people who have had their Twitter accounts suspended for sharing views and opinions on COVID-19. Dr. Bostom is ready, willing, and able to serve as a lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against Twitter for breach of contract if that becomes necessary.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like to discuss this matter further.
Sincerely,
James R. Lawrence, III
