Martin Kulldorff

[[File:Martin Kulldorff.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Kulldorff in 2021]]{{denialism}}{{cquote|Dr. Kulldorff’s sole goal is to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt.|||Jonathan Howard, Science-Based Medicine<ref name=sbm030125>[https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/unethical/ To Spread Mistrust, Dr. Martin Kulldorff Asks RFK Jr. to do an Unethical, Impossible RCT of Vaccines He Knows Are Safe & Effective] by Jonathan Howard (3 January 2025) ''Science-Based Medicine''.</ref>}}{{cquote|This is what happens when laptop-class doctors, sheltered from the consequences of their words, treat children’s health as a parlor game to advance their political objectives.|||Jonathan Howard, Science-Based Medicine<ref name=sbm030125 />}}

'''Martin Kulldorff''' {{lived|1962}} is a fringe epidemiologist and biostatistician [[crank]] from Lund, [[Sweden]] who claims he was fired from his professorship of 20 years at {{wpl|Harvard University||}} for his co-authorship of the [[pseudoscience|pseudo-scientific]] [[COVID-19 denialism|COVID denialist]] [[Great Barrington Declaration]].<ref name="SBM1">[https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/fired/ Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Who Posted Pictures of Guillotines and Promised Herd Immunity Would Arrive 3-6 Months After Lockdowns Ended, Fired for “Clinging to the Truth”], by Jonathan Howard, ''Science-Based Medicine'', March 12, 2024</ref><ref name="DailyMail1">[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13189297/swedish-scientist-harvard-fired-covid-anti-lockdown.html Swedish scientist - who compared masking children to Taliban's human rights abuses - claims he was fired from Harvard for championing his home country's anti-lockdown approach during Covid], by Stacey Libertore, ''Daily Mail'', March 13, 2024</ref> He has subsequently found work as senior scientific director for the declaration's "spiritual child" the Brownstone Institute<ref name="MedPageToday1">[https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/95601 New Institute Has Ties to the Great Barrington Declaration], by Amanda D'Ambrosio, ''MedPage Today'', November 11, 2021</ref> and as a founding fellow of the Academy for Science and Freedom at the [[Christian]] far-right [[Hillsdale College]].<ref name="hillsdale1">[https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hillsdale-college-opens-new-academy-for-science-and-freedom-301442249.html "Hillsdale College Opens New Academy for Science and Freedom"], press release, Hillsdale College, December 10, 2021</ref>

==I do declare!==
In October 2020, Kulldorff co-authored the highly controversial [[Great Barrington Declaration]], with colleagues {{wpl|Jay Bhattacharya||}} and {{wpl|Sunetra Gupta||,}} calling for the promotion of [[herd immunity]] through infection by lifting all restrictions on lower-risk groups whilst shielding the more vulnerable before vaccines rolled out. The declaration, which was sponsored by [[Koch Industries|Koch-funded]] [[libertarian]] [[think tank]] the {{wpl|American Institute for Economic Research||}} (AIER) and published as an open letter, was roundly rejected by [[Scientific consensus|scientific]] and political consensus, with one of Kulldorff's Harvard colleagues apparently equating it with [[exorcism]] to expel [[demons]].<ref name="SBM1" /><ref name="DailyMail1" />

Kulldorff's promotional tour for the declaration included an ill-advised appearance on the October 6, 2020, episode of ''{{wpl|The Richie Allan Show||,}}'' a radio program with links to the [[far right]] that has featured [[Holocaust denial|Holocaust deniers]] and [[antisemitism|antisemites]], although Kulldorff claims to have been unaware of its reputation and does not seem to share such beliefs.<ref name="guardian1"> [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/19/co-author-anti-lockdowns-letter-appeared-far-right-radio-show-martin-kulldorff-great-barrington-declaration-richie-allen-show Anti-lockdown advocate appears on radio show that has featured Holocaust deniers], ''The Guardian'', Oct 19, 2020</ref>

During the pandemic Kulldorff offered sage council to such famously well-informed policy makers as President [[Donald Trump]] and Florida Governor [[Ron DeSantis]]. He entertained the Twitterverse by drawing parallels between [[fascism]] and Faucism (referring to immunologist {{wpl|Anthony Fauci||),}} threatening public health officials with the guillotine, and comparing the [[Face masks|masking]] and lockdown of children to the treatment of women under the [[Taliban]]. And, most famously, he predicted that the enactment of his wild schemes would bring the pandemic to an end within 3–6 months.<ref name="SBM1" /><ref name="DailyMail1" />

==Institutionalized==
Shortly after its foundation by former AIER director {{wpl|Jeffrey Tucker||}} in May 2021, Kulldorff went to work alongside Bhattacharya and Gupta, as senior scientific director for the Brownstone Institute, which was described by its founder as the "spiritual child" of the Great Barrington Declaration.<ref name="MedPageToday1" /> And in December 2021, Kulldorff and Bhattacharya were appointed alongside fellow COVID denialists {{wpl|Scott Atlas||}} as the founding fellows of the new Academy for Science and Freedom at the Christian far-right [[Hillsdale College]].<ref name="hillsdale1" /> 

Kulldorff's claim he was fired from his professorship of 20 years at {{wpl|Harvard University||}}, is diputed by the university's chief communications officer, who clarified that his professorship had been based on his employment by an independent Boston hospital with which the university had an affiliation agreement and that the termination of that employment was outside of their control.<ref name="DailyMail1" />

In an apparent attempt to ingratiate himself with the incoming [[Donald Trump#Second term|Trump 2.0 administration]] (which included his old comrade Bhattacharya as Director of the National Institutes of Health), Kulldorff penned an op-ed with the blatantly ludicrous central thesis that anti-vax crank [[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]] (tapped to be US Secretary of Health and Human Services) was the ideal person restore public trust in vaccination. Specifically, he writes in support of RFK Jnr’s plan to conduct randomized placebo-controlled vaccine trials, trials which Science-Based Medicine’s Jonathan Howard classifies as “an impossible, unethical study of dubious value that’s not meant to be taken seriously.”<ref name=sbm030125 />

==References==
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[[Category:Anti-vaccination movement]]
[[Category:COVID-19 denialists]]
[[Category:Educators]]
[[Category:Kochsphere]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience promoters]]
[[Category:Sweden]]

Categories: Anti-vaccination movement, COVID-19 denialists, Educators, Kochsphere, Living people, Pseudoscience promoters, Sweden