James Lyons-Weiler

Last updated
James F. Lyons-Weiler
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of Nevada, Reno
Scientific career
Fields Ecology
Institutions
Thesis Data exploration and hypothesis testing in statistical and computational phylogenetic systematics  (1998)

James Lyons-Weiler (born July 4, 1967) is an American scientist and activist who operates the non-profit organization Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge. [1] His doctorate is in ecology, evolution and conservation biology. [2] He was a University of Pittsburgh faculty member (2003-2009) and a member of the Early Detection Research Network through the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. [3]

Contents

History

Lyons-Weiler worked as an assistant professor and co-director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell from 2000-2002. [2] He then served as faculty at the University of Pittsburgh from 2003-2009.

Controversies

Lyons-Weiler has been making numerous claims about COVID-19, and about vaccines in general for years. [4] [5] [6] [7]

He claimed in February 2020 that a specific genetic sequence INS1378 in the SARS-CoV-2 genome was sufficiently close to pShuttle-SN - an engineered sequence - to prove that the virus was probably engineered in a laboratory. This claim was repeatedly discredited by researchers and fact-checkers. [8] The sequences were only 67% similar and one paper demonstrated that over 100 bat coronaviruses had closer matches to INS1378 than pShuttle-SN. [8] The even more inaccurate claim that SARS-CoV-2 contained pShuttle-SN was, however, spread widely by Infowars and others. [8]

His Wordpress blog, Science, Public Health Policy and the Law claims to be a scientific journal, with an advisory board consisting of three other prominent anti-vaccine personalities.

References

  1. ↑ Montesano, Nicole. "County COVID resolution comes under attack from residents". News-Register. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  2. 1 2 "University of Pittsburgh s James Lyons-Weiler on Using Better Statistics for Proteomics Experiments". GenomeWeb . 2005-10-14. Archived from the original on 2022-12-02.
  3. ↑ "Lyons-Weiler, James". Early Detection Research Network . Archived from the original on 2024-08-07. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  4. ↑ Barrett, Malachi (2021-05-07). "Michigan activists boost 'experts' to justify anti-vaccine stance. Health officials say their science doesn't hold up". MLive.com. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  5. ↑ McDonald, Jessica; Jaramillo, Catalina (January 22, 2021). "Viral Video Makes False and Unsupported Claims About Vaccines". FactCheck.org. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
  6. ↑ Greenberg, Jon (December 18, 2020). "Video shared on Facebook inflates risk of Moderna vaccine 40-fold". PolitiFact. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
  7. ↑ Stinelli, Mick (2021-01-29). "Parties give closing statements in Crack'd Egg closure case". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  8. 1 2 3 Teoh, Flora (February 10, 2020). "2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) does not contain "pShuttle-SN" sequence; no evidence that virus is man-made". Science Feedback. Health Feedback. Retrieved September 16, 2024.


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