This Tireless Anti-Vax  Crusader Never Stops Working

By Michael Lovito, June 6, 2022

When most people enter retirement, they take up a relaxing hobby, like golf, gardening, or fishing. Dr. Joel Hirschhorn took up Substack.

Since August 2021, Hirschhorn, a retired professor of metallurgical engineering, has been writing posts for his “Pandemic Blunder” newsletter at a torrid, near-daily pace, documenting and commenting on the many ways he thinks the United States government has mismanaged the Covid-19 pandemic. While Hirschhorn’s output is prolific (he’s published 91 posts in 2022 alone), he says that his process is rather ad hoc. He only writes when he’s “triggered” by a medical journal article or some other development  he believes needs to be publicized – and, often, trashed –and  only posts his articles when he believes they are ready.

That’s been more than enough to establish Hirschhorn as one of the most extreme voices in the anti-vax, anti-mask, anti-Fauci, anti-you-name-it chorus that has dominated the right wing media since the coronavirus arrived in January 2020.

“I would differentiate my writings by being much more data oriented,” Hirschhorn said in a recent interview with TheRighting. He distinguishes himself from writers like Alex Berenson, who share his skepticism of mRNA vaccines but who, he says, lack a certain academic rigor. “I don’t write articles just to philosophize. I try to get data in front of people and get people to see the data. In order to see the reality and the truth about the pandemic, they need to see the data.”

A Career in Science

Hirschhorn (not to be confused with the noted Boston endocrinologist with the same name) spent 13 years  at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he became a professor and worked with the college’s medical school to develop artificial bone material for knee and hip replacements. In 1978, he accepted a position at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), where he helped design legislation meant to address pollution and toxic waste sites, testifying more than 50 times at Senate and House hearings. After leaving OTA, Hirschhorn went on to work for the National Governors Association and as a private consultant before retiring in 1990 to Chevy Chase, Maryland.

When the pandemic bloomed in the United States in March 2020, Hirschhorn dove into the medical literature  about treatments for the virus and came away impressed by the work of doctors like Vladimir Zelenko and Didier Raoult, who claimed to have successfully treated Covid patients with the cheap generic drugs hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. (Despite multiple studies, neither treatment has been shown to be effective against Covid). After writing articles promoting these cures for sites like Op-Ed News and TrialSiteNews, Hirschhorn decided to write Pandemic Blunder, a book who’s title he would later repurpose for his newsletter.

A Self-Described Truth Teller

Self-published on Amazon in January 2021, the crux of Pandemic Blunder’s argument is that NIAID Director Anthony Fauci used his position to suppress and discourage the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as Covid treatments in order to boost the profits of large pharmaceutical firms like Pfizer and Moderna. As the pandemic continued to evolve, Hirschhorn started the “Pandemic Blunder” newsletter, where he tackles not only vaccines but also the effects of long Covid, brain fog, and Covid therapeutic Paxlovid, which he also claims is a Big Pharma cash grab. In an effort to spread his message as widely as possible, Hirschhorn pitches most of his newsletter articles to right wing sites like WND and America Out Loud. The  strategy has helped him cultivate an audience he estimates at approximately 2,000 subscribers.

Despite the amount of work Hirschhorn puts into “Pandemic Blunder,” he’s keen to point out that he isn’t in it for the money. He continues to make royalties off of his book, but he doesn’t charge a subscription fee for his Substack, as many high-profile writers do, and he isn’t paid by the sites where he posts his articles. Instead, he views himself as providing a public service.

“I’m trying to educate my readers and the public,” Hirschhorn said. “I see myself as a truth teller. My audience seems to appreciate that.”

THE FINAL FOUR (QUESTIONS)

Are you fully vaxxed?

“I did get vaccinated early on, because I’ve worked in a hospital for over 10 years as an executive volunteer. But I wouldn’t do that today, to tell you the truth, because I don’t think they’re very safe. I have not gotten any boosters”

Do you think the 2020 presidential election was stolen?

“I think there was enormous corruption, and I think it’s quite possible that because of the corruption we got the wrong person elected president.”

Would you support Trump for president in 2024?

“Yes, if he was the Republican nominee. I cannot imagine supporting any Democrat, they’re all awful. But my first choice would be the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. I think he’s absolutely terrific, and if he wanted to be president, he could be president.”

Do you believe in climate change?

“No. I think climate change is a complete fraud being pushed by economic powers who want to make a lot of money from the while green thing.”

Michael Lovito is a Brooklyn-based reporter and critic whose work has appeared in Salon, Brooklyn Magazine, Pavement Pieces, and The District. He also serves as editor-in-chief of the politics and pop culture website The Postrider.  @MLovito

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