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Publisher Investigates After Anti-Vax Professor’s Study Reaches Scientific Journal

Springer Nature said it may take “editorial action” over the online survey.

A scientific journal publisher has launched an investigation to see how an economics professor known for his anti-vax sentiments published a study in the journal that claimed a potential 280,000 people died after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Professor Mark Skidmore conducted an online study in December 2021 that asked people whether they knew of anyone who had an adverse reaction to a COVID vaccine. Of the 612 people who said they did (out of 2,840 participants), 57 people claimed they knew of someone who died from the jab, which Skidmore then applied to the entire U.S. population to reach the 280,000 figure. The study, which has been shared by prominent anti-vaxxers online, was funded by someone with the same name as a former George H.W. Bush official who has shared anti-lockdown sentiments and published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases. The investigation may result in “editorial action,” publisher Springer Nature told the Daily Mail.