Twitter has permanently banned Alex Berenson, the science writer and former New York Times investigative reporter who has become one of the most prominent critics of official coronavirus policies in the west.
Berenson has been harshly critical of lockdowns, mask mandates, and other elements of official responses to the coronavirus pandemic. He has also questioned the efficacy and safety of the current range of coronavirus vaccines.
He began criticizing “Operation Warp Speed,” the program of accelerated vaccine development, under the Trump administration and continued his criticism under Biden.
“The account you referenced has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules,” a Twitter spokeswoman told Breitbart News.
Prior to his ban, Berenson had tweeted about vaccines’ failure to stop the infection and transmission of the virus, a tweet that Twitter labeled “misleading.”
“It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission,” tweeted Berenson. “Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it — at best — as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS.”
“And we want to mandate it? Insanity.”
Berenson has been targeted by Silicon Valley censors before. In the summer of 2020, his e-booklet, Unreported Truths About COVID-19 And Lockdowns Part 1: Introductions and Death Counts and Estimates, was banned by Amazon, the market-leading online retailer for books. Amazon later relented and allowed the booklet to be sold through its platform.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.