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Bret WeinsteinAmerican podcaster, author, and former professor of evolutionary biology
Date of Birth: 21.02.1969
Country:  USA |
Content:
Education
Bret Weinstein was born in Southern California and began his studies at the University of Pennsylvania. As a freshman, he wrote a letter to the school newspaper condemning sexual harassment of strippers at a Zeta Beta Tau fraternity party. After facing harassment for the letter, he transferred to the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he met his wife, Heather Heying, and earned his bachelor's degree in biology in 1993. Weinstein received his PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Michigan in 2009.
Career
Prior to 2017, Weinstein was a biology professor at The Evergreen State College in Washington state. In 2002, he co-authored the article "The Reserve-Capacity Hypothesis," which suggested that telomere differences between humans and laboratory mice had led scientists to underestimate the risks that new drugs pose to humans in the form of heart disease, liver dysfunction, and associated organ failure.
Personal Life and Views
Weinstein is married to Heather Heying, an evolutionary biologist who also worked at Evergreen. Heying left the college alongside Weinstein and took a similar stance during the Day of Absence dispute. Weinstein describes himself as politically liberal, progressive, and a left-leaning libertarian. On May 22, 2018, he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform to discuss issues of free speech on college campuses. In 2020, he announced the "Unity 2020" plan to field a paired slate of candidates in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, with one from each major political party to run the country as a team.
COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Weinstein has made numerous public appearances advocating for the use of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to prevent or treat the disease, while downplaying the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. David Gorski of Science-Based Medicine has characterized Weinstein as "a prominent anti-COVID-19 and disinformation peddler" and "one of the leading purveyors of COVID-19 disinformation," citing his appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience and Real Time with Bill Maher. Sam Harris criticized Weinstein's advocacy, stating that he "finds it dangerous." Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine, described Weinstein's position on mRNA vaccines as "totally irresponsible. It's reckless. It's disgusting. It's predatory. It's really sad."
Weinstein has made false claims that ivermectin can prevent or cure COVID-19, calling it a "near-perfect prophylactic for COVID". There is no strong evidence to support such claims. Weinstein has hosted pro-ivermectin advocate Pierre Kory on his DarkHorse podcast to discuss the drug, and has advocated for ivermectin use in other podcasts and television news appearances. Weinstein has taken ivermectin on a livestream and has said that he and his wife are unvaccinated due to concerns about COVID-19 vaccines. YouTube has demonetized the couple's channels in response to their ivermectin claims. Weinstein and Heying subsequently moved their livestreams to the alternative video-sharing platform Odysee.
In August 2021, Weinstein stated that he had misrepresented a study purporting to show a 100% effective ivermectin protocol for preventing COVID. Weinstein considers himself pro-vaccine in general; he believes that mRNA vaccines hold promise despite what he says are "some obvious design flaws." Weinstein has falsely claimed that the spike protein produced by or included in COVID-19 vaccines is "very dangerous" and "cytotoxic."
Weinstein has claimed that ivermectin alone is "good enough to end the pandemic at any moment" and has alleged that the drug's true efficacy against COVID-19 has been suppressed in order to promote vaccines for the financial gain of Big Pharma. He told Fox News' Tucker Carlson that if ivermectin worked the way he thought it did, then "the vaccine debate would be over by definition."
