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In a research note sent to clients on August 11, Fundstrat co-founder Thomas J. Lee included four tweets that Todaro sent out the day before. One of Todaro’s tweets cited “growing evidence that T-cell immunity allows populations to achieve herd immunity once 10-20% are infected with SARS CoV-2,” the coronavirus that causes Covid. -19.
Todaro’s claim is not supported by credible scientific research. In fact, Shane Crotty, an immunologist with the Infectious Diseases and Vaccines Research Center at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology, told CNN Business that Todaro’s tweets are “dangerous” to public health.
The presence of Todaro’s tweets in a Wall Street investigation note suggests that the campaign to downplay the virus championed by the president and his supporters is gaining ground. Todaro is one of the people who appeared in a viral video in July promoting hydroxychloroquine that Facebook and YouTube later removed because they said it was promoting disinformation.
CNN confirmed that Todaro received a medical degree in 2014 from the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, but does not appear to have practiced medicine beyond the end of his residency at the Kresge Eye Institute in Detroit in 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. and tweets.
He last performed eye surgery in 2018 “before moving away from ophthalmology to focus exclusively on blockchain and cryptocurrencies,” according to Todaro’s profile on the website of Blocktown Capital, a blockchain company he founded.
Misinformation about the coronavirus
“There should be a difference between Wall Street research and what’s available on the Internet. It’s that simple,” said one hedge fund manager, insisting that clients who pay for information and analysis expect it to be. well examined and researched. This person is not a Fundstrat customer, but was reacting to Todaro’s tweets that Lee included in his note.
In his note, Lee cautioned that Todaro’s claim about T cells was “unproven” and said that “we are not health care experts, so take our comment with caution.” But Lee elevated Todaro’s interpretation of science without mentioning Todaro’s lack of expertise in immunology or epidemiology.
In response to repeated and detailed requests for comment, Lee did not address any of the specific claims in his Aug. 11 note, emailed to clients. Instead, he referred CNN Business to an article that quoted Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as saying that it is “conceivable” that T cells from the common cold “may have some degree of protection.” .
An industry veteran
Before co-founding Fundstrat in 2014, Lee worked at JP Morgan for seven years, according to his Fundstrat biography. She served as chief US equity strategist within JP Morgan’s investment bank before departing.
On its “About Us” web page, Fundstrat says it focuses “on delivering analysis, not opinion, and as an independent research provider, our clients are confident that our work is designed to provide fresh and innovative intelligence to assist in your investment process.. “
Lee has been praised by some financial observers for correctly predicting the market’s strong rally from its March lows.
So when Lee included a series of tweets from Todaro in a note to clients on Aug. 11, he alarmed another industry member, Michael Cembalest, president of Market and Investment Strategy at JP Morgan Asset Management. A person familiar with the bank’s research relationships confirmed that Fundstrat is one of many JP Morgan research providers.
Cembalest disagreed with Todaro’s tweets that Lee cited, which suggested that “some kind of herd immunity is achieved” when “a community has an infection rate of 10 to 20 percent.”
“It was one of the most disturbing investigations I have seen in 33 years in this industry,” Cembalest said, in a note to JP Morgan clients several days later. “Misinformation and mindless regurgitation from poorly vetted sources are, in my opinion, part of the reasons why” the United States is behind other developed countries in controlling the virus, Cembalest wrote in its Aug. 18 note.
Lee’s inclusion of Todaro’s tweets “was highly misleading, as the casual reader would infer that they came from an authoritative source and not someone without special training in the area and who had left the medical field,” said the Georgetown University associate professor James J Angel, who specializes in regulating global financial markets, and reviewed Lee’s Aug. 11 note at the request of CNN.
When misinformation ends up in Wall Street research notes, it influences the way investors think, according to Cembalest. “It’s like defense attorneys who can say something that is erased from the record, but is held in the minds of the jurors,” Cembalest said.
A controversial tweet
Cembalest was also annoyed that Lee included another tweet from Todaro in his Aug. 11 note, suggesting that the “coronavirus vaccine industry” had an incentive to push for closures and masks. Lee described the tweet as “noteworthy, not because it’s true” but because it “highlights complex incentives.”
Lee added that “experts rule out steroids or HCQ [hydroxychloroquine] as treatment regimens, because it couldn’t be as cost-effective either “without providing evidence to support that claim.
But in June, a panel from the National Institutes of Health recommended the common steroid dexamethasone, which suppresses inflammation, in patients with severe and critical Covid-19.
Cembalest told CNN that Lee’s August note is not the first time he believes Lee was peddling unproven theories without offering legitimate sources. For example, Cembalest provided CNN with an email exchange in April between the two men in which Lee wrote: “I think the US states / hospitals are now seeing incentives to report higher cases.” There is no evidence to support this claim.
Questionable sources
Todaro’s Michigan medical license and license to prescribe controlled substances expired in June 2019, according to that state’s Department of Licensing and Regulations. Todaro, when asked about his credentials and Dr. Crotty’s criticisms, replied that Crotty should “look at what is happening in the real world.”
However, Todaro’s recent lack of practice hasn’t stopped him from spreading dubious theories about the coronavirus on his widely viewed social media accounts, or becoming a darling of right-wing media outlets.
Todaro co-wrote a widely criticized article in March promoting hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment for coronavirus, which he published as a Google doc. After Tesla founder Elon Musk criticized the article among his Twitter followers, it was cited by Breitbart News and The Blaze, and one of Todaro’s co-authors went to Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show to promote it as a possible cure. , The same day. Trump began promoting the drug at his press conferences. Most recently, Todaro was a guest on Steve Bannon’s podcast.
One of the people listed as a co-author of Todaro’s article later asked to have it removed from the newspaper, saying it had nothing to do with writing it. Later, when other studies raised questions about the efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine in treating Covid-19, Google temporarily blocked Todaro’s article. Links on Twitter now warn that it could be “potentially spam or unsafe.”
A viral video
In July, Todaro appeared in a viral video of doctors promoting hydroxychloroquine speaking on the steps of the United States Supreme Court. The video, which was retweeted by Trump, his son Donald Trump, Jr. and other conservative figures, showed Todaro and other doctors in white coats with the words “America’s Frontline Doctors” stitched in blue on the chest while promoting hydroxychloroquine. Other doctors in the video include Stella Immanuel, a Houston doctor who has claimed that extraterrestrial DNA is used in some medical treatments.
In late July, after the video was removed, Todaro and several of the other doctors in the video met with Vice President Mike Pence. “Doctors around the world should be able to prescribe hydroxychloroquine without repercussions or obstructions,” Todaro tweeted after the meeting.
More recently, Todaro has shifted his focus to the idea that the immune system’s response to the common cold could play a role in herd immunity.
Todaro bases his theory on recently published articles in respected scientific journals citing research showing that around 50 percent of the US population has T cells that can recognize the new coronavirus even though these people never had Covid- 19. The body’s immune system produces T cells in response to infections, including some coronaviruses that can cause the common cold and are very similar to SARS CoV-2.
But the presence of these T cells does not mean that 50 percent of the population is immune to Covid-19, according to Crotty, the immunologist who co-led a study on T cells and antibodies.
“Todaro was saying ‘don’t worry, we’re basically there with herd immunity and this will end in October,'” said Crotty, who called out Todaro on Twitter for misrepresenting T-cell research. “That’s not what our data says, and That’s not the way the immune system works and this isn’t the way herd immunity works. It’s just wrong. “
Although Lee acknowledged in his note that Todaro’s point of view was controversial, he did not mention that Todaro’s previous attempts to spread misinformation have been discredited. There is no evidence that Lee has updated his clients to reflect that one of the lead T-cell researchers has denounced Todaro’s tweets.
Lee has not responded to CNN’s request for confirmation that it has updated Fundstrat clients on any of these topics.
