| Revision as of 19:35, 11 June 2022 edit75.104.106.110 (talk) someone said his mentor Dr Liu was not infectious disease expert--incorrect, Liu is a former CDC EIS outbreak investigation officerTag: Reverted← Previous edit | Revision as of 20:15, 11 June 2022 edit undoSj221234 (talk | contribs)74 edits added more context on Vioxx - Ding's study didn't directly affect the withdrawal of Vioxx but rather on later lawsuit settlements involving kidney damage because his study had shown Merck had the data by year 2000 showing renal effects.Tag: RevertedNext edit → | ||
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| Feigl-Ding is also the Chief Health Economist at Microclinic International,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://microclinics.org/|title=Microclinic International|website=Microclinic International|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180904032727/http://microclinics.org/people/leadership-team/|archive-date=September 4, 2018}}</ref> as co-principal investigator of several intervention programs for obesity and diabetes prevention in the US and abroad. He developed a 130-year cohort study of ] regarding the relationship between obesity and mortality in athletes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mlb-dead-weight-fatness-mortality-up/|title=MLB Dead Weight: Fatness, Mortality Up|website=www.cbsnews.com}}</ref> He has also developed and led public health programs for ],<ref></ref> the ],<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02809196|title=Texts For Healthy Teens: A Health Education Program for Adolescents - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov|website=clinicaltrials.gov|date=14 November 2016}}</ref> and as a report chairman for the ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation_en|title=Research and innovation|website=European Commission - European Commission}}</ref> | Feigl-Ding is also the Chief Health Economist at Microclinic International,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://microclinics.org/|title=Microclinic International|website=Microclinic International|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180904032727/http://microclinics.org/people/leadership-team/|archive-date=September 4, 2018}}</ref> as co-principal investigator of several intervention programs for obesity and diabetes prevention in the US and abroad. He developed a 130-year cohort study of ] regarding the relationship between obesity and mortality in athletes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mlb-dead-weight-fatness-mortality-up/|title=MLB Dead Weight: Fatness, Mortality Up|website=www.cbsnews.com}}</ref> He has also developed and led public health programs for ],<ref></ref> the ],<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02809196|title=Texts For Healthy Teens: A Health Education Program for Adolescents - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov|website=clinicaltrials.gov|date=14 November 2016}}</ref> and as a report chairman for the ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation_en|title=Research and innovation|website=European Commission - European Commission}}</ref> | ||
| While completing his doctorate at Harvard, Feigl-Ding co-authored a study on ]s that confirmed serious risks specifically associated with the drug, ].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-04-30 |title=The Tweet Heard Round the World |url=https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/the-tweet-heard-round-the-world/ |access-date=2020-07-10 |website=Arlington Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=New, Comprehensive Analysis Shows Rofecoxib (VIOXX), But Not Other COX-2 Inhibitor Drugs, Increases Risks of Adverse Kidney and Heart Rhythm Disorders|url=http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2006-releases/press09122006.html|access-date=2020-07-10|website=Harvard School of Public Health|language=en}}</ref> Given the data available at the time, ] should have known of the serious kidney health risks by the year 2000, years before the drug was pulled off the market.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/health/13vioxx.html|title=Studies Find Higher Rates of Heart Risk With Vioxx|last=Berenson|first=Alex|date=2006-09-13|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-02-02|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iyS8w5hBZ3MC&q=eric+ding+poison+pills&pg=PA5|title=Poison Pills: The Untold Story of the Vioxx Drug Scandal|last=Nesi|first=Tom|date=September 16, 2008|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9781429931854|via=Google Books}}</ref>. The arrhythmia heart risks of Vioxx were also apparent in the available data by the year 2004, |
While completing his doctorate at Harvard, Feigl-Ding co-authored a study on ]s that confirmed serious risks specifically associated with the drug, ].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-04-30 |title=The Tweet Heard Round the World |url=https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/the-tweet-heard-round-the-world/ |access-date=2020-07-10 |website=Arlington Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=New, Comprehensive Analysis Shows Rofecoxib (VIOXX), But Not Other COX-2 Inhibitor Drugs, Increases Risks of Adverse Kidney and Heart Rhythm Disorders|url=http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2006-releases/press09122006.html|access-date=2020-07-10|website=Harvard School of Public Health|language=en}}</ref> Given the data available at the time, ] should have known of the serious kidney health risks by the year 2000, years before the drug was pulled off the market.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/health/13vioxx.html|title=Studies Find Higher Rates of Heart Risk With Vioxx|last=Berenson|first=Alex|date=2006-09-13|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-02-02|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iyS8w5hBZ3MC&q=eric+ding+poison+pills&pg=PA5|title=Poison Pills: The Untold Story of the Vioxx Drug Scandal|last=Nesi|first=Tom|date=September 16, 2008|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9781429931854|via=Google Books}}</ref>. The arrhythmia heart risks of Vioxx were also apparent in the available data by the year 2004,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/203534|title=Adverse Effects of Cyclooxygenase 2 Inhibitors on Renal and Arrhythmia Events - Meta-analysis of Randomized Trials|journal=JAMA}}</ref> the same year as Merck's withdrawal of Vioxx in September 2004.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://money.cnn.com/2004/09/30/news/fortune500/merck/|title=Merck yanks arthritis drug Vioxx|website=CNN.com}}</ref> Subsequently in November 2007, Merck paid $4.85 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits involving heart, stroke, and kidney damage, after prior studies showed it 'increased the risk of cardiovascular problems, strokes and renal problems'.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/merck-to-pay-4-85bn-to-settle-lawsuits-over-vioxx-drug-5329074.html|title=Merck to pay $4.85bn to settle lawsuits over Vioxx drug|date=2007-11-10|website=The Independent}}</ref> | ||
| He founded ''Toxin Alert'', as a public alert tool to warn communities about drinking water contaminations to prevent future lead poisonings like the ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theforum.sph.harvard.edu/events/lead-contamination-beyond-flint/|title=Lead Contamination Beyond Flint|date=April 12, 2017}}</ref><ref></ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/01/a-link-to-where-lead-lurks/|title=Where lead lurks|date=January 30, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/story/data-lead-poisoning-flint/|title=No One Has the Data to Prevent the Next Flint|magazine=Wired|via=www.wired.com}}</ref> | He founded ''Toxin Alert'', as a public alert tool to warn communities about drinking water contaminations to prevent future lead poisonings like the ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theforum.sph.harvard.edu/events/lead-contamination-beyond-flint/|title=Lead Contamination Beyond Flint|date=April 12, 2017}}</ref><ref></ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/01/a-link-to-where-lead-lurks/|title=Where lead lurks|date=January 30, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/story/data-lead-poisoning-flint/|title=No One Has the Data to Prevent the Next Flint|magazine=Wired|via=www.wired.com}}</ref> | ||
Revision as of 20:15, 11 June 2022
American public health scientist| Eric Feigl-Ding | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Eric Liang Ding (1983-03-28) March 28, 1983 (age 41) Shanghai, China |
| Education | Johns Hopkins University (BA) Harvard University (ScD, ScD) Boston University (DNF) |
| Awards | Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship (2008) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Public health Epidemiology Nutrition Health policy |
| Institutions | New England Complex Systems Institute Federation of American Scientists Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Harvard Medical School Brigham & Women's Hospital |
| Thesis | Sex steroid hormones and type 2 diabetes risk (2007) |
| Website | necsi |
Eric Liang Feigl-Ding (born March 28, 1983) is an American public health scientist who is currently an epidemiologist and Chief of COVID Task Force at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He was formerly a faculty member and researcher at Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also the Chief Health Economist for Microclinic International, and co-founder of the World Health Network. His research and advocacy have primarily focused on obesity, nutrition, cancer prevention, and biosecurity.
In January 2020, Feigl-Ding sounded an early alarm about COVID-19 and called for preparedness. His call went viral on Twitter and was quickly recognized by the news media. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Feigl-Ding's Twitter posts on the matter have been popular. He has commented on the pandemic and mitigation efforts in various media, urging action.
Early life and education
Feigl-Ding was born in Shanghai, and his family emigrated to the United States when he was five years old. He was raised in South Dakota and Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from Shippensburg Area Senior High School and is an alumnus of the Pennsylvania Governor's Schools of Excellence.
In 2004, he completed his undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University with Honors in Public Health. He completed his dual Doctor of Science doctoral program in epidemiology and doctoral program in nutrition from Harvard University in 2007. He attended Boston University School of Medicine, but did not complete the M.D. program. Feigl-Ding was awarded a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for his graduate studies.
Work
Research and work
Feigl-Ding's work focuses on epidemiology, health economics, and nutrition. He is Chief of the COVID Risk Task Force at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He was a Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists. He was a researcher at the Harvard Medical School, and at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Feigl-Ding is also the Chief Health Economist at Microclinic International, as co-principal investigator of several intervention programs for obesity and diabetes prevention in the US and abroad. He developed a 130-year cohort study of Major League Baseball regarding the relationship between obesity and mortality in athletes. He has also developed and led public health programs for Bell County, Kentucky, the Danish Ministry of Health, and as a report chairman for the European Commission.
While completing his doctorate at Harvard, Feigl-Ding co-authored a study on COX-2 inhibitors that confirmed serious risks specifically associated with the drug, Vioxx. Given the data available at the time, Merck should have known of the serious kidney health risks by the year 2000, years before the drug was pulled off the market.. The arrhythmia heart risks of Vioxx were also apparent in the available data by the year 2004, the same year as Merck's withdrawal of Vioxx in September 2004. Subsequently in November 2007, Merck paid $4.85 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits involving heart, stroke, and kidney damage, after prior studies showed it 'increased the risk of cardiovascular problems, strokes and renal problems'.
He founded Toxin Alert, as a public alert tool to warn communities about drinking water contaminations to prevent future lead poisonings like the Flint Water Crisis.
Coronavirus preparedness advocacy
On January 20, 2020, Feigl-Ding went viral on Twitter after expressing his worries about the 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak virus' basic reproduction number (R0) of up to 3.8. He compared the virus pandemic potential to the 1918 influenza pandemic which has an estimated R0 of 1.8 and which killed ~50 million people out of 2 billion, and called for WHO and CDC to preemptively declare public health emergency and monitor aggressively the situation. With the thread going viral, his appeals were criticized by some epidemiologist peers as alarmist and based on anecdotal data, by some journalists as misleading and misinforming the public, while defended by other journalists, and other epidemiologist peers who publicly supported him, such as his former Harvard adviser Simin Liu, a Harvard School of Public Health and Brown University School of Public Health professor of epidemiology, and former CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service officer. While Feigl-Ding deleted his earliest tweets, the rapid development of the epidemic, first in China in January, then in Europe in February–March and in the United States in March, together with more studies on the virus, turned his perceptions into that of an early messenger, and he was invited as a commentator on the pandemic by news media. An earlier Atlantic article by Alexis Madrigal was self-admitted by Madrigal to be due for a re-assessment after his realization of the pandemic and reading of the assessment by David Wallace-Wells. Madrigal admitted that his earlier "...piece made sense on Planet A, where a pandemic was not bearing down on us, but not on Planet B, where we all now live. It was right in the particulars and wrong on the big picture."
A case study of social web early alert
Feigl-Ding's alert was used to hypothesize that such early reactiveness to weak signals, if it had occurred in the relevant governmental health leadership circles, could have prevented the pandemic. Following Feigl-Ding's warning in January, better responses by government authorities could have led millions to have prepared earlier and better to the pandemic, upgrading their hygiene, such as hand-washing and implementing social distancing measures. It was proposed that public policies and actions should be based on precautionary principles rather than waiting for incontestable and inarguable evidences or the tide of public pressure. Feigl-Ding's early pandemic alert was compared to the warnings since the 1970s about climate change, which in the 1980s had sufficiently strong early signals to have started actively planning for and responding to, reducing the disasters and costs of climate change during the 2000s and 2010s.
Feigl-Ding argued that the data alone were clear, for someone with adequate engineering, statistical, or business analytical skills to see the pandemic potential early on. It was hypothesized that social media constant noise made relevant alarms such as Feigl-Ding's inaudible, while Feigl-Ding argued that media reliance on vetted experts on a given topic might reduce access to relevant early alarms.
Debate on epidemiological expertise
Feigl-Ding holds doctorates in both epidemiology and nutrition, with his professional experience in nutritional epidemiology and epidemiology of chronic disease. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, his research work and expertise primarily focused on the health effects of diet and exercise, he also lacked academic publication in infectious disease epidemiology, the subfield of epidemiology most relevant to viral outbreaks and COVID-19. Because of this, Feigl-Ding has been criticized for misrepresenting his qualifications to offer media commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic. Feigl-Ding has disclosed he is not sub-specialized in infectious diseases and claims to have never misrepresented himself as an infectious disease epidemiologist.
Feigl-Ding's rapid rise to prominence as a leading TV and media commentator and expert during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite his lack of academic activity in infectious diseases, has led to much criticism and controversy. He received early criticism for offering public warnings on the COVID-19 pandemic as well as praise from David Wallace-Wells, editor-at-large at New York Magazine. A January 2020 article published by The Atlantic covered the early controversy of Feigl-Ding's social media presence. On March 26, Alexis Madrigal, its author, re-assessed his piece and stated that "it was right in the particulars and wrong on the big picture." While Feigl-Ding admits he has made mistakes, one of his supporters, Ali Nouri, the president of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a scientific think tank dedicated to science communication, attributed some of the criticism of Feigl-Ding down to stylistic differences in information dissemination.
Political campaign
Feigl-Ding was a candidate in the 2018 Democratic primary for Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district. On February 27, 2018, Feigl-Ding announced his candidacy in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district. He campaigned on a progressive platform advocating for science, universal healthcare, and public health. During the run up to the election, Feigl-Ding did not take corporate PAC money. He received 18% of the vote to George Scott’s 36% in a 4-person primary.
Awards and recognition
Feigl-Ding has received the American Heart Association's Scott Grundy Excellence Award (2015), and the CUGH's Global Health Project of the Year Prize (2014). Feigl-Ding's graduate studies were supported by the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans (2008). He was recognized by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark as one of “16 People and Organizations Changing the World in 2012”., and named in 2018 as a Web of Science 'Highly Cited Researcher', among the top 1% most cited scientists worldwide, and among the 186 top cited scientists at Harvard University.
References
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- "The Tweet Heard Round the World". Arlington Magazine. 2020-04-30. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
- "New, Comprehensive Analysis Shows Rofecoxib (VIOXX), But Not Other COX-2 Inhibitor Drugs, Increases Risks of Adverse Kidney and Heart Rhythm Disorders". Harvard School of Public Health. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
- Berenson, Alex (2006-09-13). "Studies Find Higher Rates of Heart Risk With Vioxx". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
- Nesi, Tom (September 16, 2008). Poison Pills: The Untold Story of the Vioxx Drug Scandal. Macmillan. ISBN 9781429931854 – via Google Books.
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- ^ Madrigal, Alexis C. (2020-01-28). "How to Misinform Yourself About the Coronavirus". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
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