Brian Deer is a British investigative journalist best known for his work for the Sunday Times investigating the drug trade, health, and social issues. The Doctor Who Fooled the World, Deer’s investigative nonfiction book, will be released by Johns Hopkins University Press in September 2020. After graduating from the University of Warwick with a degree in philosophy, he worked as an editor and publicity officer for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and was a member of The Leveller magazine collective. Later he worked for The Times, then The Sunday Times, first as business editor, then as a reporter and service editor. Deer was the UK’s first social affairs reporter in the 1980s, working for then-Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil, and reported from the United States between 1990 and 1992.
Works
In 1986, one of Deer’s early investigations revealed studies on the safety of the contraceptive pill conducted by British scientist Michael Briggs at Deakin University in Australia. According to Deer’s investigations, many Briggs studies have been flawed in providing a favorable profile for the cardiovascular safety of drugs. Schering AG, a German pharmaceutical business, contributed significantly to the study.
In 1994, his investigation into the Wellcome Trust resulted in the discontinuation of the antibiotic Septrin (also known as Bactrim) in the United Kingdom, as well as the sale of the Wellcome Trust’s pharma firm subsidiary. The discontinuation of the painkiller Vioxx in 2005 was followed by an investigation into who was responsible for introducing the drug.
Social Media
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Inspiring Talks by Brian Deer
Interview
Notable quotes
- “In July, there was concern in the United States when the US Public Health Service and the American Academy of Pediatrics called for the retirement of a mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, then contained in many vaccines, in case of possible neurodevelopmental effects. Thimerosal had been used for some seventy years to protect multidose vaccine vials from bacteria.”
- “If he could do what he did — and I’ll show you what he did — who else is doing what in the hospitals and laboratories that we may one day look to for our lives?”
- “In the decades to come, such poisonous acorns would mature into a dark ideology. Little was more potent in building a campaign than opponents branded fools and liars.”
- “As a radio producer, it isn’t often that an interview stops you in your tracks. “
- “Aaron Rodgers, Tucker Carlson, and the Birth of Celebrity Outrage Over Vaccines, Masks, and Mandates.”
- “Uk national on the ground at Medyka/Przemysl reception center & have been for 4 days. It’s the busiest Polish crossing, where are the UK/International aid charities, etc? Are they on route here?”
- “Five months post-covid, Nicole Murphy’s heart rate is still doing strange things.”
- “Boris Johnson hires new publicity chief. What could possibly go wrong?”
- “UK question: Did the police at 10 Downing Street say nothing about the lockdown parties because they were so fat and unfit, they feared reassignment from a cushy gig? If so, will Scotland Yard want as few offenses as possible to be proven?”
- “As an E.R. Doctor, I Fear Health Care Collapse More Than Omicron.”