Simon James Thornley is a New Zealand medical doctor and academic specialising in epidemiology and biostatistics, and as of 2021 is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland.
10 Facts About Simon Thornley
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Simon Thornley graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Human Biology in 1997, a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in May 2000, and Master of Public Health with First Class Honours in 2006 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Medicine in 2015.
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Simon Thornley has researched the links between scabies and other health issues in relation to health inequities.
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Simon Thornley is a member of the Covid Plan B group, which has repeatedly criticised the New Zealand government's management of the COVID pandemic, and "Simon Thornley [has] become the most notable critic of the Government's Covid-19 elimination strategy".
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In March 2021, the anti-misinformation group Fight Against Conspiracy Theories issued an open letter to the Covid Plan B group including Simon Thornley criticising their partnership with the anti-vaccination group Voices for Freedom.
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Simon Thornley served as a keynote speaker at a VFF event in March 2021 and appeared on the group's webshow.
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Simon Thornley responded through a lawyer claiming the article was a "defamatory publication" and demanding his name be removed and a correction.
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The paper, which was published in a small journal edited by an American anti-vaccination advocate, was retracted in November 2021, with Simon Thornley saying that he and his co-author had made a major mathematical error.
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Also in November 2021, Simon Thornley participated in a livestream with former Northland Member of Parliament Matt King, where they discussed alternative treatments for COVID-19, as well as downplaying the severity of the disease.
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Simon Thornley received the 2021 Bent Spoon Award from the NZ Skeptics society, for showing "the most egregious gullibility or lack of critical thinking in public coverage of, or commentary on, a science-related issue".