Eric Feigl-Ding | |
---|---|
Born | Eric Liang Ding March 28, 1983 |
Education | Johns Hopkins University (BA) Harvard University (ScD, ScD) Boston University (DNF) |
Spouse(s) | Andrea Feigl-Ding |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Public health |
Institutions | 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 | fas |
Eric Liang Feigl-Ding (born March 28, 1983) is an American public health scientist who is currently a Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists[1] moved to Austria in the Fall so that his kid could attend school in person.
Yet Feigl-Ding has been a relentless proponent for school closures here in the United States. 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. His research and advocacy have primarily focused on systematic reviews & meta-analysis, obesity, cancer prevention, and drinking water safety. Feigl-Ding is a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow,[2] and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.[3]
Feigl-Ding was a candidate in the 2018 Democratic primary for Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district.[4][5] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Feigl-Ding's commentary on COVID-19 attracted considerable attention on Twitter.[6] In late January 2020, Feigl-Ding's early alarm and call for COVID-19 preparedness[6] went viral[7] on Twitter. Feigl-Ding later commented on the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigation efforts in various media and urged action.[8]
Early life and education
Feigl-Ding was born in Shanghai, and his family immigrated to the United States when he was five years old.[9] He was raised in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, and was an alumnus of the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Health Care.[10]
In 2004, he completed his undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University with Honors in Public Health [11] He completed his dual Doctor of Science doctoral programs in epidemiology and doctoral program in nutrition from Harvard University in 2007[11] He attended Boston University School of Medicine, but did not complete the M.D. program.[12][13]
Work
Research and entrepreneurship
Feigl-Ding's work focuses on nutrition, health economics, and epidemiology. He is 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.[1][11]
Feigl-Ding is also the Chief Health Economist at Microclinic International,[14] 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.[15] He has also developed and led public health programs for Bell County, Kentucky,[16] the Danish Ministry of Health,[17] and as a report chairman for the European Commission.[18]
In 2006, while completing his doctorate at Harvard, Feigl-Ding became known as pharmaceutical industry whistleblower for a JAMA study he co-authored on COX-2 inhibitors.[19] The research confirmed serious risks specifically associated with the drug, VIOXX.[20] Given the data, Merck should have known of the serious health risks years before the drug was pulled off the market.[21][22]
He also developed a direct-to-science model for accelerating cancer research, and is advocate of crowdfunding for medical research.[23] His efforts, including the creation of the now-defunct Campaign for Cancer Prevention,[24][23] raised over $500,000 in public donations, and he led cancer prevention advocacy platforms totaling over 6 million members.[25]
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.[26][27][28][29]
On January 20, 2020, Feigl-Ding went viral[7] on Twitter after expressing his worries about the 2019–20 Wuhan coronavirus outbreak virus' basic reproduction number (R0) of up to 3.8.[6] He compared the virus pandemic potential to the 1918 influenza pandemic[6] 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.[6] With the thread going viral, his appeals were criticized by his epidemiologist peers as alarmist and based on anecdotal data,[6] by journalists as misleading and misinforming the public,[30] and his announcements were reused to advance conspiracy theories about the virus.[31] While Feigl-Ding deleted the tweets,[31] 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,[6][32] and he was invited as a commentator on the pandemic by news media.[33][34]
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.[6] Following Feigl-Ding's call and his raising of the alarm 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.[6] It was proposed[who?] 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.[6] Feigl-Ding's early pandemic alert was compared to the warnings since the 1970s about human-induced global warming, which in the 1980s had sufficiently strong early signals to have started actively planning for and responding to, reducing the disasters and costs of global warming during the 2000s and 2010s.[6]
Feigl-Ding argued that the data alone were clear, for anyone with elementary engineering, statistical, or business analytical skills to see the pandemic potential early on.[7] It was hypothesized that social media constant noise made relevant alarms such as Feigl-Ding's inaudible,[6] while Feigl-Ding argued that media reliance on vetted experts on a given topic might reduce access to relevant early alarms.[7]
Political campaign
On February 27, 2018, Feigl-Ding announced his candidacy in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district.[13] He campaigned on a progressive platform advocating for science, universal healthcare, and public health.[13] During the run up to the election, Feigl-Ding did not take corporate PAC money.[5] He received 18% of the vote and lost the primary to George Scott.[4]
Recognition and awards
Feigl-Ding has published over 100 scientific papers in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, PLoS Medicine, and The Lancet. As of September 2020, his h-index is 79.[35]
He has received the Boston Chamber of Commerce's Outstanding Young Leader Award (2012),[36] the American Heart Association's Scott Grundy Excellence Award (2015),[37] the Sigma Chi Mark V. Anderson Leadership Award (2016),[38] the CUGH's Global Health Project of the Year Prize (2014),[39] the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans (2008).[40] He is also a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.[3] He was recognized by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark as one of “16 People and Organizations Changing the World in 2012”.[41]
References
- ^ a b "Eric Feigl-Ding". Eric Feigl-Ding.
- ^ "The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans". www.pdsoros.org.
- ^ a b "Global Shapers Alumni Network". Global Shapers. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
- ^ a b "Eric Ding". Ballotpedia.
- ^ a b Editorial, Guest (May 11, 2018). "I'm running for Congress because facts matter | Eric Ding". pennlive.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wallace-Wells, David (2020-03-26). "Why Did an Expert Who Warned About COVID-19 Have So Much Trouble Being Heard?". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
- ^ a b c d "Who qualifies as a 'real expert' when it comes to coronavirus?". Times Higher Education (THE). 2020-03-31. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
- ^ Coronavirus US: Harvard epidemiologist predicted COVID-19 outbreak. In January, epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding warned COVID-19 would sweep the world. In July, he said the US would pass 200,000 deaths. Both times, he was right.
- ^ MervisMay. 22, Jeffrey; 2018; Pm, 1:15 (2018-05-22). "Defeated but unbowed: Two Pennsylvania scientists regroup after primary loss". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2020-07-10.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
- ^ "Pennsylvania Governor's School". Archived from the original on 2009-06-06. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
- ^ a b c "Eric Feigl-Ding, PhD".
- ^ "MED Student Awarded Soros Fellowship | BU Today". Boston University.
- ^ a b c "Public health scientist hopes to take his activism to Congress". Science | AAAS. May 9, 2018.
- ^ "Microclinic International". Microclinic International. Archived from the original on September 4, 2018.
- ^ "MLB Dead Weight: Fatness, Mortality Up". www.cbsnews.com.
- ^ 'Contagious' program helps Bell County residents get healthier
- ^ "Texts For Healthy Teens: A Health Education Program for Adolescents - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov". clinicaltrials.gov.
- ^ "Diabesity - Towards a global initiative on gene-environment interactions in diabetes/obesity in specific populations. Report: Lifestyle and diabetes prevention programmes for minorities" (PDF).
- ^ "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.
- ^ a b "A Web Campaign for Cancer Prevention". December 8, 2011.
- ^ EDT, Brian Braiker On 10/25/07 at 8:00 PM (October 25, 2007). "Tech: Philanthropy on Facebook". Newsweek.
- ^ Prevention, Campaign for Cancer. "Campaign for Cancer Prevention Connects 6 Million+ Members on Facebook Causes to Groundbreaking Research at Brigham and Women's Hospital". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
- ^ "Lead Contamination Beyond Flint". April 12, 2017.
- ^ ToxinAlert.org
- ^ "Where lead lurks". January 30, 2017.
- ^ "No One Has the Data to Prevent the Next Flint" – via www.wired.com.
- ^ Madrigal, Alexis C. (2020-01-28). "How to Misinform Yourself About the Coronavirus". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
- ^ a b "Shoddy Coronavirus Studies Are Going Viral And Stoking Panic". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
- ^ Staff Reporter (2020-03-28). "Scientist Warned of the Danger of COVID-19, but No One Listened". Science Times. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
- ^ "Coronavirus inaction: Could leaders have blood on their hands?". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
- ^ Bartlett, Tom (April 17, 2020). "his Harvard Epidemiologist Is Very Popular on Twitter. But Does He Know What He's Talking About?". Chronicle of Higher Education.
- ^ "Eric L Ding - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com.
- ^ "Boston TOYL Award winners" (PDF).
- ^ "AHA Connections Spring 2015". aha-365.ascendeventmedia.com.
- ^ "Mark V. Anderson Character-in-Action Leadership Award - List of Award Recipients".
- ^ "Consortium of Universities for Global Health - Fifth Annual Global Health Conference" (PDF).
- ^ "Meet the Fellows | Eric Feigl-Ding". www.pdsoros.org.
- ^ "16 People and Organizations Changing the World in 2012". December 26, 2011.