Vietnam not Covid-19 “rotten apple” : 285 sign open letter to Johns Hopkins University
JHU Professor Steve Hanke asked to accept and retract error
A total of 285 public health researchers and professionals and concerned citizens from around the world have written to John Hopkins University (JHU) to demand Professor Steve Hanke retracts his tweeted statement that Vietnam is a “rotten apple” in reference to its Covid-19 data.
Hanke tweeted on June 10th:
Vietnam, at the time of writing, has had 334 confirmed cases and, as widely reported and verified, zero deaths. It has also received plaudits for its transparency in fighting the pandemic.
The open letter responds:
We, as part of the audience, became very concerned since Covid-19 data for Vietnam was clearly available on Worldometers (the same website that Professor Hanke cited) at the same time as he tweeted (see Exhibit 2). It initially seemed that Professor Hanke mistook Vietnam’s widely verified zero deaths from Covid-19 as no reported data.
It continues:
This error, however, has remained despite repeated attempts to alert him to it from public health practitioners and the public. When a member of the public inquired about his data for Vietnam, Professor Hanke responded (and we quote) “In this instance, World[o]meters, as you can see in the attached, has no death data for Vietnam. The ‘rotten apples’ chart I posted features deaths per million data. Since there is no death data for Vietnam on World[o]meters, I reported no data.”
(See Notes for Editors below for full letter)
The letter labels the errors and excuses as unscientific and representing low professional standards. The information is in contrast to the Johns Hopkins University work to create a Covid-19 dashboard that has guided public health professionals across the globe.
While the tweet is from Professor Hanke’s account the information includes JHU branding. Professor Hanke’s Twitter account biography does not include customary employer disclaimers. The professor is also Senior Fellow and Director at US libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute.
The tweet has angered many, not just in Vietnam. It has received 3,800 retweets and over 1,700 replies. Requests for criteria for judging “rotten apples” have not been responded to.
The open letter demands that the tweet is retracted and both professor and University acknowledge the error and publish the correct information instead.
UPDATE: As of June 16, 2020 Professor Steve Hanke has posted another tweet (Exhibit 5) that has gone some way towards acknowledging his error. However, he is yet to delete the original tweet or apologize. This tweet has been shared only 24 times meaning it has a far smaller reach than the original tweet (3,800 retweets).
ENDS
For more information contact email: VietnamNotCovid19RottenApple@gmail.com
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
The Letter
June 16, 2020
Dear President Daniels, Provost Kumar, Vice Provost Douglas, and Dean Schlesinger,
We are a group of public health researchers and professionals, community activists, and concerned citizens around the world. We are writing to express our grave concerns with a recent attempt to spread misinformation about Covid19 during the pandemic by presumably a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
This was done by a Twitter account under the name of Prof. Steve Hanke, who appears to be an economist and a professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. As you can see in Exhibit 1, on June 9 2020, Professor Steve Hanke put out a tweet that labeled several countries, including Vietnam, as “rotten apples” because either they did not report Covid-19 data or their data were deemed (by Hanke) to be highly suspicious, without offering any evidence to support the claim.
We, as part of the audience, became very concerned since Covid-19 data for Vietnam was clearly available on Worldometers (the same website that Professor Hanke cited) at the same time as he tweeted (see Exhibit 2). It initially seemed that Professor Hanke mistook Vietnam’s widely verified zero deaths from Covid-19 as no reported data.
This error, however, has remained despite repeated attempts to alert him to it from public health practitioners and the public. When a member of the public inquired about his data for Vietnam, Professor Hanke responded (and we quote) “In this instance, World[o]meters, as you can see in the attached, has no death data for Vietnam. The ‘rotten apples’ chart I posted features deaths per million data. Since there is no death data for Vietnam on World[o]meters, I reported no data.”
This excuse is highly unscientific and represents low professional standards for the type of research that Professor Hanke has done in this matter. Professor Hanke’s claim in his chart is in direct contradiction to the excellent work done by the JHU in creating the world map (Exhibit 3) that has guided nearly everyone in the public health community and the public from the beginning of the pandemic.
It also disregards the Covid-19 data regularly released by the Vietnamese government (Exhibit 4). No one can deny the fact that Vietnam has taken early, aggressive actions from January 2020 when there were no Covid-19 cases in the country, to protect the health of its citizens and residents, Vietnamese and foreigners alike. As a result, the number of positive cases has been kept extremely low and there have been no Covid-19 deaths in a country of approximately 95 million people. Lessons from this country have been well documented in collaborative scientific papers like this one and this, and by many mainstream international media outlets, including CNN, BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, the World Economic Forum, among others.
We suspect that Professor Hanke’s claim in the “rotten apples” chart was more politically driven than evidence based. Professor Hanke’s action likely bears several serious consequences. First, it spreads misinformation to the public about Covid-19 and preventive measures that could be highly effective if implemented correctly and consistently.
You know as well as we do that in countries like the United States, the fight against Covid-19 fake news is of paramount importance if we are to have any hopes of containing the virus. Higher education institutions, like the JHU, have critical roles to play in providing accurate information and educating the public. Professor Hanke’s Twitter account has about 257,300 followers at the time of this letter, which means the misinformation and its harm can be far reaching.
Second, Professor Hanke’s tweet severely undermines the reputation of the JHU as a leading research and teaching institution in the US and globally. Much of the work in public health policies and programs worldwide has been guided by data and evidence produced by JHU. Your faculty and scientists have thrived to provide the public with accurate data and critical evidence of public health problems; we believe the vast majority of them have held themselves to the highest research and teaching standards. An action like Professor Hanke’s erodes the pride in JHU and the trust of the University’s alumni, collaborators, friends, and supporters around the world.
Prospective students who plan to attend JHU may have to think twice about the types of faculty they will learn from, and what it means for their professional and ethical standards. Your students deserve better.
LATE UPDATE: As of June 16, 2020 morning (US time), Professor Steve Hanke posted another tweet (Exhibit 5) that has gone some way towards acknowledging his error. However, he is yet to retract the original tweet. In these circumstances, our requests remain the same.
We hereby request the following:
1. Professor Hanke publicly retracts the “rotten apples” chart and issues a statement with correct information about Vietnam via the same channel(s) he published the chart; and
2. The JHU and the Whiting School of Engineering issue public statements with correct information about Vietnam to prevent further spread of misinformation.
Thank you very much for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
(285 signees)
Further Twitter Responses to Professor Hanke’s Tweet
(These are public responses questioning Professor Hanke’s tweet as opposed to tweets in association with this open letter.)
