Cleveland Clinic has been grappling with an unexpected public relations issue this week — an anti-vaccine column penned by the medical director and COO of the Clinic's Wellness Institute, Daniel Neides, MD.
The column, which was published last Friday on Cleveland.com, received considerable backlash on social media from the medical community. Here is a breakdown of how the article was posted and how the health system responded.
1. After the social media firestorm began, the health system issued the following statement Sunday clearly outlining its stance on vaccines: "Cleveland Clinic is fully committed to evidence-based medicine. Harmful myths and untruths about vaccinations have been scientifically debunked in rigorous ways. We completely support vaccinations to protect people, especially children who are particularly vulnerable. Our physician published his statement without authorization from Cleveland Clinic. His views do not reflect the position of Cleveland Clinic and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken."
2. The health system also asked Dr. Neides to apologize. He issued the following statement through a spokeswoman: "I apologize and regret publishing a blog that has caused so much concern and confusion for the public and medical community. I fully support vaccinations and my concern was meant to be positive around the safety of them."
3. The article was said to have been "inexplicably removed" for a few hours Sunday and was later restored. An explainer article from Cleveland.com's vice president of content, Chris Quinn, revealed that Cleveland Clinic's communications team may have been responsible for removing the content. Mr. Quinn wrote that a reader first alerted him to the missing article, and when he looked for it, the article had been was gone from the system. "Upon review and after consultation with the Clinic, we learned that [Bob] Smith [from the Cleveland Clinic Corporate Communications office] was the one who deleted it," Mr. Quinn wrote.
4. The news website has since removed Dr. Neides' and the Clinic's direct access to publish content, according to Mr. Quinn. Previously, Dr. Neides wrote columns on wellness topics and they were published directly to Cleveland.com by the Clinic's corporate communications team. Then Mr. Smith, who works in the communications office, would email an editor at the newspaper, who would often review the content, according to the report. However, in the case of this column, the editor never received an email from Mr. Smith alerting her that the article was posted, according to Mr. Quinn.
5. Cleveland.com restored the article because it "has become the topic of a widespread conversation." Despite being disavowed by the health system, the website said it "strive[s] to be the center of conversation, so we are loath to remove something that has become central to a debate," Mr. Quinn wrote.
6. Cleveland Clinic is also working to rein in its Wellness Institute, independently of the vaccine debacle. STAT reported Tuesday that the system is reevaluating the institute's mission and some of the alternative medicine products it sells in gift shops.
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