Paul E. Alexander

Paul E. Alexander
OccupationHealth researcher
Academic background
Alma materMcMaster University
ThesisClinical practice and public health guidelines: The making of appropriate strong recommendations when the confidence in effect estimates is low (2015)
Doctoral advisorGordon Guyatt
Academic work
DisciplineHealth research

Paul Elias Alexander is a Canadian independent scientist,[1] and a former Trump administration official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Alexander was recruited from his part-time, unpaid position at McMaster University to serve as an aide to HHS assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo in March 2020. In that role, Alexander pressured federal scientists and public health agencies to suppress and edit their COVID-19 analyses to make them consistent with Trump's rhetoric.[2][3]

Within the Trump Administration, Alexander advocated for a strategy of mass infection of the public with COVID-19 to build herd immunity.[4] He sought to muzzle federal scientists and public health agencies to prevent them from contradicting the Trump Administration's political talking points.[5]

  1. ^ "Work History". Dr. Paul Alexander. Retrieved October 25, 2023.
  2. ^ Blackwell, Tom (September 16, 2020). "Canadian professor at heart of controversy over White House push to control COVID-19 messaging". National Post.
  3. ^ Diamond, Dan (April 9, 2021). "Trump officials celebrated efforts to change CDC reports on coronavirus, emails show". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286.
  4. ^ Diamond, Dan (December 16, 2020). "'We want them infected': Trump appointee demanded 'herd immunity' strategy, emails reveal". Politico. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference fauci was invoked but never defined (see the help page).