by Paul Thacker
A newly released videocast of the NIH Clinical Center Hospital Board’s October meeting raises fresh questions about the ties between New York Times reporter Sheryl Stolberg and Jack Leslie, a senior advisor at Weber Shandwick.
Leslie used the meeting to criticize an NIH program studying vaccine injuries, noting several times that his views were informed by Stolberg’s reporting. Stolberg then wrote about his comments attacking the NIH vaccine injury clinic, reporting that Leslie is the former CEO of the PR firm Weber Shandwick, but failing to note he remains a senior advisor at the company.
On their website, Weber Shandwick touts Leslie’s history counselling several global vaccine manufacturers.
Discussion of the vaccine injury clinic did not appear on hospital board’s October 16 agenda, something normally required by federal law. NIH Deputy Director Matthew Memoli pushed back on Leslie’s characterization of the new clinic, stating that vaccine-injured patients “feel that they have not been seen,” just as HIV patients felt the NIH ignored them for many years. However, none of Memoli’s comments appeared in Stolberg’s Times article.
“Readers deserved to know the full context in which [Leslie] was operating, that he is a current senior advisor to a firm whose clients include Pfizer, Moderna, Merck, J&J and Sanofi,” said Brianne Dressen who founded React19 after she was injured by a COVID vaccine.
Dressen participated in a 2022 NIH study of COVID vaccine injured patients, although the Biden administration shut down that research for reasons that have never been explained. “Every time a story conflates help for injured patients as an attack on vaccines, or an affront to public health, a doctor somewhere gets one more reason not to take us seriously.”
Scrutiny of Stolberg’s coverage started last week when I reported that she amplified a leak from PR titan Leslie to condemn the NIH vaccine injury clinic and HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. without disclosing to readers that Leslie works at Weber Shandwick. Shortly after the Senate confirmed him as HHS Secretary, Kennedy shut down a lucrative contract Weber Shandwick had with the CDC to embed their personnel at the agency’s vaccine center and advise physicians on COVID vaccines. At the time they won the CDC contract, Weber Shandwick also had contracts with Pfizer and Moderna to promote their COVID vaccines.
Although Leslie appears to meet none of the federal requirements for membership on the hospital board, former NIH Director Francis Collins appointed Leslie to the advisory panel in 2022. He became the chair in 2024. Collins did not respond to questions asking him to explain how Leslie’s job in pharmaceutical PR qualified him for board membership.
After my story ran, Stolberg took to X claiming I had misrepresented the situation and defended her reporting as sound. According to her, a private source leaked her a link to the livestream of the NIH board meeting that Leslie chairs, and she had done nothing more than cover the proceedings.
“I watched the meeting livestream, which should eventually be posted here: ccrhb.od.nih.gov/meetings.html,” Stolberg posted on X.
Secretary Kennedy then castigated Stolberg for her article, complaining that her reporting relied on anonymous sources, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and sinister speculation.
Hopping on LinkedIn, Stolberg protested that Kennedy had personally attacked her over the article on the new vaccine injury clinic, stating that nobody has asked for a correction and falsely claiming “no one disputed the facts.”
“As a Times journalist, I share in the values and adhere to the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook,” reads Stolberg’s bio at the Times. The Times’ handbook’s section on accuracy and corrections states, “It is our policy to correct our errors, large and small, as soon as we become aware of them.”
Here comes video!
The NIH created the Clinical Center Research Hospital Board in 2016 to oversee operations at the NIH Clinical Center. A decade later, the board remains one of the more obscure advisory bodies embedded within the federal bureaucracy. It has met more than 30 times, yet it remains invisible to journalists. Searches of Google, Gemini, and Grok turn up no coverage of any of its meetings. Even journalists at specialized trade outlets such as Becker’s Hospital Review and Modern Healthcare have never reported on the board.
In fact, the only reporter who has ever covered this little-known board is the New York Times’ Sheryl Stolberg who just happened to join the meeting’s videocast when Weber Shandwick’s Jack Leslie criticized the new vaccine injury clinic.
The videocast of the board’s Oct. 16 meeting offers a contrasting account of Stolberg’s coverage. Shortly after calling the meeting to order, Leslie repeatedly referenced Stolberg’s reporting in the Times to explain why he felt it necessary to condemn the NIH’s vaccine injury clinic. After reading a prepared statement denouncing the research and calling for a vote on that statement, Leslie then opened the floor to questions and comments from NIH officials in attendance.
Stolberg’s article, amplifying Leslie’s words, appeared within hours of his statement.
During the video, Leslie can also be seen arguing with Jonathan Green, the CEO of the NIH Hospital. Referencing Stolberg’s reporting once again, Leslie complained that NIH employees were asked to stay at home when Secretary Kennedy and several other HHS officials came unannounced to the NIH campus to unveil the vaccine injury center.
“It is not clear why his visit to the N.I.H. was a secret,” Stolberg had reported.
Green explained that nothing sinister had taken place and this was a normal procedure when VIPs visit the NIH along with their security details, as it complicates parking and traffic. “VIP visits to the clinical center are virtually never announced,” Green said.
For reasons that are not clear, Leslie then complained that HHS wouldn’t speak to the New York Times about Kennedy’s visit, and objected to the NIH creating placards to promote their research for vaccine-injured patients. After he condemned the NIH clinic, Leslie then invited NIH deputy director Matthew Memoli to describe the new research on vaccine injury.
When I contacted Stolberg about complaints from patients about her reporting and asked her why she failed to report Jack Leslie’s job at Weber Shandwick, she referred me to Times spokesman, Charlie Statlander. However, Statlander refused to respond to my questions about the videocast of the NIH meeting and whether Stolberg planned to run a correction that noted Leslie’s current job at Weber Shandwick.
“Someone needs to come and ask for Jack Leslie’s resignation immediately,” said Atlanta resident Lindsay Paul, who said she was injured several years ago by a COVID vaccine. Lindsay said she remains disabled and plans to participate in the NIH research program if possible. “What is the connection between the reporter and Jack Leslie? Because it appears that the New York Times always wants to smear [Secretary] Kennedy or anything that has vaccine injury in it.”
Below is the segment from the board’s meeting with Matthew Memoli explaining the vaccine injury center to Weber Shandwick’s Jack Leslie.
Here’s the email I sent to New York Times reporter Sheryl Stolberg:
Hello Sheryl,
I saw that you invited people on X to watch the NIH Clinical Board’s meeting after your reporting was criticized on social media. The NIH finally posted the videocast and I watched it. Some of your reporting still does not make sense.
Jack Leslie made his statement condemning the vaccine center before asking any questions or comments from NIH officials in attendance. NIH Deputy Director Matt Memoli was there and spent about 7 minutes explaining why the NIH is doing this research. I couldn’t find any of Memoli’s comments in your reporting.
Can you help readers understand your reporting a little better? Several vaccine injured patients have contacted me and are appalled.
1. Why did you not report Jack Leslie’s job at Weber Shandwick? It took me about five minutes to run down that he’s a senior advisor there.
2. Can you explain to readers why you thought it was newsworthy to report on Jack Leslie’s statement about the vaccine center without including the extensive explanation by the NIH Deputy Director that followed in that very same meeting?
3. You have tweeted that nobody has asked you for a correction. However, I can’t find anything in the Times policy on corrections that requires a formal demand for a correction. Do you not think it’s important to make corrections to your reporting when people point out errors?
Thank you for your time. We need any comment you have by COB today.
Paul
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