Entrepreneur and data analyst Steve Kirsch has publicly stated that many commonly presented public health charts are "misleading to most people," attributing this issue to what he terms the "static Healthy Vaccinee Effect (HVE)." Kirsch announced the development of a new analytical tool, the Kirsch Cumulative Outcomes Ratio (KCOR), designed to provide a more accurate interpretation of health data. He directed his followers to his Substack for a detailed explanation of this effect and his new methodology.
According to Kirsch, "static HVE" refers to an inherent difference in baseline mortality rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated populations, where healthier individuals are more likely to get vaccinated. He argues that this pre-existing health disparity can artificially inflate the apparent effectiveness of interventions, such as vaccines, when not properly accounted for in statistical analyses. This effect, he claims, leads to charts that do not accurately reflect the true impact of an intervention.
In response to these perceived data misrepresentations, Kirsch developed KCOR as an alternative analytical framework. He asserts that KCOR offers a more objective way to assess the impact of any intervention on outcomes by focusing on cumulative data over time, aiming to neutralize the confounding effects he attributes to static HVE. He states that this method provides a clearer picture of real-world effects.
Kirsch, known for his background as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and inventor of the optical mouse, has become a prominent figure in discussions surrounding COVID-19 vaccine data and public health policies. He founded the COVID-19 Early Treatment Fund (CETF) and has frequently challenged mainstream scientific consensus regarding vaccine safety and efficacy. His work often involves re-analyzing publicly available health data.
However, Kirsch's analytical methods and conclusions have drawn significant criticism from the scientific community and fact-checking organizations. Experts from institutions like McGill University and MIT Technology Review have questioned his lack of formal training in epidemiology and his tendency to oversimplify complex scientific data. Professor Jeffrey Morris, among others, has specifically challenged Kirsch's interpretations, arguing that his calculations often contain "erroneous arguments and flawed logic."