It appears that Scott Davidson lifted the JW directive directly from my JW Survey article.
https://jwsurvey.org/news/jehovahs-witnesses-denied-plasma-treatment-amid-coronavirus-pandemic
Unless I am missing something, he did not quote JW Survey or mention that I was quoting from a leaked Circuit Overseer letter.
He is opening himself up to heavy criticism by citing something as fact with no backing foundation. Earnest is right to question the validity of this quote, as there's no foundation or reference.
The bottom line is that the letter and quote is real, but when someone reports on this kind of information they MUST provide a narrative explaining where the information came from. Then the reader can go back to the source and question my article, demand confirmation or an explanation for why I posted the text of the quote and not the entire letter itself.
Question everything- including ourselves.