Antivaxxers and Antisemites

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

RFK Jr. has floated the lunatic theory that COVID is a bioweapon that somehow spares Ashkenazi Jews.

There are deep links between the antivax movement and antisemitism. 

From the Anti-defamation League:

Since 2020, various white supremacist groups have incorporated anti-vaccine and COVID-19-related messaging into their propaganda.

The Goyim Defense League (GDL), a network of antisemitic provocateurs and white supremacists, has distributed fliers incorporating antisemitic anti-vaccine and COVID-19-related messages on at least 188 occasions since September 2021. For example, following reports that 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during a July 2023 event, suggested COVID-19 had been “engineered” to spare Ashkenazi Jews, GDL created a flier featuring his quote along with the message, “Does COVID-19 target Blacks and Whites?”

Other white supremacist groups – such as the National Socialist Movement (NSM), Active Clubs, Patriot Front, the New Jersey European Heritage Association (NJEHA) and Hundred Handers – have also incorporated anti-vaccine and COVID-19-related messaging into their propaganda since 2020.

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Extremists and QAnon supporters have frequently participated in far-right political conferences that prominently feature anti-vax narratives, such as the “Reawaken America” tour in 2023. These events allowed convicted January 6th insurrectionist Dr. Simone Gold and Ann Vandersteel, a QAnon influencer and sovereign citizen, to rub elbows, and to hobnob with elected officials, political candidates and advisors to former President Trump, like Michael Flynn and Eric Trump. The appearance of political leaders and elected officials at these types of events lends legitimacy to anti-vaccine and other conspiratorial beliefs, helping to normalize and further propel them into the mainstream.

Axis of Crackpots

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures. 

The anti-vax movement has a great deal of overlap with MAGA, QAnon, and old-school conspiracy theory.

Kate Briquelet at The Daily Beast:

The sister of Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and a band of conservative anti-vax activists are running for the board of a renowned public hospital in Florida under the banner of “medical freedom.”

If they win, they’ll hold a majority over Sarasota’s award-winning facility where one of their allies—elected in 2022 with two other “health freedom candidates” to the nine-member panel—is already trying to peddle vaccine misinformation.

The rogues’ gallery includes Mary Flynn O’Neill, who directs her brother’s nonprofit and routinely appears on right-wing shows with QAnon conspiracy theorists; Tanya Parus, the president of Moms For America’s Sarasota chapter and co-owner of a “freedom-based” health clinic, and Tamzin Rosenwasser, a dermatologist who once railed against the Federation of State Medical Boards’s warning to doctors who spread COVID vaccine misinformation, comparing the organization to Stalin’s secret police.

Michael Flynn posted this picture today. I was finally able to locate a full view of the board behind him. (Telegram) (1/2) pic.twitter.com/y7vTg9TFXa

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) July 6, 2021

The list includes familiar figures from the antivax movement:

• Del Bigtree (now RFK Jr.'s comms director)
• Rashad [sic, Rashid] Buttar
• Charleen [sic, Charlene] Bollinger
• Robert Kennedy, Jr.
• Judy Mikovits
• Sherry [sic, Sherri] Tenpenny
• Dr. [Andrew] Wakefield

There may be others whose names are too hard to read in the photograph.

Antivaxxers, Conspiracy Theories, Christian Nationalists -- and RFK Jr.

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures. 

The anti-vax movement has a great deal of overlap with MAGA, QAnon, and old-school conspiracy theory.  T

A prominent champion is the infamous RFK,Jr. He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism. he John Birch Society plugged one of his books. 

 David Corn and Dan Friedman at Mother Jones:

On March 23, Steve and Tracy Slepcevic hosted a fundraiser for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the San Diego area. Tickets started at $575, and those who paid $2,750 were to be treated to a “private sunset reception” before RFK Jr. would chat with the assembled and pose for photos. It was hardly surprising that the Slepcevics were supporting Kennedy, given that Tracy is a long-time anti-vaxxer prominent within the autism community. But the personal politics of the Slepcevics illuminate the weird currents propelling Kennedy’s White House bid, for the pair have hobnobbed with QAnoners, Christian nationalists, election deniers, and other pro-Trump extremists. Steve, who has a checkered past as a businessmen that includes an arrest (but not a conviction) for allegedly defrauding victims of Hurricane Katrina, was in the crowd of Trump devotees outside the Capitol on January 6.

Last year, Tracy Slepcevic published a book called Warrior Mom about her years raising a son with autism that she blames on routine childhood vaccines. The book was endorsed by Kennedy and championed by Michael Flynn, the disgraced former national security adviser for President Donald Trump who has become a QAnon-friendly Christian nationalist and a leader within the far-right patriots movement. The Kennedy campaign sells signed copies of the book for $150 a pop. Tracy has been an ally of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vax nonprofit that Kennedy ran before entering the 2024 contest. In November, she spoke at CHD’s annual conference in Savannah, Georgia, where she hawked her book and palled around with Kennedy, a longtime peddler of Covid and vaccine misinformation. On Facebook, she declared, “Had a great time at the CHD conference in Savannah with some amazing people…I’m so blessed to be on this journey with each and every one of them.” In promoting her book and activism, she has shared platforms with Stew Peters, a far-right anti-vaxxer who has been tied to QAnon advocacy and has spread (according to the ADL) antisemitic tropes, and with Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced scientist who wrote a discredited paper linking autism to vaccines.

 SEE THE 2021 LINDELL WHITEBOARD.

RFK Jr. and the Racist Right

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong. A leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.

There are deep connections between the antivax movement and conspiracy theorists, and RFK is part of the connective tissue.

Eric Hananoki at Media Matters:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s group Children’s Health Defense sought support from users of the far-right social media platform Gab in 2021, including white supremacists, QAnon conspiracy theorists, and an open neo-Nazi.

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Kennedy is the founder, chair, and chief litigation counsel for Children’s Health Defense, one of the key spreaders of misinformation about vaccines and COVID-19. He is on leave from the group during his campaign. Kennedy has frequently attempted to appeal to right-wing audiences during his run, as evidenced by his campaign site featuring interviews with Elon Musk, Laura Ingraham, Megyn Kelly, and Breitbart News.

Children’s Health Defense has been using Gab to recruit followers since January 2021. Its profile says it is part of Gab Pro, which is a subscription-based program. CHD has posted to the site over 1,500 times and has touted its account as a way to “fight censorship.”

Gab is a social media platform that caters to those deemed too extreme for Twitter and Facebook. Its user base is populated with numerous antisemites, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists. Many of them express hatred toward and issue violent threats against Jewish people. In 2018, a Gab user allegedly killed 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.

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Andrew Torba is the site’s founder and CEO. He is a virulent antisemite who has said that Jewish people have too much political power and are not welcome in his preferred political movement: “We don't want people who are Jewish.” He has also reposted praise of Gab as a place where people can find “differing opinions” on the Holocaust.

Media outlets have scrutinized Gab’s links to antisemitism and white supremacy, especially after failed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano paid Torba for campaign “consulting.” But Kennedy’s ties to Gab through his organization have previously gone unreported.

CHD’s pointed engagement with the antisemitic platform comes as observers have noted a general increase in antisemitism in the U.S., especially online. Misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic has also worsened the problem. Kennedy received criticism in January 2022 after he said during an anti-vaccine rally: “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.”

GOP Keeps Going Antivax

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be measles and COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures. 

Virginia Kruta at the Daily Wire:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responded Thursday to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim that he had advocated burning the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “to the ground,” and he didn’t back down an inch.

DeSantis, who officially announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday, made it clear that complete destruction of those particular institutions might be going too easy on them.

“There was a report that — I had spoken with Bobby Kennedy Jr., and he had said that ‘the governor said that you know, that we need to burn to the ground the CDC’ and all these things,” DeSantis began.

“And I just want to be very clear, full disclosure,” DeSantis continued. “I was not that kind to CDC and NIH and any of those [agencies]. Just for the record, just so your viewers don’t think I’m going soft, but I can’t think of a more catastrophic response than how this country responded to COVID, particularly at the federal level.”

Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone:

Arizona Republicans are hosting a two-day, QAnon-inflected, anti-vaccine circus at the statehouse — focused on supposed “atrocities” committed by public health officials in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The hearings, which began this morning, are organized by a new state Senate body, the Novel Coronavirus South Western Intergovernmental Committee. The committee’s chosen acronym — NCSWIC, which has been plastered on posters promoting the hearings — offers unusual cross-branding. It shares the abbreviation of an infamous QAnon catchphrase, “Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming.”

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Other “sponsors” of the proceedings include Robert F. Kennedy’s anti-vax nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, and a little-known group calling itself 1,000 Widows, which seeks testimonies from families of Covid victims. “Whistleblowers who know the truth about what really happened to our loved ones at the hands of the hospitals carry the greatest responsibility than anyone on earth,” says a statement on its website.

 

DeSantis, Lapado, and Antivaxxers

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers.   Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures. 

John Kennedy at USA Today:

Days after Gov. Ron DeSantis opened his second term with a combative speech blasting federal COVID-19 policies as based “more on ideology and politics than on sound science,” Florida’s surgeon general was a guest on a podcast called Liberty Lockdown.

“Isn’t it a beautiful day to be unvaccinated? It feels so good,” host Clint Russell said before starting into his conversation with Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the state’s top doctor who also is a tenured faculty member at the University of Florida.

With DeSantis expected in coming months to formally launch his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Ladapo is emerging as a central player in the governor’s outreach to vaccine skeptics and opponents who now form a stunningly large part of the GOP’s national voter base.

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The Liberty Lockdown appearance was the doctor’s latest on podcasts which attract a sizable segment of conservative followers.

Weeks earlier, in a First Class Fatherhood podcast airing Nov. 30, Ladapo urged listeners to rely on “intuition,” when it came to following medical or scientific advice.
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Ladapo also appeared on right-wing podcasts in the weeks leading up to the November election that DeSantis won by 19% over Democrat Charlie Crist, the largest victory margin in a Florida governor’s race in 40 years.

He disputed widely accepted views of masking and vaccines on shows hosted by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, an Ohio physician who promotes false claims about COVID-19 shots and wrongly says childhood vaccines cause autism.

Ladapo also appeared on X22 Report, a far-right podcast known for sharing QAnon-related conspiracies and misinformation. He also was on the podcast of conspiracy theorist Stew Peters, who has touted a wide range of false claims about the 2020 election, COVID-19 and more.

The Antivax Cameo in the J6 Report

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.

The anti-vax movement has a great deal of overlap with MAGA, QAnon, and old-school conspiracy theory.  

So it should not be a surprise that antivaxxers took part in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

Marsha Lessard, the leader of a vaccine-skeptic group, Virginia Freedom Keepers, worked to stage an event with Bianca Gracia, the leader of Latinos for Trump on January 6th.390 The women had ties to the Oath Keepers 391 and Proud Boys,392 respectively—two groups central to the violence on January 6. Latinos for Trump reportedly advertised their January 6th event with the same QAnon-inspired banner, “Operation Occupy the Capitol.”393 Another conservative group, Moms for America, worked withAlexander before securing a permit for an event on January 5th.394

• 390. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Informal Interview of Marsha Lessard, (Dec. 10, 2021); see also Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Capitol Police Production), CTRL0000001834 (Permit Relating to Demonstration Activities on UnitedStates Capitol Grounds for Virginia Freedom Keepers, No. 20-12-25).
• 391. . See Superseding Indictment at ¶ 37, United States v. Rhodes et al., No. 1:22-cr-15 (D.D.C. June 22, 2022) (noting that Stewart Rhodes, President of the Oath Keepers, shipped weapons to Lessard’s home in Virginia before his arrival in DC for January 6th); Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Kellye SoRelle, (Apr. 13, 2022), p. 180.
• 392. See Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,Deposition of Henry Tarrio, (Feb. 4, 2021), p. 117 (testifying that Gracia arranged a White House tour for him in December 2020).
• 393. Latinos for Trump (@Officiallft2021), Twitter, Dec. 27, 2020 7:58 p.m., available at https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1343360740313321474. 
• 394. Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, (Nathan Martin Production), NMartin0318 (December 30, 2020, email from Kimberly Fletcher of Moms for America to Ali Alexander and Nathan Martin re: MFAVIP list for White House); Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate theJanuary 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Resource Group Production),

Earlier in the report:

Rhodes amassed an arsenal of military-grade assault weapons and equipment in the days leading up to January 6th. On December 30th, Rhodes spent approximately $7,000 on two night-vision devices and a weapon sight and shipped them to Marsha Lessard, a rally organizer who lived near Washington, DC and who had previously been in contact with the organizers of the Ellipse rally.193

• 193. Superseding Indictment at ¶ 37, United States v. Rhodes et al., No. 1:22-cr-15 (D.D.C. June 22, 2022), ECF No. 167; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the UnitedStates Capitol, Deposition of Kellye SoRelle, (Apr. 13, 2022), p. 180.

 

 

 

Conspiracy Theory and the Attack on Paul Pelosi

 In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

The antivax movement is part of a broader system of right-wing conspiracy theory.

Summer Lin, Salvador Hernandez, and Terry Castleman at LAT:

In the months before police accused him of attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Friday morning, David DePape had been drifting further into the world of far-right conspiracies, antisemitism and hate, according to a Times review of his online accounts.

In a personal blog that DePape maintained, posts include such topics as “Manipulation of History,” “Holohoax” and “It’s OK to be white.” He mentioned 4chan, a favorite message board of the far right. He posted videos about conspiracies involving COVID-19 vaccines and the war in Ukraine being a ploy for Jewish people to buy land.

DePape’s screeds included posts about QAnon, an unfounded theory that former President Trump is at war with a cabal of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring and control the world. In an Aug. 23 entry titled “Q,” DePape wrote: “Either Q is Trump himself or Q is the deepstate moles within Trumps inner circle.”

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DePape posted videos to Facebook by MyPillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell saying that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, according to reports.

He also linked to sites with claims about the deadliness of COVID-19 vaccines.

“The death rates being promoted are what ever ‘THEY’ want to be promoted as the death rate,” one post read.

In July of 2021, Gustaf Kilander reported at Yahoo:

Photos are being shared on social media of former Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell posing with others in front of a whiteboard filled with arrows and names.

The board, igniting conspiracy theories among right-wingers and confusion and alarm among others, highlights biblical quotes and names connected to former President Donald Trump, whose image is in the middle of the board.

Flynn posted the image to his Telegram account. The messaging platform was created by two Russian brothers and has been called a “safe haven” for white supremacists by the Anti Defamation League.

This is a full view of the board behind Michael Flynn and Mike Lindell. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/SYw5wqSE8e

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) July 6, 2021