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-==== August 2020 Smear - Anti-Vaccine Activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr ====
+==== August 2020 - Anti-Vaccine Activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr ====
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 Anna Merlan - 7.23.20 ((https://web.archive.org/web/20201003204116/https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/anna-merlan))
+==== Quack COVID Group America’s Frontline Doctors Is Suing Its ‘Rogue Founder’ Simone Gold ====
+The suit accuses Gold, who was convicted of trespassing on January 6, of misappropriating funds and attempting to re-seize control of the organization.
+by Anna Merlan - November 7, 2022
+[[:America’s Frontline Doctors]] (AFLDS), the **pseudo-medical group that rocketed to pandemic infamy** by spreading bad information about COVID, advocating for discredited treatments, fearmongering about vaccines, and attempting to influence state legislation, is suing one of its founders in federal court, months after her release from prison. ((https://web.archive.org/web/20221207022837/https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7vqwm/quack-covid-group-americas-frontline-doctors-is-suing-its-rogue-founder-simone-gold))
+==== Now the Anti-Vaccine World is Mad at ‘Died Suddenly,’The Viral Anti-Vax Documentary ====
+Predictable in-fighting, claims of psyops, and renewed arguments about snake venom.
+by Anna Merlan - December 8, 2022
+In the anti-vaccine world, some things are certain: every few months, a new, shriekingly alarmist claim about COVID vaccines will make the rounds. And while many people will pick up and spread the latest narrative, others will bitterly push back, convinced their movement is being sabotaged from within.
+The latest demonstration of this cannibalistic impulse comes via Died Suddenly, a viral anti-vax documentary. After a rush of traffic and attention, some anti-vaccine personalities are complaining that the film is designed to make their movement look bad.
+Died Suddenly is the project of a far-right podcaster and COVID conspiracy theorist named Stew Peters, and it’s been, as far as these things go, a genuinely viral sensation in a certain corner of the media marketplace.
+Among other things, [[:Marjorie Taylor Greene]] has **tweeted** about it, and [[:Google Trends]] shows a pronounced spike in searches for the term “died suddenly” around the time the film was released. The film has more than 12 million views on [[:Rumble]], the alternative video platform backed by conservative venture capitalists including [[:Peter Thiel]] and J.D Vance. The film also has a verified Twitter profile.
+Briefly—really, as briefly as we can—the film’s main claim is that [[:COVID vaccines]] are causing people to suddenly drop dead, and that the proof is in the type of [[:blood clots]] that embalmers are seeing in the bodies they prepare for burial.
+(If you’re already seeing the major logical issues in this line of argument, well, you’re probably not the film’s target audience.)  Vaccines, the film insists, are also creating [[:miscarriages]] and [[:fetal abnormalities]], and overall represent a “bioweapon” and a depopulation scheme by global elites.
+As countless debunking articles have pointed out, the blood clot claim has several clear issues. Embalmers aren’t usually medical professionals, and wouldn’t be in a position to know someone’s medical history or cause of death.
+The embalmers featured in the film and positioned as whistleblowers also don’t seem aware that post-mortem blood clots are common. And blood clots that lead to death are caused by a host of medical issues, including smoking, cancer, trauma, pregnancy and surgery; the **CDC estimates that an American dies of a [[:blood clot]] every six minutes**.
+Several major **conspiracy purveyors** shared the film or boosted it approvingly on [[:Telegram]] and [[:Twitter]], and the anti-vaccine organization [[:Children’s Health Defense]] shared it on their in-house video platform and in a newsletter, where it was billed as “the film they don’t want you to see.”
+The newsletter sent out by Gab.com, the frothingly conspiratorial alternative social media site, has also repeatedly linked to the film. One of the film’s interview subjects and dedicated promoters is [[:Steve Kirsch]], the tech entrepreneur millionaire whom MIT has described as a “[[:misinformation superspreader]].”
+But ripples soon appeared on the water. A couple of weeks after sharing a link to the film, for example, old-school conspiracist and lizard guy [[:David Icke]] shared a post on Telegram, written by a lesser known anti-vaccine figure named Dr. [[:Josh Guetzkow]], who identifies himself as a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Guetzkow called the film “typical trash from Stew Peters.”
+“The film taints and tarnishes the material on clots and other important information by covering it with a lot of garbage,” the author wrote. He complained that the opening credits to the film are seeded with references to other conspiracy theories, including Bigfoot, UFOS, and “what appears to be the Loch Ness monster.”
+“What was the point of interspersing the montage with all this conspiracy theory fodder?” the author wrote. “Was it to plant in the reader’s mind that what they were about to see was on par with Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster?
+The author also pointed out that Peters was the guy behind Watch the Water, adding, “He and his team are either terrible at vetting reliable information or they are engage in a deliberate campaign to discredit the health freedom movement.’
+This quickly became the emerging narrative among a number of major anti-vaccine and conspiracy figures: that Died Suddenly was so badly researched it had to be controlled opposition, designed to discredit the movement.
+The self-proclaimed [[:Health Ranger]], [[:Mike Adams]] of the **ultra-conspiratorial** website Natural News, claimed that the film was being “exposed for more misrepresentations each day,” fuming, “Did the Stew Peters network even bother to fact check any of these clips? Inexcusable.” Adams’ post on Telegram was shared by [[:Larry Cook]], another major anti-vaccine figure.
+Yet another anti-vaccine site, which calls itself—with a distinct lack of attention to Google search rankings —The Covid Blog, went a step further, writing that “the only logical explanation” for the film and its backers was that they “deliberately released this sensationalized production for the sole purposes of interference, deflection and discrediting truth about this entire COVID-19 charade. They also must be working with government and mainstream propaganda agents.”
+While this is all extremely funny, it’s also instructive. The anti-vaccine world is desperate for legitimation, eyeballs and attention. But it’s also a profoundly unserious group of people who will seize on the first thing that feels true, and abandon it—and turn on each other—just as quickly.
+And yet, even with all the highly entertaining recrimination, sniping and backbiting, the film has the power to do real harm, introducing just enough doubt to keep people from taking basic steps to keep themselves safe from COVID and other serious illnesses.
+((https://web.archive.org/web/20221208192233/https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5v9yj/now-the-anti-vaccine-world-is-mad-at-died-suddenly-the-viral-anti-vax-documentary))
+==== Anti-Vaxers Celebrate Twitter's New COVID Misinformation Policy ====
+Some of the most pernicious bad actors on the platform are cheering Twitter’s sudden decision to stop enforcing COVID guidelines.
+by Anna Merlan - December 2, 2022
+“A win,” Simone Gold exulted recently on Twitter, “for free speech and medical freedom!”
+Gold is the founder of America’s Frontline Doctors, a pseudo-medical organization devoted to spreading bad information about COVID and vaccines. Her good mood was due to a brief statement by Twitter that it will no longer enforce its policy against misleading information about COVID-19.
+Gold was not alone in celebrating; several major players in the COVID disinformation sphere have been openly thrilled by the policy change. They included **journalist-turned-COVID troll** [[:Alex Berenson]], who tweeted, “This is the most consequential win for free speech yet. Thanks @elonmusk.”
+[[:Robert F. Kennedy Jr]]., founder of the **major anti-vaccine** organization [[:Children’s Health Defense]], also seemed pleased; he tweeted a link to an [[:Epoch Times]] story about the change.
+Meanwhile, extremely noisy right-wing Youtuber [[:Steven Crowder]] tweeted, “Now that Twitter stopped enforcing its COVID ‘misinformation’ policies, I can finally tell you that the vaccine doesn't work, masks are useless, & the lockdowns did more harm than good. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.”
+That general sentiment was echoed by a number of right-wing figures: that Musk had created an exhilarating freedom of discussion. In a thread about the supposed dangers of flu shots, professor-turned-podcaster and vaccine skeptic [[:Bret Weinstein]] tweeted, “We can now discuss topics like this openly on Twitter because @elonmusk has suspended the absurd “Covid Misinformation” policy.((https://web.archive.org/web/20221208192233/https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5v9yj/now-the-anti-vaccine-world-is-mad-at-died-suddenly-the-viral-anti-vax-documentary))