According to her bio Anna Merlan is a journalist specialising in politics, crime, religion, subcultures, and women's lives.

She is a reporter at the Special Projects Desk, the investigative division of Gizmodo Media Group. She was previously a senior reporter at Jezebel and staff writer at the Village Voice and the Dallas Observer

What Anna does in practice is serve as a smear merchant for Pharma but her particular brand of petty nastiness and smugnorant certainty is remarkable. It helps to have experts for backup like Dorit Rubinsten-Reiss full time, vaccine mandate lobbyist. Dorit's platform is at decades old Quackwatch, possibly the lamest little Pharma Front Group on the web. Ot's worth a glance to see how so many groups have a single voice and PO Box behind them.

It's not just Trump—lawmakers and heads of state all over the world are touting unproven, dodgy, and potentially fatal “cures” for COVID-19.

Anna Merlan - 8.13.20

Across the globe, the story is the same: Federal and municipal governments, along with individual lawmakers, are promoting a variety of bogus cures and treatments for COVID-19. The New York Times reported in July that the problem is severe in much of Latin America, where chlorine dioxide and ivermectin, which treats some intestinal parasites and head lice, have been promoted as COVID treatments.

The World Health Organization said that in June that three studies which claimed to show that ivermectin was effective as a coronavirus treatment were all highly flawed. “None of these studies was peer-reviewed nor formally published and one study was later retracted,” the agency said, adding that their review of the studied showed they were “found to have a high risk of bias, very low certainty of the evidence, and that the existing evidence is insufficient to draw a conclusion on benefits and harms.” The agency recommended awaiting the outcome of several randomized, clinical trials currently underway before using the drug as a COVID treatment.)¹⁾

Anna Merlan - 11.15.19

During the talk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s been promoting vaccine misinformation for years, promoted false and misleading claims about vaccine safety and COVID-19.

In a public health development that one can safely characterize as “not great,” actor Alec Baldwin appeared on Instagram Live on Thursday with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a formerly respected environmentalist who’s been best known in recent years for promoting severe vaccine misinformation.

As Baldwin listened obligingly, Kennedy promoted a variety of wildly false claims about vaccine safety, and speculative concerns about the quarantine measures being taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Baldwin’s Instagram account has 1.8 million followers, and the video, in less than two hours, garnered more than 43,000 views. This is not precisely what we need right now.  

At the outset of their talk, Baldwin told Kennedy that he’s been watching Kennedy’s videos on vaccines for “years,” which is also, on its face, not great. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and the son of assassinated U.S. senator Bobby Kennedy, spent years doing important work advocating for issues like water safety with the Waterkeeper Alliance and with the organization Riverkeeper. He and Baldwin have previously discussed fracking on WNYC.  Health

Beginning in 2005, however, with the publication of a now-infamous story called “Deadly Immunity,” Kennedy began promoting “egregious” misinformation about vaccines, as science writer Seth Mnookin put it in one story outlining his long history of misleading claims. 

During the conversation with Baldwin, Kennedy repeated several of his greatest hits, including claiming that vaccines historically contained unsafe levels of mercury, and that the flu shot is still full of mercury. (The respected physician and vaccine researcher Paul Offitt is one of dozens of people who have outlined that Kennedy is conflating two kinds of mercury.

Ethylmercury is what the body produces when it metabolizes thimerosal, a preservative used in some vaccines, and leaves the body quickly. It is quite, quite different from methylmercury, which can be toxic to human beings at high levels of exposure.) Kennedy rejects the difference between the different kinds of mercury, and told Baldwin, “There’s no good kind of mercury.” 

“Why is it there in the first place?” Baldwin asked, apparently horrified. (The real answer is that thimerosal is only used today in multi-dose flu vaccines, and was removed from all childhood vaccines out of an abundance of caution in 2001.) 

Kennedy went on to claim that vaccines are “unavoidably unsafe,” a common canard in the anti-vax movement. The law professor and vaccine policy expert Dorit Rubinsten Reiss²⁾ has written about how vaccine skeptics frequently misconstrue what that term means; “Unavoidably unsafe” products are products that are so valuable—that have so many benefits—that the risk associated with their use is justified.”

He also claimed that vaccines “are the only medical product that aren’t safety tested,” which is an outrageous lie.

Vaccines are among the most tested medical products on the planet, and are tested in thousands of volunteers before being licensed.³⁾ Anna Merlan - 8.6.20

As a growing number of doctors preaching fringe COVID theories face threats to their medical licenses, powerful allies are helping them in their fight.

by Anna Merlan - October 27, 2022 (sections copied are broken)

In September of 2021, the Ohio Medical Board automatically renewed the license of osteopathic physician Sherri Tenpenny, surprising just about everyone, seemingly including Tenpenny herself. She issued a statement on Telegram thanking her supporters for standing behind her. “Especially now,” she wrote, “as we navigate through some of the most harrowing times we will most likely ever witness!” 

Nor are vaccines, by any measure, a new preoccupation for her: During remarks made aboard a 2016 cruise for conspiracy theorists, which I attended, Tenpenny downplayed the risks of measles—a disease that can be deadly—to young children while advocating against MMR vaccines. She also told her audience that, in general, they shouldn’t need to be vaccinated as long as they avoided “filth countries,” a phrase that has lodged immovably in my memory. 

As Tenpenny faces down Ohio’s medical board, a similar drama is playing out in Maine, where a hospital internist named Meryl Nass has had her medical license suspended since January of this year. Nass, who describes herself as an expert on anthrax and vaccine injury, has actively spread COVID misinformation on Twitter and on her blog; she’s also involved with Childrens Health Defense (CHD), Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s prominent anti-vaccine organization.

She’s made conspiratorial claims that COVID is part of a large conspiracy on the part of “the cabal,” as she calls it, writing on Substack in June that “the cabal” is “seriously pulling lots of levers now, and that money pox [sic], artificial shortages of oil, fertilizer, railway cars and baby formula are part of their plan to create economic havoc worldwide, and probably famine in the poorer regions of the world.” 

While the details of why she’s being investigated aren’t public, it seems safe to presume it has something to do with Tenpenny’s extensive, well-documented, and frequently outrageous anti-vaccine statements. (A spokesperson for the medical board told Motherboard, “Under Ohio law, complaints and/or investigative materials, including the number of complaints or investigations, are confidential. However, if a licensee is disciplined by the board, the action is public record.”) 

The anti-vaccine world seems to see Meryl Nass’ situation as a test case in how to combat charges of misinformation, as well as a chance to loudly promote what they call “early treatment”—that is, the use of long-discredited COVID treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. 

In one sense, Nass is correct: What’s happening to her and Tenpenny is part of a much larger trend, and a brewing, culture-wide showdown. State medical boards and certification bodies face growing pressure to take action against crank doctors, and more and more often, they’re heeding that call.

This summer, Pierre Kory and Peter McCullough, who have both loudly advocated for discredited COVID treatments, said they were at risk of losing their board certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine.

California governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a new law that will make doctors subject to professional discipline if they repeat “false or misleading” medical information to their patients. And the Federation of State Medical Boards recently issued a strongly worded statement and a position paper on the problem of physicians spreading medical misinformation, and the consequences they should face. ⁴⁾

Judy Mikovits spent years offering expert testimony in vaccine court cases, accidentally creating a window into how the anti-vaccine world tries to weaponize bad science.

Anna Merlan - 7.23.20 ⁵⁾

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. ⁶⁾

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. ⁷⁾

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.⁸⁾