Anti-vaxers are back in the news, 3 years after Covid started its path of destruction.
At a ceremony honoring 82-year-old American scientist Anthony Fauci, who was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Siena, more than five hundred protesters from various regions of the country filled the Lizza Gardens, protesting the internationally renowned immunologist. Over the weekend, the Tuscan town was plastered with several banners with the clear message: “Fauci Go Home”. Fortunately, thanks in part to the work done by law enforcement, the protest did not degenerate into violent incidents. During his visit, Fauci warned about new Covid variants and the ‘anti-Science’ movement.
Across the ocean, Bill Ackman, an American investor, hedge fund manager and the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, was stirring the same anti-vax controversy by offering $150,000 for scientist Peter Hotez to debate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the topic of vaccines. Ackman has stated that he is not an anti-vaxxer but wants to further the public’s understanding of the truth about vaccines.
Peter Hotez is a vaccine scientist and pediatrician who has been vocal about the importance of vaccination in public health. The debate was supposed to take place on Joe Rogan’s podcast, but Hotez refused to participate after Rogan offered him $100,000 to debate Bobby Kennedy Jr. Ackman then offered $150,000 to charity if Hotez agreed to debate the newly-declared Democratic presidential candidate.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an anti-vaccine activist who has been spreading misinformation about vaccines for years.
Just this Monday, Youtube announced that they had removed a video from the Jordan Peterson channel in which Kennedy spoke, “for violating YouTube’s general vaccine misinformation policy, which prohibits content that alleges that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities.”
A recent report found that most COVID-19 disinformation online is spread by just 12 people — and one of them is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. established himself as a prominent anti-vaccine advocate well before the pandemic. But his rhetoric took on a whole new meaning when the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world in March 2020.
At one point Kennedy was a respected and credible advocate. He gained a reputation for defending Indigenous groups and fighting against the use of fossil fuels, all while rubbing shoulders with Hollywood elite at climate change awareness events and other social functions.
But he veered into anti-vax circles in the 1990s when he co-founded the Food Allergy Initiative. He started entertaining theories that some allergies were linked to vaccines given to children. He edited and wrote multiple books about what he said was inadequate vaccine safety, including “Vaccine Villains: What the American Public Should Know About the Industry.”
He founded the World Mercury Project in 2016, which became the Children’s Health Defense in 2018, an activist organization devoted to anti-vaccine initiatives. The group alleges, among other things, that administering some vaccines in children can cause conditions such as autism and cancer.
And Kennedy will release a new book this fall entitled “The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health.” He seems to have a virtual vendetta especially against Fauci.
Now Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to be President. He has announced his bid for the White House in 2024 as a Democratic candidate. As a member of America’s most famous political dynasty, he draws on a deep well of respect and legacy benevolence for the Kennedy name and has emerged with unexpected strength in early polls even as he spreads conspiracy theories and hobnobs with right-wing figures and billionaire donors such as Steve Bannon, Alex Jones and other right-wing anti-vax channels.
His campaign is built on re-litigating Covid-19 shutdowns and shaking Americans’ faith in science. Kennedy compares Elon Musk to patriots who died fighting in the American Revolution, blames anti-depressants for mass shootings and disregarding history, claims that “prior to the introduction of Prozac” there were no mass shootings in the US.
The White House’s strategy to date has been to ignore his campaign. When asked about Kennedy’s campaign launch, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre replied, “I’m not going to touch that with a 12-foot pole” and cited a law that prevents government employees from engaging in overt political campaigning.
For now, Kennedy’s presidential bid is considered a longshot by many political analysts, and he occupies a difficult niche: a Democrat who seems to expound the worst of the GOP fringe ideas.
