The MAGA Public Health Disinformation Strategy
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The MAGA Public Health Disinformation Strategy
This has been a well-coordinated deadly political attack on truth
The MAGA COVID-19 Disinformation Strategy Summary:
Eliminate doctors from within to limit power of the CDC Day 1
Minimization
Hydroxychloroquine
Failed Jan 6th Coup - ousting Fauci was part of plan, per Bannon leaks
Ivermectin
Anti-vax
Extremism
Florida - MAGA 2.0
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic
Attack Counter-Disinformation Research
Step 1 - Eliminate doctors from within + limit power of CDC
See documentary “Totally Under Control” available on Hulu
Trump’s first enemy was Dr. Nancy Messonier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. On February 25, 2020 she signaled that the Covid-19 global health emergency was heading for a pandemic. In so doing she became the first US health official to warn that this virus would upend life. This comment sent the stock market crashing and enraged Trump, who was flying back from India on Air Force One when Messonnier spoke to the public. Trump’s initial reaction to her February 25th public warning was reportedly to ask how he could get Messonnier, who had been working at the CDC since 1995, fired in the middle of an emerging crisis. Instead of being fired, Messonnier was removed from public briefings and for the remainder of 2020 made few public appearances. Ultimately, Messonnier left her lower profile position under Trump in 2021 for the private sector, reportedly owing to lack of support from within the CDC. Trumpian retaliation against expertise would become a pattern that would soon spread far outside of the CDC and Washington, D.C.
The Trump Administration brought on Dr. Deborah Birx, a physician with extensive experience working in HIV/AIDS, as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator. Underwhelmed with the CDC not meeting her desire for hospitals to report 100% of their data daily, Birx orchestrated a controversial and rocky overhaul of their data system early in the pandemic. She selected Palantir, and private contractor TeleTracking Technologies for their Health and Human Services ‘HHS Protect’ data contract. As The Atlantic reported, there was backlash to the decision to engage with Palantir, given it is co-founded by Trump mega-donor Peter Thiel but HHS officials said they had gone with Palantir because the CDC had already worked with them. Data issues abounded, with a CDC insider saying, “The HHS Protect data are poor quality, inconsistent with state reports, and the analysis is slipshod” and the data quality issue did not stabilize until December 2020.
See further: The now-shuttered Dem-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis (HSSCC) report “'It Was Compromised': The Trump Administration’s Unprecedented Campaign to Control CDC and Politicize Public Health During the Coronavirus Crisis"
Step 2 - Minimization: Great Barrington Declaration “Mass Infection Strategy” + bypass Birx
Trump et al minimized Covid starting in spring 2020, with the president repeatedly claiming it would just go away. Trump would tout HCQ around the same time (starting March 2020).
Gearing up for their reelection which hinged on the strength of the economy/stock market, the Trump Administration embraced the anti-lockdown, “herd immunity” Koch-backed Great Barrington Declaration (October 2020) over the recommendations of the scientific community. Members of the GBD group were working in the Trump White House during summer 2020 prior to the official signing at the American Institute for Economic Research.
The HSCCC published a detailed June 2022 report “The Atlas Dogma” named after Dr. Scott Atlas on his and the GBD affiliates’ secretive work in the Trump White House - behind the back of Birx (who would go on to testify against Trump to the HSSCC). Dr. Jonathan Howard’s 2023 book “We Want Them Infected” expands upon this — the title coming from an email from Trump administration HHS official Dr. Paul Alexander who pushed their dangerous herd immunity strategy.
The director-general of the World Health Organization called the GBD “unethical” and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Trump’s chief medical advisor and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, accurately warned that adherence to the GBD’s “total nonsense” guidelines would “lead to hospitalizations and deaths.” Out of concern for harm to public safety, Fauci and then-Director of the NIH Dr. Francis Collins made efforts to discredit the GBD and keep it from spreading - which led to accusations of censorship that those involved are still running with despite lack of transparency around the GBD’s funding and support — and it’s lack of efficacy as evidenced by the still ongoing pandemic.
In addition to continuously crying censorship, both Bhattacharya and Kulldorff have posted deeply disturbing revenge fantasies against “lockdowners” on social media – including images of a guillotine and civil war.
The Great Barrington Declaration authors used elite credentials to legitimize its pro-economy, anti-public health messages:
Dr. Suneetra Gupta, Oxford
Dr. Jay Battacharya, Stanford
Had previously written for the Koch-tied Cato Institute - wrote against Medicare for All for Cato in April 2020 just after the pandemic hit. Also a senior fellow at Stanford’s Koch-tied Hoover Institute alongside Atlas.
Personal friend of Peter Thiel, spoke with him at a January 2020 event on Health Data. Thiel has donated millions to DonorsTrust — one of the largest funding streams for right-wing groups and a long-time recipient of Koch dollars. DonorsTrust has been active in funding COVID-19 misinformation and anti-public health efforts, in 2020 setting up their own program called the “Growth and Resilience Project,” which funded groups pushing to reopen the economy and arguing against regulations.
Was involved in Elon Musk’s Twitter Files stunt. Musk gave exclusive access to the Files to ideologically-aligned journalists including David Zweig, who had initially covered the GBD’s signing at AIER. Shortly after dropping Twitter’s COVID-19 misinformation policy in November 2022 following his takeover, Musk invited Bhattacharya for a meeting at Twitter HQ to discuss the “blacklist” on which prior platform leadership had put his content. The day after his meeting with Bhattacharya, Musk tweeted for Fauci’s prosecution.
Was called out by Rep. Raja Krishnamorrthi of the HSSCC for having given a Spring 2020 interview with China Global Television Network, owned by the publicity department of the Chinese Communist Party
A leaked agenda from the CNP’s February 2022 meeting showed Bhattacharya as a featured speaker
Has been used as an “expert” regularly to defend and uphold the Right’s failed Covid policy, despite his expertise and political agenda being routinely questioned.
Dr. Martin Kulldorff, formerly Harvard
As The Byline Times reported, Kulldorff served, alongside former Cambridge Analytica lead psychologist Patrick Fagan, as an advisor to “COVID-19 Assembly,” described as a “centre point for all anti-lockdown groups worldwide.” Fagan was active in another UK-based COVID-19 disinformation group, the Health Advisory & Recovery Team (HART), which was revealed, when the secretive group suffered a leak of their internal messaging system, to be coordinating anti-public health messaging directly with right-wing government and media. The leaked messages from Fagan, reported by Daily Dot, are particularly damning – including an acknowledgement that pushing anti-vax messaging on social media targeting children/teens would make them “child murderers.”
Bhattacharya and Kulldorff would go on to join Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) Public Health Integrity Committee formed at the end of 2022. They are both members of the Norfolk Group, a Brownstone Institute offshoot which has sent politically-aligned experts to the GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (HSSCP) which replaced the HSSCC following the Republican takeover of the House in the 2022 midterms. They opened the HSSCP in February 2023 alongside Gov. Glen Youngkin’s (R-VA) Covid advisor and WSJ/Fox pundit Dr. Marty Makary, also a Norfolk member.
Spin-off: Jeffery Tucker’s Brownstone Institute
Called the “spiritual child” of the GBD, the Brownstone Institute is the anti-science outlet helmed by far-right economist Jeffrey Tucker who oversaw the signing of the GBD (more information on his global work here). In addition to the Falun-gong associated Epoch Times, the Brownstone is a favorite outlet for far-right anti-science and serves as a hub for the far-right effort to undermine faith in science and public health.
They have expanded beyond the Covid anti-science that gave them their start, pushing anti-climate science aggression in line with the Right’s anti-regulation crusade. Patrick Fagan co-authored a 2023 book with Brownstone author Laura Dodsworth on how “propaganda” from Covid is being used to push an extreme pro-climate science agenda.
In addition to the GBD/Koch ties it has received other big right-wing funding
A Second Attempt at the GBD’s Minimization: The Urgency of Normal
The kid-focussed Urgency of Normal pushes the Covid-minimization, anti-mitigation ethos of the GBD with a focus on schools (despite the classroom being a major source of community spread)
Key members include Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg (DeSantis Public Health Integrity Committee, Norfolk Group, AB2098 legal action) and Dr. Vinay Prasad (UCSF’s anti-mask oncologist/podcaster)
Members of this group write for the right-wing Substack group “Sensible Medicine”
Step 3 - HCQ/America’s Frontline Doctors: Undermine FDA + bypass Fauci
Trump came to embrace hydroxychloroquine thanks to its promotion by people like Dr. Volodomir Zelenko and based off of a Goolge Doc white paper from Dr. James Todaro, a physician-turned-block chain investor, and Gregory Rigano, a lawyer later called out for misrepresenting his status as an advisor to Stanford University’s School of Medicine. The paper, sorely lacking in clinical trials, featured the work of now-disgraced scientist Dr. Didier Raoult. It was “published” on March 13 - the same day Trump declared a national emergency.
On March 16, Elon Musk shared the HCQ Google Doc on Twitter, claiming it “matches what I’m hearing from a lot of smart people.” From there it went up the chain to Fox News/Tea Party (fake local news)/Council for National Policy (Charlie Kirk) associated media to Trump. Laura Ingraham was central in spreading HCQ misinformation online and in person to the president. Rigano appeared on her show as well as the shows of Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck.
On March 19, Trump declared the drug a “game changer.” At a task force briefing the following day, Fauci stated the promise of HCQ was based on “anecdotal evidence” and correctly claimed it was not an effective treatment for COVID-19. Trump interjected, saying, “But I’m a big fan, and we’ll see what happens. I feel good about it. That’s all it is, just a feeling, you know.”
The foundations of Elon Musk and other “Silicon Valley luminaries” funded tech millionaire Steve Kirsch’s Covid Early Treatment Fund which funded Dr. David Boulware’s HCQ RCT that ultimately found no use for the drug against Covid (e-published results early June 2020). Kirsch would struggle to accept these results and Boulware would be attacked by Kirsch — who “became convinced a “correct” interpretation of the data would show hydroxychloroquine worked” — and members of the right. The website c19early.org linking to the Twitter account @CovidAnalysis would appear shortly after Boulware’s results were published, directly attacking them.
In a sign of just how politicized science was getting, Trump adviser Peter Navarro and Dr. Steven Hatfill published a lengthy pro-HCQ document which attempted to undermine the results out of Minnesota that stood at odds with the president’s lofty claims. Dr. Rick Bright, who filed a whistleblower complaint against HHS over his removal from his position at BARDA following his urging caution on HCQ, claimed the organization under Trump was putting “cronyism ahead of science” in adamantly pushing the drug.
HCQ lost its EUA in June and an HSSCC report “A ‘Knife Fight’ With the FDA” showed how MAGA loyalists like Navarro, Hatfill, the right-wing American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Steve Bannon were involved in an organized campaign to uphold Trump’s wonder drug and undermine the FDA. Included in the report is Yale University’s Dr. Harvey Risch’s and Hatfill’s work to find HCQ research to uphold their narrative in Brazil. Risch cited unpublished research from Brazil in his Nov ‘20 testimony at a Johnson panel. The report also features an August 2020 email from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) to Dr. Harvey Risch acknowledging the “moral issue — the loss of life” from pushing HCQ.
Following the failure of HCQ in trials, the far-Right created America’s Frontline Doctors to hawk hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure and make the still-wary public comfortable with reopening the economy during the summer of 2020. Leaked phone call audio reported by the Center for Media and Democracy showed AFLDS to have been created in a partnership with the Trump reelection campaign, the Tea Party Patriots, and the Council for National Policy Action.
AFLDS launched with a staged SCOTUS steps press conference in July 2020, pushing HCQ and decrying masks and lockdowns. AFLDS founder Dr. Simone Gold appeared on Bannon’s podcast as well as Kirk’s in the lead up to this “White Coat Ceremony.” It was livestreamed by Brietbart and tweeted about by Trump and Donald Trump Jr. which went viral. The video was eventually removed from social media for misinformation which only emboldened their “censorship” credibility and anti-government messaging with the base.
The hydroxychloroquine craze led to shortages of the drug for those who actually needed it, such as those with lupus. The drug carries a known cardiac rhythm risk which is at the center of a wrongful death lawsuit against AFLDS out of Nevada state.
AFLDS hawked the drug over tele-health and appears to have ignored attempts from the HSSCC to gain information about their tele-health finances. Time reported the org had netted millions from their tele-health grift which would switch from HCQ to IVM as the first failed and the GOP moved on to the next false cure.
Members Gold (an insurrectionist) and Todaro (from the Google Doc) would go on to gain membership into the Council for National Policy.
Notable Members:
Dr. Simone Gold, Founder - January 6th insurrectionist
Went on Christian daytime television with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following the SCOTUS steps video to promote the drug and decry lockdowns. Daystar’s Marcus Lamb who hosted them and donated to Gold would die from unvaccinated Covid after his program recommended against the vaccines.
Relocated from California to Florida following her J6 arrest, got a new state license, and launched her own concierge service “GoldCare.”
Simone Gold’s fundraised hundreds of thousands of dollars by mischaracterizing her insurrection arrest as a political/medical “cancellation,” as her J6 federal judge discussed at her sentencing
While awaiting sentencing for her J6 involvement, AFLDS sent a camera crew to stalk/ambush/film then-president of the California Medical Board Kristina Lawson in her office parking lot and made a disturbing movie “Lawsons Hunt” depicting her as a Nazi with a whip. Gold still holds her CA medical license, despite being accused by the CMB in early 2023 for the J6 involvement.
Has been a recurring guest on the “ReAwaken America” Qanon tour with QAnon principal player Mike Flynn
Has been sued by her own AFLDS for using their funds to bankroll her lavish lifestyle
Dr. Joseph Ladapo
Worked in the Trump White House with members of the GBD group in 2020
Ron DeSantis’s Florida Surgeon General; the anti-vax stance they maintain has contributed to a disproportionately high death toll in the state
Caught altering a vaccine study to show harms that did not exist
In addition to his anti-vaxxism, has taken anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ stance in line with DeSantis’s divisive politics
Has appeared on QAnon-promoting programming while serving as FL surgeon general
Dr. Stella Immanuel
Doctor/pastor, famous for claims about “demon sperm” who had her defamation case against CNN tossed
The leading prescriber of Covid early treatment, has transitioned to hawking supplements
Dr. Ryan Cole
Idaho-based pathologist (also licensed in WA) who received spot on the Central District Health board in Boise following a political ouster of his predecessor who supported common sense Covid mitigation efforts
Has referred to vaccines as “needle rape,” made calls for “Nuremberg,” and traveled widely spreading his disinformation
Participated in Ron Johnson’s Covid panels which misuse the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System to drum up fear about vaccine harms and promote their early treatment
Received a damning letter from the Washington Medical Commission in January outlining the claims against his state license; is now suing the WMC
Has a malpractice lawsuit in Idaho over his misdiagnosis of gynecological cancers – which he attributed to the vaccines
Bret Barker DNP - CEO of ‘Nuremberg 2.0 LTD’
Nuremberg 2.0 LTD was listed in formal opposition to California physician accountability law AB2098 at the CA Assembly level, threatened MedPage Today with a lawsuit over his mention in her piece “Should Doctors worry about Nuremberg 2.0?”
John Strand - Gold’s J6 co-defendant/boyfriend
AFLDS’s “Frontline Flash,” propagandist
Unlike Gold, pled not guilty to his insurrection involvement. He has referred to J6 as a hoax on social media up until his imprisonment which he maintained was a political persecution. He was found guilty on all charges.
(FAILED) Step 4 - January 6th Insurrection, Oust Fauci
Per Bannon’s full Mother Jones leaks, ousting Fauci was part of the plan
Dr. Simone Gold was a “rabid Stop the Steal Supporter” per FBI informant Brandon Straka and briefly went to prison in the summer of 2022
Step 5 - Ivermectin/Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance
Same machinery from hydroxychloroquine repackaged for ivermectin which has a lower side effect profile
Dr. Pierre Kory, Founder
Worked with Jared Kushner directly
Testified that ivermectin was a wonder drug for Covid
Ron Johnson’s “2nd Opinion Panel” participant
Bannon’s “War Room: Pandemic” podcast guest
“Defeat the Mandates” sponsor and speaker
Dr. Paul Marik, Founder
History of publishing a paper on vitamin C for sepsis later found to have relied on fraud
Has lost his medical license
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, Clinical Advisor
Dr. Flavio Cadegiani - Brazil connection
Dr. Joseph Varon
Dr. Jose Iglesias
Dr. Keith Berkowitz
Dr. Fred Wagshul
Finances:
501c3 filing - EIN: 85-2270146 Washington, DC
Other funding?
Estimates that HCQ/IVM grift has generated millions - see “The truth about ivermectin” on ABC
FLCCC is selling merchandise on their website
Where does the money go?
Known Political Allies: Ron Johnson, Steve Bannon, AFLDS
Step 6 - Anti-vax, The Unity Project: Joe Rogan Doctors x Parents Rights Movement
The California-based group claims to be a grassroots group of parents, doctors, first responders, teachers, and concerned citizens
Its two most notable members Drs. Peter McCullough and Robert Malone made big names for themselves on Joe Rogan’s Spotify podcast during the deadly omicron
They also have strong ties to the parents rights movement with Moms for Liberty (ties to CNP) co-founder Tiffany Justice serving on leadership, multiple chapters of M4L listed as strategic partners, RFK Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense listed as a strategic partner, and president of the Orange County Board of Education Mari Barke (wife of AFLDS’s Dr. Jeff Barke) serving on leadership
Key Members
Key appearances: “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Ron Johnson’s “2nd Opinion Panel” participant, Bannon’s “War Room: Pandemic” podcast guest, “Defeat the Mandates” speaker, ReAwaken America
Runs a for-profit Substack (“Courageous Discourse”) that promotes conspiracies and targets pro-vax doctors
Despite decrying the evils of Big Pharma, he has accepted millions in non-research payments from the industry per his OpenPayments and Dollars for Docs. Additionally, he was called out in a 2012 MedPage Today OpEd for not being forthcoming about conflicts of interest at his position with the journal Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine.
Was on ivermectin for COVID-19 papers with Australian physician Dr. Thomas Borody (ex: here and here) who failed to disclose he had applied for a US-based patent for the treatment. A pro-early treatment paper, first authored by McCullough and published in his Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine while he served as the journal’s Editor-In-Chief, has 56 co-authors including many big name anti-vax doctors like Ladapo.
In 2022 he received a letter admonishing him for his spread of misinformation from the American Board of Internal Medicine and went crying to Sen. Johnson, setting up a political war against medical boards and certification bodies.
Currently hawking supplements with The Wellness Company on which Risch also serves a leadership role
Other organizations: Steve Kirsch’s VSRF, Pandata (South Africa, active with the UK network)
Chief Medical & Regulatory Officer, falsely claimed to be the inventor of the mRNA technology behind the vaccines (was involved in early research)
Received lucrative contract from Trump administration to study pepcid for Covid-19
Key appearances: “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast guest, Ron Johnson’s “2nd Opinion Panel” participant, Bannon’s “War Room: Pandemic” podcast guest, “Defeat the Mandates” speaker, Trucker convoy speaker
Other organization affiliations: Steve Kirsch’s VSRF
Targeted physician who reported him to his boards over spread of misinformation with harassment campaign
Runs a for-profit Substack that promotes extremist rhetoric
Ethics Officer, tried to sue former employer UC Irvine over loss of job over vaccine mandate
Key appearances: Defeat the Mandates speaker, Testified in opposition to AB2098 at state senate level
(Former Member) Dr. Paul Alexander
Canadian researcher and former Trump administration official at the HHS who pushed herd immunity strategy, responsible for the infamous “we want them infected” email
Involved with the Trucker Convoys in Canada and US
Runs a for-profit Substack that promotes extremist rhetoric
No longer listed on the website for The Unity Project, also removed from the Brownstone Institute’s website
Others: Dr. Harvey Risch, Dr. Pierre Kory, Dr. Tess Lawrie
Step 7 - Extremism: Defeat the Mandates, The Trucker Convoy, ReAwaken America
The anti-vax rally, promoted on the podcasts of Joe Rogan and Steve Bannon, launched in late January 2022 in DC (the same week as Johnson’s five hour “2nd Opinion Panel” which featured DTM physician speakers and misused the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting system to stoke panic about the vaccines). A second event took place in Los Angeles in April 20222.
FLCCC, The Unity Project, World Council for Health, Physicians for Informed Consent, Global Covid Summit, Freedom of Religion United States, Vaccine Injury Awareness, Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids, FreedomMed, Energetic Health Institute, The Schnorr Family, Talking Dog Media, TNT Radio
Vaccine Safety Research Foundation (Steve Kirsch)
Following the failure of the Covid Early Treatment Fund and having his entire board walk out on him for his increasingly erratic behavior, Steve Kirsch went full anti-vax extremist, appearing on Bannon’s podcast. He created the VSRF which features big name anti-vax doctors McCullough and Malone (also Bannon War Room guests).
The VSFR hosts a variety of disinformation doctors and anti-democracy bad actors like Sen. Johnson and Bannon ally Jack Posobeic on its weekly calls which are promoted on Kirsch’s popular Substack.
Kirsch was involved in the November 2022 Died Suddenly conspiracy film, was an organizer of the March 2023 Covid Litigation Conference to plan “a tidal wave” of anti-vax lawsuits, and created a Super PAC for Kennedy’s Bannon-encouraged presidential campaign.
Children’s Health Defense (Robert F. Kennedy Jr.)
RFK Jr. is listed on the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s Disinformation Dozen and Pandemic Profiteer lists
CHD has had ballooning revenue over the course of the pandemic
CHD illegally gave $50k to Republican Attorney General Association from their 501c3 prior to RFK Jr. running for president as a democrat
A Summer 2021 CHD film specifically targeted black Americans despite COVID having already disproportionately affected black and minority communities in the first wave
Kennedy compared the plight of the unvaccinated to Anne Frank at the January 2022 Defeat the Mandates rally
Legally threatened an anonymous blogger who wrote about Kennedy’s 2020 appearance at an “anti-corona” rally in Berlin with groups known to be associated with extremists
Kennedy is involved in legal action to support the anti-vax movement: a lawsuit against AB2098, CHD affiliate Dr. Meryl Nass’s lawsuit against her Maine Medical board, etc.
Informed Consent Action Network (Del Bigtree):
Bigtree is listed on the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s Pandemic Profiteer list
Bigtree has worked with the original anti-vax fraud physician Andrew Wakefield on the conspiratorial 2016 film Vaxxed
Bigtree was a speaker at an event ahead of the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the J6 insurrection. As a Defeat the Mandates speaker, he called for ‘Nuremberg 2.0’ of pro-vax doctors and journalists.
Bigtree runs The Highwire program which pushes anti-vax messaging and saw a ballooning of its audience over the pandemic, per Bigtree
ICAN was successful in suing for a controversial religious exemption for childhood vaccinations in Mississippi
Truckers: Canada and the US
Launched the same Omicron BA.1 winter as Defeat the Mandates, the demonstration originally started in Canada. Dr. Paul Alexander, a Canadian, posted pictures of himself at the rally and discusses it regularly on his Substack.
Elon Musk used his mega platform to lend vocal support to the Canadian trucker rally against vaccine mandates, going so far as to compare Justin Trudeau to Hitler over the prime minister’s cracking down on cryptocurrency being sent to the protesters.
This “People’s Convoy” movement had a US arm that featured speeches from the likes of Malone and scored a visit with far-Right future chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) (Alexander was present for this meeting).
The Truckers traveled around the US, notably protesting COVID-19 bills in California
ReAwaken America
See docu-series “Shadowland” on Peacock
The QAnon friendly traveling series launched in 2021 by former Tulsa, OK mayoral candidate Clay Clark who had filed a failed lawsuit against the city over mask mandates in 2020 and pushes wild COVID-19 conspiracies.
He claims a meeting with Mike Flynn, who would become a fixture for the series, encouraged him to turn his ‘Health and Freedom’ events into a tour. The majority of the events are held at churches, getting in on the evangelical to QAnon pipeline. Flynn claims to be recruiting an “Army of God” on this tour and has also launched an attack on a Florida hospital over COVID-19 conspiracies.
Big names in COVID-19 disinformation have appeared: Stew Peters (producer of Died Suddenly) called for Hunter Biden’s execution on tour, AFLDS members Dr. Simone Gold and Dr. Stella Immanuel, Dr. Peter McCullough who claimed the vaccines cause autism and transgenderism at an event, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Step 8 - Florida: MAGA 2.0
Anti-vax state surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo
The doctor who covertly worked in the Trump White House pushing the herd immunity strategy and was a founding member of AFLDS became Florida’s surgeon general in fall 2021, despite his former supervisor refusing to recommend him for the position.
Has been admonished by federal health agencies for his anti-vax stance and was caught altering a vaccine study to show harms that did not exist. He has come out against the 2023 boosters for COVID-19 while the state suffers one of the worst hospitalization rates in the latest surge.
In addition to his anti-vaxxism, Ladapo has taken anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ stance in line with DeSantis’s divisive politics.
Remote Florida Health Department employee Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg
Works with the FL dept remotely from California where she serves on The Urgency of Normal with UCSF’s Dr. Vinay Prasad. Like Prasad, she has been vocally against masks, and published a “deeply flawed” study arguing against masks in schools.
She is the lead plaintiff in Koch-funded legal action against Gov. Newsom and the California Medical Board over COVID-19 physician misinformation law AB2098 (She testified alongside Brownstone Institute writer and lawyer Laura Powell at the CA Assembly level).
Has cherry-picked/misinterpreted small pre-print studies to uphold the anti-vax narrative, usually with a focus on pediatric side effects such as the rare complication of myocarditis but fails to discuss the physical impact of the virus on children.
Testified to Congress about the impact of school closures.
Florida Public Health Integrity Committee
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) warned of the formation of the rogue Florida Public Health Integrity Committee at the HSSCC’s final hearing in December 2022.
In addition to Hoeg, the group features Dr Martin Kulldorff and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya from the Great Barrington Declaration
Member Bret Weinstein would go on to target Florida-based Dr. Natalia Solenkova on Joe Rogan’s podcast over a fake vaccine tweet shortly after the formation of the Committee, causing a wave of harassment for the ICU physician.
In addition to harming Floridians, the anti-vax strategy DeSantis has gone all in on for his 2024 run for president does not appear to be working for him as a political strategy.
Step 9 - Congressional Cover Up: Rewriting History
Following the GOP’s takeover of the House in the 2022 Midterms, the Right’s answer to the HSSCC, the similarly named House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (HSSCP) launched in early 2023. Instead of continuing on the work of the former committee to investigate leadership failures that lead to the country’s disastrous pandemic response, they have engaged in political theater – inviting individuals named in HSSCC reports as experts and focusing on the lab leak theory to pin this on Fauci.
The Norfolk Group, an off-shoot of the Brownstone Institute, was formed to send “experts” to the HSSCP. It features familiar names: Drs. Martin Kulldorff, Jay Bhattacharya, Tracy Beth Hoeg, and Marty Makary (frequent Fox News/WSJ contributor and Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R-VA) Covid advisor).
The HSSCP launched with Kulldorff, Bhattacharya, and Makary. A couple days ahead of the hearing, the WSJ published a problematic, buzzy article about the Energy Department changing their stance on natural origins vs. lab leak with “low confidence.”
Hoeg would testify about school closures at a follow-up hearing.
Step 10 - Attack Counter Disinformation Efforts Ahead of Election 2024
Jim Jordan’s attempts to silencing disinfo research
As the Washington Post reported, Jordan has been harassing disinformation researchers with “a flurry of records requests, subpoenas and lawsuits” - despite not answering his subpoena from the January 6th Committee for his role in the attempted overturning of the 2020 election for Trump.
The Missouri v Biden lawsuit
The Koch-funded New Civil Liberties Alliance is involved in this case with Drs. Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff.
It has halted the government from getting involved in countering online disinformation about the 2020 election and COVID-19 under the guise of Free Speech. It has also halted the NIH’s landmark $150m program on online communication.
The Right Wing Attack on the Center for Countering Digital Hate
Jordan’s Weaponization Subcommittee hosted presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in July 2020 who lambasted the CCDH.
Elon Musk sued the CCDH shortly after which got support from the far-Right, including former Trump advisor Stephen Miller’s America First Legal. Musk, who dropped the COVID-19 misinformation policy at Twitter shortly after buying the platform, had previously tried to show proof of censorship with the failed Twitter Files gambit which involved Bhattacharya. Musk’s tweet for Fauci’s prosecution came a day after he took a meeting with Bhattacharya.