The Pandemic Profiteers
The Pandemic Profiteers
Anti-vax is a big business and the small group gets direct help from social media
The Center for Countering Digital Hate has been one of the strongest voices against disinformation throughout this pandemic. Their March 2021 “Disinformation Dozen” report has been extremely helpful to explain how a small number of individuals peddling pandemic lies have created such outsized noise through social media which has consequences in shaping public health behavior offline. Their calls to platforms to reign in the risk these individuals posed to global public health have gone mostly unanswered and in the case of Twitter, new owner Elon Musk has done the exact opposite of what is needed by re-platforming anti-vax extremists.
Their follow-up report “The Pandemic Profiteers” from June 2021 is worth giving as much attention as their first. For a more updated report, see “The science (and business) behind COVID-19 disinformation. And what to do about it.” from Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina. The contents of the CCDH’s 2021 report are echoed in what we are still seeing in 2023 and saw throughout 2022.
The Pandemic Profiteers discussed in their report are:
Joseph Mercola
Andrew Wakefield
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Del Bigtree
Larry Cook
Ty and Charlene Bollinger
Sherri Tenpenny
Mike Adams
Rashid Buttar
Barbara Loe Fisher
Sayer Ji
Kelly Brogan
The key findings of the report show:
“Organizations associated with leading anti-vaxxers have received more than $1.5 million in federal loans.”
Dr. Joseph Mercola - who has worked closely with failed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate and hydroxychloroquine pusher Dr. Mehmet Oz - is one of the recipients of such bailouts, despite being the #1 profiteer on the list.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense - now booted from Facebook and Instagram but responsible for 1/4 of all anti-vax tweets - also received a sizable handout. He has uses his anti-vax empire to sponsor the Defeat the Mandates rally series, fight pro-vaccine/pro-accountability legislation, and illegally pay the Republican Attorneys General Association from his 501c3. He has worked closely with insurrectionist America’s Frontline Doctors front woman Dr. Simone Gold whose hydroxychloroquine group was made for Trump’s re-election campaign to minimize Covid.
Del Bigtree, who spoke at an event ahead of Stop the Steal, claimed federal loan money helped keep his show on the air. His organization (ICAN) also sponsors Defeat the Mandates where he called for “Nuremberg” trials of pro-vax doctors, politicians, and journalists at the rally just a year after the Insurrection.
“Organizations associated with leading anti-vaxxers have estimated annual revenues of at least $36 million”
“Anti-vaxxers examined by this report are responsible for up to 70 percent of anti-vaccine content on Facebook” and “Anti-vaxxers admit they rely on mainstream social media for reach and revenue in court filings”
It pays to deceive online. All the way back in 2021 the CCDH was calling out RFK Jr. and Del Bigtree’s admission in court that social media was key to their organizations’ revenue streams. That is why deplatforming grifters is so important. The profit (and politics) are what drive their behavior. Social media companies have been complicit in allowing this to happen and harm their users in the process.
“Followers of anti-vaxxers are worth up to $1.1 billion to Big Tech”
And this is why. Buzzy disinformation gets more engagement on social media which increases the bottom line for the platforms. This was the case long before anti-vaxxer and far-right Republican Elon Musk took over at Twitter.
