A recent report by the UK’s Center for Countering Digital Hate found that anti-vaxx organizations reach 58 million people on social media. The total amount of money spent by anti-vax groups and advertisers targeting their followers on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube is roughly $1 billion. The majority of the money funding the most prominent anti-vax groups is by just two men: osteopath Joseph Mercola and fund manager Bernard Selz. All of this makes you wonder: Why is so money being used to target anti-vaxxers?

Derek interviews Imran Ahmed, founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, about how anti-vax leaders and groups are using social media to target and recruit followers. The stakes are higher than ever, as the vaccine argument has transcended autism and is threatening to endanger public health during the pandemic.

Julian considers the vaccine fears of parents as well as the shadow of the Tuskegee Syphillis Study, and how anti-vax alliances are targeting black communities, which could be a disastrous Trojan Horse for COVID-19, while Matthew serves up his This Week in Conspirituality segment in the epilogue, looking at how the leader of the high-demand group he was indoctrinated into over 20 years ago, led by Michael Roach, is rebooting old content as a COVID-era grift.

Show Notes

History of Vaccines

A History of Measles in the United States

Measles Cases and Outbreaks

MMR Vaccination | What You Should Know

Mercury, Vaccines, and Autism: One Controversy, Three Histories

Aluminum in vaccines

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines

CDC Global Health – Polio – Our Progress

Christiane Northrup: Triangulation, regret, Gardisil, civil disobedience

How the Public Learned About the Infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Anti-vaccination leaders fuel black mistrust of medical establishment as covid-19 kills people of color

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