In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. And among those diseases could be COVID-19.
Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.
She told state lawmakers that vaccines kill; she touted dubious COVID-19 treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine on talk radio; she stormed a Big Lots with a small and barefaced crowd to protest its mask requirement; and she pushed her local school board to rescind its mask requirement.
However, in November, with a $1000 financial boost from U.S. Senate Candidate Jane Timken’s “Jobs For a New Economy” (JANE) PAC, Laffay won a seat on the Huron City School District Board of Education.
Laffay’s election epitomizes a confluence of trends as the new coronavirus approaches its third year on earth: the explosion of anti-science and anti-vaccination fervor; conservatives’ new emphasis on school board races as masks and “critical race theory” animate their political base; and doctors using their credentials to spread health misinformation in the face of medical licensing boards that have refused to intercede.
...
In an interview with Tom Roten, a conservative talk radio host, she said she has been prescribing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine — both of which have been championed by conservatives as cures and preventatives for COVID-19 over objections from the medical community and the drug’s manufacturers who have pleaded against the practice — throughout the pandemic. She also recommended using mouthwash to “decrease any viral loads” that might be accumulating.
...
Speaking to Roten, Laffay identified herself as a member of “America’s Frontline Doctors,” a network of health care providers who claim vaccines are unsafe and ineffective who have made millions selling consultations and alternative medications like ivermectin, which many pharmacies have refused to dispense. The network was founded by Dr. Simone Gold, who awaits trial on charges related to her allegedly joining an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Laffay runs a clinic called “Elite Wellness Group.” Its website lists services including “facial LED light therapy” ($95 per 30-minute session); “emotional freedom technique” ($115 per one-hour session); and “infrared sauna” ($48 per 30-minute session).
