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.
Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers. Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures.
Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers. Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures.
Former Alaska governor and current congressional candidate Sarah Palin gave an enthusiastic and angry speech at ex-President Donald Trump‘s “Save America” Rally in Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday, during which she suggested that the global covid-19 pandemic was a conspiracy perpetrated against the American people for political reasons.
Palin’s speech hit many familiar notes for the Save America rallies and her own past speeches, including “drill, baby, drill” and the ubiquitous “mama grizzly” references. She attacked RINOs and Democrats and said that the upcoming midterms are more than just a political contest but a “spiritual” one.
“This is good versus evil,” said Palin of the 2022 election. “It is a spiritual battle.”
Palin said that the midterms are about “control versus freedom” and added that “they” used the plandemic” to try to control people.
“Plandemic” is more than just a rhetorical device, it is a term used for a film and conspiracy theory which claim that, as Decider put it, “a global cabal of billionaires and drug manufacturers created the coronavirus pandemic as part of a plan to enforce ‘globally mandated vaccines.'”
In 2020, Martin Enserink and Jon Cohen wrote in Science:
In a video that has exploded on social media in the past few days, virologist Judy Mikovits claims the new coronavirus is being wrongly blamed for many deaths...Science fact-checked the video. None of these claims are true. The video is an excerpt from a forthcoming movie Plandemic, which promises to "expose the scientific and political elite who run the scam that is our global health system." YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms have taken down the video because of inaccuracies. It keeps resurfacing, including on the Plandemic website, which, in "an effort to bypass the gatekeepers of free speech," invites people to download the video and repost it.
...
Mikovits has not published anything in the scientific literature since 2012. ...She has weighed in on the autism debate with controversial theories about causes and treatments. Her discredited work and her legal travails have made her a martyr in the eyes of some.
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In another recent video, Mikovits is wearing a hat that says VAXXED II, which is a sequel to a film that links the mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine to autism, a debunked theory. She also repeats several claims made by people who are leading the antivaccine movement. In the PowerPoint presentation she sent to Science, she calls for an "immediate moratorium" on all vaccines.
