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.
The anti-vax movement has a great deal of overlap with MAGA, QAnon, and old-school conspiracy theory.
So it should not be a surprise that antivaxxers took part in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Jeremy Roebuck at The Philadelphia Inquirer:A prominent right-wing and anti-vaccine activist from South Jersey will serve 10 days behind bars for her role in some of the most brutal fighting during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Federal prosecutors likened Stephanie Hazelton, 51, of Medford — who also goes by the moniker Ayla Wolf — to “a commander on the battlefield” as she marshaled rioters toward the tunnel entrance to the Capitol’s west side.
“This is the battle,” she shouted in videos of the melee later posted online. “Let’s go! Move forward! They cannot stop us all!”
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Hazelton — the founder of New Jersey for Medical Freedom, the state chapter of an anti-vaccine network — rose to local prominence organizing demonstrations against proposed legislation in the Garden State, including a bill that would have required school children to get the flu shot.
In 2020, she led members of the group who draped signs over New Jersey highway overpasses that read: “COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers are exempt from liability.” And as the public face for “Reopen New Jersey,” she led rallies that spring that made national headlines.
