Oh, bloody hell. @RobertKennedyJr has been cozying up to minority communities for a number of years now to spread fear of vaccines. Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we? 1/https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1367262593417498626 …
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For example, over a decade ago, antivaxxers started targeting the Somali immigrant community in Minnesota with antivaccine messages. The result? Repeated measles outbreaks in that community over the last decade. 11/https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/outbreaks-among-somali-immigrants-in-minnesota-thanks-for-the-measles-again-andy/ …
Meanwhile, @delbigtree and Andrew Wakefield promoted the #CDCwhistleblower conspiracy theory, a major part of which is that @CDCgov "covered up" evidence that MMR increased the risk of autism in African-American boys by over three-fold. 12/
This conspiracy theory was the basis of the antivaccine propaganda film disguised as a documentary, @vaxxedthemovie. 13/https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/andrew-wakefields-vaxxed-antivaccine-propaganda-at-its-most-pernicious/ …
Basically, it is a feature, not a bug, of older white male antivaxxers to play the "white savior" role trying to "save" minorities from what they view as "vaccine injury." 14/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2019/11/12/antivaxers-targeting-minorities/ …
Antivaxxers even go so far as to portray their movement as the "new civil rights movement." It's mind-bogglingly privileged of them, to liken their struggles to that of blacks trying to achieve equal rights, but they do it all the time. 15/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2019/09/10/sb-276-new-civil-rights-movement/ …
This image shows what I mean. Notice the paucity of melanin in the protesters holding the signs proclaiming the antivaccine movement to be the "new civil rights movement." 16/https://twitter.com/kcraBrianHickey/status/1171092433913860096?s=20 …
I admit it. I got rather snarky when I saw that image. 17/https://twitter.com/gorskon/status/1171146898197098502?s=20 …
In any event, Dr. Rasmussen characterized this vileness more succinctly than I could. It's the ultimate expression of white privilege to co-opt the language of civil rights to spread a message that during a pandemic will kill black people. 18/https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1367262596739391488?s=20 …
None of this surprises those of us who've been combatting the antivaccine movement for many years. Trying to recruit people of color to what is mostly a lily white movement is what antivaxxers do. 19/
Antivaxxers preying on the understandable distrust African-Americans have of the medical establishment in order to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt about #COVID19Vaccine is just continuation of their long history of doing the same thing. 20/20
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