What most pundits, scientists, and doctors don't realize is that this is not a new alliance. Rather, it's the fruition of an effort by antivaxxers to court the far right. It started by portraying school vaccine mandates as an unacceptable government assault on "freedom." 1/https://twitter.com/GYamey/status/1378703269594300420 …
-
-
By the time Trump became President, even though the prevalence of antivaccine views still remained roughly the same on the right and left, the *activist* wing of the antivaccine movement had shifted markedly right. 12/
Show this thread -
Antivaxxers in MI, for example, started promoting "make measles great again" bills; for example, this one if passed would have neutered the ability of
@MichiganHHS to develop new rules to improve vaccine uptake and hamstringed local health officials. 13/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2017/04/05/why-is-the-michigan-legislature-trying-to-hard-to-bring-back-vaccine-preventable-diseases/ …Show this thread -
Antivaxxers also pushed bills that would have required bogus "informed consent" about "fetal parts" in vaccines. 14/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2018/06/12/senate-bill-1055-antivaccine-fear-mongering/ …
Show this thread -
Meanwhile,
@ohiogop and@ohiogopsenate became rife with antivaxxers, to the point where antivaxxers bragged about how many allies they had in the Ohio State House. 15/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2019/11/13/ohio-statehouse-antivaccine/ …Show this thread -
This sort of thing has been going on all over the country, with
@GOP either pandering to, playing footsie with, or overtly embracing the antivaccine movement. 16/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2019/04/19/gop-has-become-antivaxer/ …Show this thread -
Basically, what happened is that "freedom" and "parental rights" were the "in" that antivaxxers used to entice the right. Once the alliance was made, then, though, the right proved as open to antivax conspiracy theories as it has been to
#QAnonCult. 17/https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/covid-19-pandemic-deniers-and-the-antivaccine-movement-an-unholy-alliance/ …Show this thread -
That's why, once the
#COVID19#pandemic began, unsurprisingly, antivaxxers rapidly allied themselves with antimaskers and COVID cranks to oppose all public health interventions to slow the spread of the pandemic. 18/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2020/12/02/antivaxxers-anti-public-health/ …Show this thread -
It was thus a natural progression that right wing propaganda organs disguised as "think tanks" like
@aier, with flacks like@PhilWMagness and@naomirwolf, have promoted#COVID19 misinformation under the guise of "freedom" and combatting "tyranny." 19/Show this thread -
Add to that grifters like Scott Atlas of
@HooverInst, more right wing propagandists disguised as a "think tank" (but one using its affiliation with@Stanford to gain the patina of academic credibility), and the activist wing of the antivaccine movement is firmly right wing. 20/Show this thread -
As a result, "freedom," "parental rights," etc., are now dog whistles for the antivaccine movement and, more recently, for antimaskers and
#COVID19 cranks. 21/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2015/02/20/blowing-the-antivaccine-dog-whistle-again/ …Show this thread -
And, yes, it is true that there are left-wing antivaxxers, such as
@RobertKennedyJr, but, unlike the case on the right, they do not have nearly the reach and they are marginalized by@TheDemocrats, not celebrated. 22/https://respectfulinsolence.com/2016/08/01/jill-stein-and-left-wing-antivaccine-dog-whistles/ …Show this thread -
Unfortunately, this embrace of antivaccine messages by the right and populist movements has real and very negative consequences, as we have seen over the last year or so. 23/23
Show this thread -
Forgot to mention, here's an example of the sort of politician that's embraced antivaccine views. He was my state senator for eight years. 23a/23https://twitter.com/gorskon/status/1378512344066707460?s=20 …
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.