Right-wing intent on spreading bird flu & misinfo. 🚩 Trump picks are public health contrarians. 🚩
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Right-wing voices intent on spreading bird flu & misinformation.
All the usual suspects and their business interest backers are gearing up for a big push to oppose any public health deployment against the threats of avian influenza. These covid deniers and anti-vaxxers have never actually been satisfied with having successfully manufactured mild and The Great Barrington Declaration becoming public health policy all over the place (minus protecting the vulnerable part of course). Various right-wing covid minimizers are pushing all sorts of misleading things about the very real threats of H5N1.
Important Context Right-Wing Operatives, Anti-Vax Groups Already Working to Politicize Bird Flu Many of the same people who successfully politicized COVID-19 are gearing up for round two. Walker Bragman Dec 26, 2024 In May, REPPARE published a paper, which was subsequently shared by Bhattacharya, arguing that the WHO and the World Bank were overstating the threat of future pandemics. It specifically noted that “mortality from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) types H5 and H7 has greatly declined over the past century.” Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, meanwhile, has been politicizing bird flu on his War Room broadcast on the right-wing Real America’s Voice television network. Early on in the pandemic, Bannon and his business partner, Chinese billionaire fraudster Guo Wengui, were critical in spreading the idea that the SARS-CoV-2 virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory. Early on in the pandemic, the claim was used by right-wing media to provide cover for the flailing Trump White House. With the bird flu outbreaks, War Room has engaged in similar activity, pushing conspiracy theories about the virus—its origins and the expert concern over its outbreaks.
On the podcast Knowledge Fight which reviews what Alex Jones, the hosts often remarks that Alex Jones works for Big Covid, in that he promotes the spread. On the show they’ve played several clips in the month of December 2024 where Alex Jones wrongly claims that Peter Hotez is responsible for bird flu or other things, and that the avian flu news is some kind of plot against Trump. Many clips they’ve played you can hear him demonize doctors and healthcare workers in a way that’s very disturbing because historically these types of accusations have led to people being induced into violence against those with such accusations against them, indeed it’s a known social engineering tactic, one that appears to have been used in the covid pandemic by covid contrarians and monied interests. Back in July 2024 he played a disturbingly lengthy wildlife-killing-prey video for his audience and likened it to supposedly the hospitals doing this to patients, clearly he meant on purpose. In the December 24, 2024 episode of Knowledge Fight they play a clip where Alex Jones describes animal experiments not unusual in medical training. He doesn’t seem to be that concerned with animal rights, he merely uses the emotional disgust to stoke people to believe that doctors are being made to do this as part of their training as a type of hazing ritual, to weed out anyone who will be unwilling to commit atrocities on behalf of… "they". The “they” is described as a mafia-like organization of some type using doctors to hurt people who won't pay protection money. His description was a ham handed mobster movie narrative that reminded me of the comedy movie Nuns on the Run with Robbie Coltrane and Eric Idle. I don’t mean to make light of this because though it does seem comical, I think this type of rhetoric is actually quite serious, and that at least some in the right-wing audience do take it seriously.
Jay Bhattacharya is unqualified to lead the NIH — still promoting bogus covid cures in 2024
Trump NIH Pick Pushed Ivermectin Conspiracy Theory in Documentary Linked to Chinese Cult Jay Bhattacharya made remarks supportive of the discredited COVID treatment in a film released this year. Walker Bragman Dec 19, 2024 Stanford University health economist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who was announced last month as the president-elect’s choice to head up the NIH, appeared in a pseudo documentary that received funding from a company linked to the Chinese Falun Gong cult called Covid Collateral: Where Do We Go For Truth? In it, he appeared to endorse not only the use of ivermectin as a therapeutic for COVID, but an anti-vaccine conspiracy theory that its rejection by public health authorities was driven not by science, but instead by a desire to fast-track vaccine authorization.
My letter to U.S. Senators who need to confirm this jackass for him to get the job:
Jay Bhattacharya is unqualified to lead the NIH in too many ways. This person must not be installed in a position where he will jeopardize the health of Americans with his fringe pseudoscience ideas.
I realize it took almost 5 years for a debunked flawed scientific paper to be withdrawn, and that the state of Ohio wants to force doctors to prescribe a dangerous drug for bogus reasons, and that some doctors have reportedly been prescribing a debunked cure now for long covid, but this this is so bizarre that after all these years these people are still pushing long discredited stuff. It’s like they just won’t let it go.
FBI hopeful Kash Patel promoted misinfo fueled covid product.
The marketing claim promoting this quacky covid product is that it can “reverse” the effects of covid vaccines is based on misinformation claiming wrongly that the vaccines are giving people some type of damage based on things that don’t even make sense.
Trump's pick for FBI director promoted bogus supplements to 'reverse' vaccines - Kash Patel has posted about a supplement line that claims, without evidence, that it can help people "detox" from Covid vaccines. Dec. 4, 2024, 5:00 AM EST By Aria Bendix “Spike the Vax, order this homerun kit to rid your body of the harms of the vax,” he wrote in another. It is not clear whether the posts were paid promotions; they were not labeled as such. Warrior Essentials sells what it calls a “Spike Protein Detox Protocol,” a set of up to three supplements that it claims, without evidence, will “undo the damage from the spike protein,” a component of the coronavirus. The mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna prompt the body to produce and fight an altered version of the protein to train the immune system. Warrior Essentials is one of many companies that trade on unfounded theories about the dangers of vaccines, which have proliferated in the alt-right social media landscape since the pandemic — ideas that are not backed by science.
It sounds a little like the “spike” obsession a lot of anti-vax advocates promote like Jordan Vaughn and Pierre Kory of the FLCCC. I get the sense some people like saying “spike” because it sounds like something dangerous because sharp objects something something. I looked into these claims and the spike protein is not produced indefinitely after vaccination, it degrades. So there’s no reason for a “detox”. It’s a product sold by saying things that don’t make sense to people who’ve already been convinced of something that’s not true. This mixing of misinformation and online marketing is very common.
Of course the biggest tragedy here is that it perpetuates unfounded fears of vaccination among people who had the wherewithal to get vaccinated before, but who are probably not getting new vaccinations because of unfounded claims, which is not good, because people really need to have updated covid protection from one of the latest covid vaccines that are now available in the U.S.
Kash Patel is known for targeting children with propaganda as well, selling children’s books where Donald Trump is depicted as a king. Kash Patel is also known for bungling a SEAL Team Six hostage rescue during the Obama administration.
He needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate and apparently there has not been enough pressure from constituents of Republican Senators because reports say he’s getting support for confirmation to the position as FBI director where he will have powers to investigate anyone with the legal system, for whatever bonkers or sinister reason, like the stuff he’s mentioned about going after the media on a fringe extremist podcast.
My letter to US Senators many who are planning to confirm this jackass:
Do not allow the incompetent and highly politicized Kash Patel into any position of leadership in government. He has made the most embarrassingly unAmerican anti free speech comments on fringy podcasts. At best won’t be taken seriously and will bungle things, or worse will carry out personal political vendettas and maybe cost people’s lives like he nearly did with the SEAL team that time.
Pete Hegseth is a right-wing “crusader” against public health.
The guy proposed to lead the military against “the enemy within” wants a new crusades waged against “the left”, has come out against hand washing, and against vaccines, including for military troops.
BBC - Fox host says he 'hasn't washed hands in 10 years' - 11 February 2019 Fox News host Pete Hegseth has said on air that he has not washed his hands for 10 years because "germs are not a real thing". Speaking on Fox and Friends, Hegseth said the infectious micro-organisms did not exist because they could not be seen with the naked eye.
Rawstory - 'More dangerous than any': Op-ed warns terrifying aspect of Trump pick is being missed - Kathleen Culliton November 21, 2024 Hegseth's "odd" and "extremist" views, as expressed in his books, are that public education is a communist plot, vaccines are poison, and socialists were responsible for the Holocaust, Chait wrote. "He may be no less nutty than any of Trump’s more controversial nominees," wrote Chait. "He is almost certainly far more dangerous than any of them." Chait then arrives at the plans Hegseth has for liberals. "The War on Warriors" urges readers to treat the American left like wartime enemies, Chait reported, noting "American Crusade" details how Hegseth feels they should be handled. "American Crusade calls for the 'categorical defeat of the Left,' with the goal of 'utter annihilation,' without which 'America cannot, and will not, survive,'" wrote Chait. " "Are the Crusades just a metaphor? Sort of, but not really: 'Our American Crusade is not about literal swords, and our fight is not with guns. Yet.' (Emphasis—gulp—his)." Chait concludes with a note of explanation and a dark warning to protesters of Trump's next administration. "The main question I was looking to answer when I started reading Hegseth’s collected works was whether he would follow a Trump command to shoot peaceful protesters," Chait wrote. "After having read them, I don’t think he would even wait for the order."
Mediaite - WATCH: Trump Pick Pete Hegseth Once Melted Down In Mediaite Interview - David Gilmour - Nov 13th, 2024 The interview continued on a rocky path as McLaughlin addressed the Covid-19 policy at The Patriot Awards which, like Fox News at the time, required vaccination or daily testing. McLaughlin asked why Hegseth had a problem with the Biden administration vaccine and testing mandates but not Fox’s own policy. Hegseth brushed it off: “Companies have prerogatives. What the government shouldn’t be doing is telling them what to do.” The exchange grew even more contentious when McLaughlin asked Hegseth if he’d been vaccinated. “This is the shameful part of this moment we’re in,” Hegseth replied, rejecting the question as invasive. “You’re intruding into every part of every person’s life and forcing them to take a personal choice and make it public.”
My letter to US Senators who will have to vote to confirm this jackass:
I don’t think a man who doesn’t believe in germs and doesn’t wash his hands should have a leadership position in the military. We know how dangerous disease can be to an army and a military campaign or national defense, so it doesn’t even make sense from a competency standpoint. And that’s even without the extreme fringy stuff he’s into. I remember when George W. Bush wound up having to apologize for some comment about The Crusades because it was a national security gaffe. We don’t need someone with Crusades tattoos in charge of the US military, inviting diplomatic incidents or worse. It would put us all at risk for no good reason.
Dr. Oz has a long history of promoting things that turn out to be dubious.
Retraction Watch - Authors retract green coffee bean diet paper touted by Dr. Oz - October 20, 2014 Author Ivan Oransky Two authors of a 2012 paper sponsored by a company that made grand claims about green coffee bean extract’s abilities to help people lose weight have retracted it. The study was cited by The Dr. Oz Show, and last month it cost the company a $3.5 million settlement with the Feds.
My letters to US Senators who are needed to confirm this jackass:
My letter to Dave Mccormick:
Dr. Oz is a loser who has no place running an agency in the federal government and should not be confirmed to any position. He lost his bid against Senator John Fetterman, even though Fetterman had an actual stroke and hospitalization while campaigning. I remember that election, nobody trusted Oz. This guy should be so embarrassed he just retires from public life. He’s backed quack cures that turned out to be not real, and he’s been pulled up in front of Congress already about that crap. It’s embarrassing. He’s going to wind up under investigations and constant public scrutiny because of his celebrity. It’s going to waste everyone’s time, and possibly jeopardize the healthcare of real people.
My letter to John Fetterman:
Dr. Oz is a loser who couldn’t win an election because nobody trusted him. He shouldn’t be put in charge of anything where he might touch stuff that affects people’s everyday lives, especially vulnerable senior citizens. He pushed quack cures that were debunked and discredited later, and he’s been pulled up in front of Congress already about that. He’s just going to do stuff that’s going to waste everyone’s time with more hearings because his celebrity seeking behaviour will inevitably take center stage. And if you vote to confirm him, I expect you then to be the one calling for the hearings to investigate him when he inevitably does something dodgy.
📍 No, I don't want the Trump administration to succeed in terrible plans.
📍 BUYER BEWARE
Be careful when spending your money on stuff you hear about in forums and online communities. There’s just tons of product placement and aggressive marketing happening, insinuated into social spaces, including in disguise as friendship and community, and it’s really hard to warn everyone about every piece of misinformation and every dubious product or vendor or whatever, partly because of the bullshit asymmetry principle of course.
Quote:
“The message of the cult, or the cult leader, it has to resonate with the person. When people are at vulnerable moments in their life, they’re kind of open to hearing some solutions. And being vulnerable is not a mental illness. It’s not something negative. It’s something we all experience. And then at that moment, if someone comes along with an interesting message, or someone invites you to something, you’re more likely to say yes.”
- Janja Lalich - BBC - The psychological tricks that make cults so dangerous - 28 April 2022