Many will be following the politics, not the science.
Elon Musk was betting in early 2020 that the pandemic was a nothingburger. Obviously he was wrong, but he doesn't think so, and now he’s wrong and running things in the government.
Many scientists, medical professionals, and public health leadership followed the politics when it came to masks in the pandemic, or vaccines, and even were swayed by right-wing advertising that targeted liberals. And all this will only get worse now that the federal purse in the US is held out for those who are willing to sell out patients and public health.
Elon Musk ghosted his pal Sam Harris to renege on a bet he lost about covid.
Fortune - Elon Musk bet me $1 million the U.S. would not see 35,000 cases of Covid—then turned on me when it happened, says Sam Harris - Beatrice Nolan - Thu, January 16, 2025 at 11:22 AM EST Yahoo News He cites one incident where the Tesla CEO bet him $1 million against a $1,000 bottle of tequila that the U.S. wouldn't see as many as 35,000 cases of COVID-19. Harris said he tried to up the bet to 3.5 million cases of COVID-19 at the time, but Musk accused him of "having lost [his] mind" and insisted on sticking with 35,000 cases. After the CDC reported 35,000 deaths from COVID-19 a few weeks later, Harris said he texted Musk: "Is (35,000 deaths + 600,000 cases) > 35,000 cases?" The text went unanswered, according to Harris, who cites the message as the end of their years-long friendship.
Instead of admitting he was wrong, he’s only gone further into pandemic denial ever since. And now he has seized control of who gets what money from the federal government.
And now Elon Musk is following and retweeting obvious misinformation outlets that are running with a misrepresented a study that's a pre-print (not yet peer reviewed) with a small sample of people having gotten Pfizer, Moderna, or J&J covid vaccine, showed some people may have an immune system that struggles after vaccination as far as I can tell. That should definitely be studied. And people should definitely have an opportunity to get tested for stuff with this profile if that’s a thing. That might happen if there was investment in research and medical care for people with pandemic related conditions. As it happens, Trump terminated the Long Covid advisory committee at HHS. And anti-vaxxers just want to force any science to back up their anti-vax claims anyway, even if the evidence shows no such thing.
This study being talked about is a pre-print nobody should even be reporting on this at all yet until it passes peer review at least. It's all hype at this stage. The Daily Mail and Alex Jones are the ones most excited apparently. Alex Jones routinely agitates his audience to believe (wrongly) that doctors are being made to do experiments as a type of hazing ritual to weed out people who aren’t willing to torture and kill patients for “they”, something which Alex Jones bizarrely asserts is happening all the time at hospitals. He stokes fear of healthcare a lot with wild stories.
There is a screenshot circulating on bluesky that's a tweet from an anti-vax propaganda account on twitter that was retweeted by Elon Musk, it refers to a substack that's by Paul Thacker, who puts out anti-vax misinformation and who has made nasty inappropriate and inaccurate attacks on a doctor for informing people of the benefits of vaccination by critiquing and debunking anti-vax claims.
And it should be noted that people who want vaccines are MOST PEOPLE, so it's clear who's on the fringe in reality, it's the anti-vaxxers and the anti-safety people who are against public health who are a fringe minority. Most people do not enjoy being sick, for example, and it's actually quite hard to convince people against taking precautions. That's why there's always been huge money spent in opposition to any public health precautions, and big anti-mask targeted ad campaigns, and therefore money to be made in promoting anti-vax as an anti-vax influencer.
Before the election, there was a trend of what looks like quite obviously a lot of big money being poured into anti-vax themed political events and events with anti-vax fellow travelers.
I’m not a scientist and so I’m going to wait until the Akiko Iwasaki and Amy Proal et al paper passes peer review before even considering that pre-print for any reason. But just in speculation, the paper seems to show that vaccination spike protein levels in the study are far lower than the levels found with covid infection, so it stands to reason that there’s a lot less of their proposed “post vaccination syndrome” as compared to getting this effect from an actual covid infection which would seemingly be more likely. So this might just be yet more evidence that the vaccine benefits outweigh the risks actually, who knows!
And that’s the thing, we don’t know. It’s a small study at the preprint stage, and it’s important to consider science research in context.
I’d also like to point out that “post vax syndrome” and “vaccine syndrome” are terms Pierre Kory has been using for years, at least as far back as 2022. It’s a buzzword by this point in the media associated with anti-vax misinformation. So it's an odd choice for scientists to go with for that reason. Pierre Kory is affiliated with the organization FLCCC, the ivermectin promoting organization formed in the pandemic to oppose mitigations, now rebranded as Independent Medical Alliance. Pierre Kory has been very clear about being anti-vax — he came out against polio vaccines, the WHO, and Peter Hotez in 2022, and of course also Bill Gates.
Jordan Vaughn, who is a colleague of Pierre Kory, said he recommended patients stop getting vaccinated for covid, and he has said he was working on a study to publish with Doug Kell in an interview with Gez Medinger in 2023. Amy Proal has also been a coauthor on a microclots study from 2022 with Doug Kell and Resia Pretorius. And Resia Pretorius has said that Jordan Vaughn’s clinic was doing tests she wanted to see done, along with David Putrino and Akiko Iwasaki both co-authors on this latest pre-print. Jordan Vaughn also has stated, and patients who claim they went to him also mention, that he was prescribing the “triple therapy” from a small study described in a pre-print from March 2023 that so far as I know never passed through peer review yet.
Resia Pretorius has been stirring up probably unfounded concerns, and certainly unsubstantiated concerns, about blood donors, that led an independent chronic illness news outlet to invoke, but not specify the details about, a discredited theory from ages ago from the doctor who was featured in the right-wing disinformation movie called Plandemic. This seems to evoke fears from the past based on HIV and blood transfusions, and considering there’s a lot of misinformation and poor comparisons circulating about covid and AIDS online along with HIV disinformation spread by anti-vaxxers, I feel this is really thoughtlessly poor science communication at best. Resia Pretorius’s theory on these microclots predate covid, and certainly covid vaccines — a review of Resia Pretorius and Douglas Kell from a ME/CFS non-profit in April 2023 references the “triple therapy” and says: “Pretorius, in particular, has been finding microclots in all sorts of diseases for a decade.”
I don’t know what’s up with that study, or that article. And I don’t know why all these people are all networked together. But I do see the message from Akiko Iwasaki’s comments to the Daily Mail as a further indicator that, as I’d already suspected, she is pivoting away from Long Covid research to research on vaccine side effects.
Many of us have watched for years now how the Long covid issue has been heavily co-opted by the right-wing, and practically taken over by it — to the point where I’ve seen Long Covid advocates promoting anti-vax talking points.
An instagram post by the WHN organization from March 2024 explaining why vaccines are a safe choice, because the benefits outweigh the risks, of course —because all medication is used on this basis. Someone brought my attention to a comment that was posted which uses a woke-washing guilt tactic to claim that promoting vaccination as a safe choice is somehow insulting or harmful to people who've had rare unfortunate adverse effects from vaccines. This is not a reason others shouldn’t get vaccinated or that vaccines shouldn’t be promoted. Adverse effects are something that though rare, do happen and everyone of course agrees it should be addressed by science research, the healthcare system, and the government compensation program. Adverse effects are a risk with various medications. For example chemotherapy comes with substantial side-effects and risks, but it’s the calculation of the benefit versus that risk that is taken into account. There are legitimate complaints to be made about the vaccine compensation program for covid vaccines, and the lack of medical treatment options for associated conditions or just uncommon conditions as well as new conditions like Long Covid. But promoting vaccination is NOT the problem here. Informing people of the benefits vs. risks of vaccines is important. But the commenter also tries to assert without evidence that a lot of people with Long Covid got it from vaccination, which is not something there’s any reason to assert. (This commenter is the alt account of someone many people would know as identifying as a Long Covid sufferer, but who doesn't always disclose Long Covid as a vaccine adverse effect.)
I had spotted a very clear movement to pin Long Covid on vaccines that materialized quite prominently by the end of 2023, with people with this narrative coming into public health circles and disability justice advocacy to push this idea. I suspect infiltration by an opposition with plenty of operatives because it was apparent that Long Covid advocacy and activism was gaining some ground at that point, likely because of the sheer numbers of sufferers after several big waves had hit the U.S. I thought at first surely this couldn't work because a large portion of people with Long Covid leading organizing got it from pre-vaccine infections in 2020. But many of those people have fully embraced anti-vax now or were convinced to tolerate it, and the disinformation, or at least have been fooled by woke-washing, bullying, and sympathy leveraging to allow anti-vax promotion to be platformed via Long Covid issue advocacy. There’s considerable trickery and pressure techniques used to guilt people into accepting disinformation into every online space. And there’s also a connection between anti-vax and supplements, and with that, pseudoscience and quack cures — which are something that are incredibly popular among Long Covid sufferers who turn to unproven or dubious products because of sheer desperation.
Some people who’ve jumped on this bandwagon may indeed have vaccine adverse effects, or conditions related to vaccination, because it does happen, and though rare, with so many people vaccinated in a short period of time it’s not unexpected that it doesn’t seem as rare as it is, in context of how many people have gotten vaccinated. I think many are also misguided people who now assume they have rare vaccine adverse effects, and they mistake promotion of anti-vax lies as genuine activism. But make no mistake, there is astroturfing here. There are well-known sources of funding propelling anti-vax activism — and the money flows to people who walk among not just covid contrarians, but also among people who consider themselves part of a Long Covid advocacy community, among public health activists, in the disability justice movement, and also within social support groups formed around avoiding covid.
Even right-wing covid cures of course have always been making their way into left circles too. About a year ago I found prominent public health and climate influencers on social media promoting a covid zine that was advising people to use dubious unproven products and advertising an expensive concierge clinic that inappropriately promoted the dangerous colloidal silver as a covid treatment. (Note: Silver is not recommended for any medical purpose, and can be dangerous.)
I get that sometimes, in the current political climate, it might seem easier to make mental pretzels to blame the vaccines, and to neg on the vax maybe to go along to get along with MAGA. The red-pilled anti-vax conspiracy fiction pushers might be a minority but they are undoubtedly loud.
But this right-wing pseudoscience disinfo campaign must be resisted because people are being harmed.
Anti-vax kills.
Ziyad Al-Aly, MD @zalaly · Nov 8 I spoke to @statnews about @RobertKennedyJr potentially leading @HHSGov ; this is an opportunity to reform America's health & research agencies & make sure they deliver for the American people We must work together to improve the health of all Americans JVN @JennJVN This is disappointing. RFK Jr is anti-science, anti-vax, pro-Ivermectin for Covid & has no ethics. In Samoa 83 people, mostly children, died in a measles outbreak. Kennedy had visited & spouted anti-vax rhetoric & kids weren't vaccinated. Don't legitimatize him. 8:33 PM · Nov 8, 2024 · 455 Views
Sometimes people just do not recognize anti-vax right-wing bullshit right away. Many people won't have been inoculated by pre-bunking because it seems to have been drowned out by the "influencer noise of the MAHA Mamas" as Conspirituality Podcast put it. I’ve seen many people who are confusing product cults for public health, group leaders and forum moderators who allow product placement in forums and support groups, orgs and operations that accept money from cryptocurrency tycoons that are wrecking communities and make more pandemics more likely with climate havoc, and organizations that purport to be about public health but in fact are developing and promoting AI as healthcare tools - something that experts and healthcare workers are screaming is dangerous. The contradictions are telling.
Some people, including scientists and entrepreneurs, will just be following the politics because that's how you follow the money. And that way leads to anti-vax. I have suspected this has been happening among scientists for some time. And you just can't trust anyone anymore without verifying and then verifying some more, because this is a publish and promote at all costs landscape where there's so much money to be made on products marketed to niche targets on the thinnest ruses. Of course anti-vax will lure even more down this road, if there’s even more money in it.
People like Paul Thacker are still complaining that too much has gone into research for Long Covid, and not enough scrutinizing the covid vaccines. So now with MAHA by RFKJr thanks to the Musk-Trump administration and the Senate, the anti-vaxxers are looking forward to an American government that will now take our taxpayer money that's been frozen and taken away from scientists and put it into (scare quotes) "science" or maybe just fake science, — the kind that works to undermine vaccination, possibly because it's part of a greater eugenics plan embraced by many tech tycoons, and just popular on the far right.
MAHA is an anti-vax slogan and has an entire line of merch attached to it. They're gutting the food safety division at FDA already. And people don't even realize that when RFKJr talks about "food safety" – you're probably thinking of one thing that sounds sensible – but RFKJr is talking about something very different. You’re thinking about tackling bird flu at the chicken and dairy farms, and worried about big corporations allowing adulteration in foods. When RFKJr talks about food, he’s talking about dictating to people what they should eat, especially working class people who he thinks should be sent to work farms for “wellness” if they have mental health needs, so they can “eat right” and not be allowed to take medicine. It sounds like a sink or swim situation. Nazi Germany was known for having aggressive “food science” politics, and we know all about the eugenics of the Nazis. But people don’t recognize it, because people hear what they want to hear. We all want to believe the best in people, or look for the bright side or someone’s good qualities, so people assume he has good intentions about food, when that’s just simply not the case. Thus is the nature of our information silos and how people don't even have an agreement for the meanings of terms anymore, or people have heard something and didn't realize how dubious it is or where it came from. Some call this information landscape that's developed the "splinternet".
MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy - Thinker-Fest: Session 1 - Fireside Chat - How to Fix the “Splinternet” Mar 3, 2023 They are really invested in gaining social capital and reputation for participating in these types of industries. And they also have economic models at play. You can buy flat earth sweatshirts, you can buy anti-vax stickers and notebooks, you can pay subscription fees, you can watch videos that are monetized on YouTube. And this is also very much a reputational economy. We also have a factor that I don't think is talked about a lot which are intentional antagonists otherwise known as trolls. What's interesting about them from a digital community perspective is that they too are chasing social currency but the reputation that they're cultivating within their own communities is one where the more chaos they create, the more reputation credibility that they have. And so these three forces are kind of at play when we look at what's happening from an individual and community's perspective. The issue is that if you broaden out, you start to see that all of these dynamics can take place because there are very clear revenue models and businesses. People are making money from this. For example I trace what's called direct benefits. So these are companies that are selling products and services directly related to the idea that's circulating. So if you are anti-vax, you are selling supplements right, if you are, you're selling essential oils, you're selling products that are directly benefiting from the disinformation or misinformation that is circulating.
Alliances with anti-vax has not and will not do any good for disability justice, Long Covid sufferers, or the immunocompromised. Eugenics is about getting rid of the vulnerable. And the sooner decent well-meaning people figure that out and break ties, even if socially painful or financially disadvantageous, the sooner more people can stop getting diverted into dead end activism placebos, or falling into access journalism, or getting involved with shaky research partners — and instead get to work with genuine people who care who are invested in building a better world based on truth and facts and accountable science — a society that rejects accepting preventable harm and embraces public health and community care — and vaccines.