Antivaxxers Fall into a Ring of Fire, page-801

The Dirty Disinformation Dozen were selected because they have large followings on social media, produce high volumes of anti-vaccine content, or saw rapid growth of their social media accounts from February-March 2021.

Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician and major proponent of “natural health”
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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of Robert F. Kennedy and an environmental lawyer and the founder of Children’s Health Defense

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Tyand Charlene Bollinger, self-acclaimed filmmakers and founders of the docuseries The Truth about Cancer

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Sherri Tenpenny, an osteopathic physician who believes vaccines cause autism
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Rizza Islam, an antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ social media influencer who targets his anti-vaccine messaging to the Black community

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Rashid Buttar, an osteopathic physician known for usingchelationtherapyfor numerous conditions, including autism and cancer

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Erin Elizabeth, runs an alternative health site called “Health Nut News” who has also shared antisemitic posts

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Sayer Ji, the founder of Green MedInfo, a popular alternative medicine portal
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Kelly Brogan, an author of books on alternative medicine, such as Mind of Your Own
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Christiane Northrup, an obstetrics and gynecology physician and author who has embraced pseudoscientific alternative medicine theories

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Ben Tapper, who works as a chiropractor and founded The Wellness Pointe
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Kevin Jenkins, a social epidemiologist focused on inequities in healthcare

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1.Mercola has built a vast operation to disseminate anti-vaccination and natural health content and to profit from it, according to researchers. He employs teams of people in places like Florida and the Philippines, who swing into action when news moments touch on health issues, rapidly publishing blog posts and translating them into nearly a dozen languages, then pushing them to a network of websites and to social media.

An analysis by The New York Times found that he had published more than 600articles on Facebook that cast doubt on COVID-19 vaccines since the pandemic began, reaching a far larger audience than other vaccine skeptics.

Mercola criticized the Times’ reporting in his post Wednesday, saying it was “loaded with false facts.”

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/a-top-spreader-of-coronavirus-misinformation-says-he-will-delete-his-posts-after-48-hours/?amp=1

On Facebook alone, the dozen are responsible for 73% of all anti-vaccine content, though the vaccines have been deemed safe and effective by the US government and its regulatory agencies.

And 95% of the Covid misinformation reported on these platforms were not removed.

Although platforms have since taken measures to remove many posts and even remove three of the 12 from one platform, the CCDH is calling on Facebook and Instagram, Twitter and YouTube to completely deplatform the disinformation dozen they believe are dangerous and instrumental in creating vaccine hesitancy at a crucial moment in the pandemic.