I spent the week tracing how @SecKennedy canceled $500 million in mRNA research and reporting on a(nother) very chaotic week inside HHS.

Let me introduce you to the fringe doctors, anti-vaccine activists, and MAHA operatives behind the mRNA “debacle.”
First up: Secretary Kennedy, who once again rolled out a major anti-vaccine policy change via X post. He offered no evidence for his claims that mRNA vaccines were ineffective. No coordination with the White House. And all while on a MAHA tour of Alaska.

I went to Seminole, Texas, after a measles outbreak tore through. Came back with a story about anti-vaccine activists at RFK Jr.-founded @ChildrensHD who exploited the crisis, doctors and public health officials working to contain it — and a community left to bear the cost. 🧵 The county had some of the lowest vaccination rates in the US, and rumors were spreading — some private schools had closed. When measles took hold, it spread fast, especially among Mennonite families who recently avoided vaccines.

The whole story behind RFK Jr. & Samoa's measles crisis has never been reported. He wanted to study a "natural experiment" of unvaccinated kids.

“I can’t imagine anything less ethical or more cruel.”
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/r… Samoa was on the brink of crisis. Vaccine rates had plummeted measles was spreading globally. Kennedy and CHD chief informatics officer (the doc behind a notoriously bad study in the U.S.) went with an offer: a data system that would track the outcome of unvaxxed vs vaxxed kids.

For the last many months, I've been watching a Russian propaganda operation that researchers call Storm 1516, poring over the work of what is in effect, a disinformation production company. nbcnews.com/specials/russi… It’s basically the notorious Internet Research Agency troll farm’s pivot to video. They rely on faked videos laundered through international news sources and influencers to reach a U.S. audience.

I think a lot about the '80s and the moral panics that characterized the time. It's no surprise that we've so recently fallen for this immigrants-are-eating-the-pets rumor, a lie often rooted in racism and fear. And one that only aids hate groups. nbcnews.com/tech/internet/… 1987

Yesterday, I got served up this trending video on X. According to Grok, this guy was a member of Hamas, threatening the Olympics in Paris. I watched the video and thought, Hey, I think I know that guy!
nbcnews.com/tech/misinform…


The uniform, the voice, the gray wall behind him, even the words … I had seen this guy in a video from October, included in this Clemson paper about a Russian disinformation campaign, from @DarrenLinvill and @plwarre.

tigerprints.clemson.edu/mfh_reports/3/

New from me: Enid, Oklahoma elected a white nationalist to its City Council, igniting a fight for the soul of the city, one that united a coalition of its most progressive residents and divided its most conservative. Now voters will decide: Should he stay? nbcnews.com/news/us-news/o… Before he won a seat on the City Council, Judd Blevins was a leader in the now-defunct white power group, Identity Evropa. In 2017, he marched in Charlottesville at a rally where a civil rights activist was murdered. He’s never answered for it. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/o…

Measles is surging in Europe and spreading in the US, so the anti-vaccine industry is brushing off its playbook to bring us the “this highly contagious disease is no big deal” play: measles edition. nbcnews.com/health/health-… Here’s the president of Robert F. Kennedy’s Children’s Health Defense (a lawyer not a doctor) last week:

New: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hires Del Bigtree, popular anti-vaccine activist, as his presidential campaign’s communications director. The latest evidence that RFK's presidential run is a dressed-up national anti-vaccine campaign. A few exclusive details: nbcnews.com/politics/2024-… I got the newest 990s from Bigtree's nonprofit. 2022 was a banner year. The group brought in $13.4 mil and Bigtree got a big raise, bringing his salary to $284,000. It's unclear how this new post will affect the nonprofit, which is prohibited from engaging in political activity.

NEW from me on The Epoch Times: A persecuted religious group's PR newsletter is now one of the most influential U.S. conservative media orgs.

How they’ve ridden the moment of political polarization & conspirituality to make millions and go mainstream. nbcnews.com/news/us-news/e… I wanted to check in after our 2019 investigation revealed how The Epoch Times ran content farms & poured money to support Trump’s reelection. Here are the wildest things I learned reporting the story on its meteoric rise.

1. The paper struggled for decades. It's rich now.

EXCLUSIVE @MikeBenzCyber, former State Dept official & rising voice in the “anti-censorship” movement seems to have a past as“Frame Game,” a popular alt-right YouTuber who frequented white supremacist podcasts and blamed Jews for “white genocide.” nbcnews.com/tech/internet/… @MikeBenzCyber Frame Game hid his face while pushing racist conspiracy theories. But slips like naming browsers “Mike” in livestreams and websites that autopopulated with his Facebook photo, revealed details about his identity. Benz hung up on me when I asked for comment. Receipts in story.

OK, so remember the "flu shot cheerleader" — a 2009 media sensation/meme for a story that a vaccine triggered her strange disability. I reported the story out – and she has a warning about the anti-vaccine movement that made her its poster girl:

"Run"

nbcnews.com/news/us-news/d… The media storm came as the world was in the midst of a pandemic (not that one)—a novel H1N1 flu—and anti-vaccine activists were on the hunt for vaccine injury stories. Jenny McCarthy’s group found her and offered a cure – if she starred in an anti-vaccine documentary.
A still:

RFK Jr told a congressional subcommittee today that he's not anti-vaxx and has never told the public not to get vaccinated. That's just not true. Here he is in 2021, on a podcast. He said he accosts people carrying babies on hiking trails and in grocery stores, urging them not to vaccinate, "to save" the children. Say his fellow anti-vaxxers should "come out of the closet."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. knows he shouldn't talk about vaccines while campaigning. But the long shot candidate can't help himself.

Here's what I learned on the (hiking) trail with RFK Jr.

nbcnews.com/politics/2024-… Kennedy isn't "leading" with vaccines (his life's work!) so you won't see this in campaign materials or speeches. But if he wins (a long shot) he'll:

- gut health agencies
- pursue unethical studies on childhood vaccines
- Order DOJ to investigate scientists / medical journals

RFK Jr announces his candidacy for president today. His support team includes Steve Kirsch, Covid anti-vaxx activist and Del Bigtree, leader of the second-best funded anti-vaxx group. (RFK Jr's is the first.) But I wonder if he's going to mention vaccines in his speech...

https://twitter.com/stkirsch/status/1648429414844358656

I may be wrong but I expect no for the same reason there's no mention of vaccines on his campaign site. He's trying to reach the mainstream. People who don't know how extreme he's become. People who believe childhood vaccines are generally good and diseases like measles are bad.

OK because I can’t find it anywhere else and the billionaire who’s running his companies into the ground can’t stop amplifying random anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists... Let’s look at these “just asking questions” Damar Hamlin claims from the ex-OAN podcast lady. So 1 in 5,000 young men with heart issues? Ms. Wheeler cited a story citing regulators using unconfirmed data to make risk models. They came up with that number in their “worst case” estimate and determined the benefits of vaccines to still outweigh risks.
fda.gov/media/151733/d…

New: A week ago, Elon Musk announced a great unbanning—Twitter would reverse thousands of suspensions, including Donald Trump. But also, scraped data shows, he freed an emboldened group of trolls, white nationalists, QAnoners, and extreme right-wingers. nbcnews.com/tech/internet/… The details of who gets unsuspended, when, and under what rules? Seemingly up to the whims of Mr. Musk. That free-wheeling uncertainty is not a great strategy, according to Twitter's recent head of trust and safety.

New: Joe Rogan (& at least 20 conservative candidates!) are spreading what might be the dumbest Facebook urban legend about litter boxes in schools. Why do they keep falling for this stuff?

They need something to explain & perpetuate their transphobia.
nbcnews.com/tech/misinform… It’s rare that you get a lie that’s both colossally dumb and uniquely dangerous for already vulnerable people. It took a whole team of reporters to get through the nonsense. @tylerkingkade @BenjaminGoggin @oneunderscore__

Dr. Katherine Gast, co-director of UW Health's gender services program, was targeted last month by a clout-chasing, anti-LGBTQ outrage machine; a new normal for docs of trans patients that Gast called, "scary and overwhelming."
From me and @oneunderscore__
nbcnews.com/tech/internet/… @oneunderscore__ In a familiar pattern, outrage content farm LibsofTikTok blew the whistle with a misleading thread about Gast, and her foaming followers—including a sitting US senator— answered the call, culminating in the doctor being flooded with hateful messages and the doxxing of her family.

I spent the summer chasing Satan -- talking with people who have been newly accused as "Satanists" or so-called ritualistic abusers. Experts told me we were in a modern day version of the moral panic of the 1980s, when hysteria over the devil reigned.
nbcnews.com/tech/internet/… In Provo, the top prosecutor and his wife were branded as cannibals and rapists by QAnon influencers and conspiracy theorists online. When the prosecutor tried to get in front of the allegations, his political opponents used it against him.

This makes a point that I've been grappling with, specifically this week around the harassment and threats aimed at Children's hospitals. I tried to get a source on the record, who's involved with an org aimed at protecting doctors from abuse. She wouldn't. And I don't blame her.

https://twitter.com/MarcusBlimi/status/1560245721764438016

People are afraid. Rightly so. Standing up to conspiracy theorists & anti-vaxxers & liars in a far right media machine feels like a fool's errand. I used to have a fair pitch for being an advocate for the truth. Probably used it on doctors for this story. nbcnews.com/health/kids-he…