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<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Informed Consent Action Network is one of the most influential <keyword id="11936192" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="anti-vax" source="Orion">anti-vax</keyword> groups in the world.</li><li>The group has brokered ties with far-right Trump supporters in recent months.</li><li>It's bankrolled by the New York philanthropist and billionaire <keyword id="11936193" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bernard-selz" source="Orion">Bernard Selz</keyword>.</li></ul>As part of his bid to encourage Fox <keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">News</keyword> viewers to question the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, Tucker Carlson in June praised the work of an obscure campaign group named the <keyword id="11936191" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="informed-action-consent-network" source="Orion">Informed Action Consent Network</keyword>, or ICAN.<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-two-faced-fauci-pushed-draconian-measures-despite-data">Carlson</a> described ICAN as "a group that advocates for transparency on vaccines," citing emails it had obtained to attack White House medical chief Dr. Anthony Fauci, a popular hate figure for the far right. ICAN is seen by many as a more extreme - and dangerous - organization that Carlson's description let on. It was one of the figures on the so-called <a href="https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_b7cedc0553604720b7137f8663366ee5.pdf">"disinformation dozen" list</a> cited by President Joe Biden's administration as the main sources for anti-vaccination disinformation online, which Biden has called on Big Tech to combat.ICAN is particularly notable, experts say, because it has actively courted conservatives and supporters of former President Donald Trump, whom multiple studies have shown to be the most reluctant to trust the shot.Since being founded three years ago, the group has waged a media, legal, and online campaign to hammer home the theory that the damage caused by vaccines is being systematically suppressed. <div type="image" title="Lisa and Bernard Selz" height="1502" width="2000" msid="85589538" hostid="261"></div>The group is based in Texas, a hub for libertarian right-wing causes, and the campaign is - per a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/meet-the-new-york-couple-donating-millions-to-the-anti-vax-movement/2019/06/18/9d791bcc-8e28-11e9-b08e-cfd89bd36d4e_story.html">Washington Post investigation</a> - largely bankrolled by the New York financier Bernard Selz and his wife, Lisa. <h2>Vaccine hesitancy is killing thousands, and impacting US economic recovery</h2>The Delta coronavirus variant continues to spread in the US, causing serious illness <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-well-vaccines-work-against-delta-variant-chart-2021-8">almost exclusively</a> in those who have not accepted a vaccine. The continuing spread of the disease also imperils US economic recovery.Imran Ahmed is the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the UK-based charity that compiled the "disinformation dozen" list cited by the Biden administration. He told Insider that ICAN and its CEO, <keyword id="11936190" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="del-bigtree" source="Orion">Del Bigtree</keyword>, were among the top anti-vaccination influencers on the list."The disinformation dozen aren't just 12 individuals, but they essentially act ... as marketing tools of the overall anti-vax credo," he said.<h2>A targeted audience</h2>Different anti-vaxxers target different segments of the population, Ahmed said, citing specific communities like yoga-and-wellness followers.ICAN, meanwhile, has sought to build these ties by emphasizing a hostility to liberal and scientific "elites" shared by anti-vaxxers and Trump fans, he said.Bigtree, in particular, had "made it their focus to target people with Republican values or who are Trump adherents," Ahmed said. In fact, the ICAN CEO <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/Health/medical/antivaxxers-worked-with-stop-the-steal-organizers-for-jan-6-rally/vi-BB1doLO9?ocid=st">had appeared at an event</a> before the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, DC, that preceded the attack on the US Capitol.Also present were anti-vaxxers <a href="https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_5311113400604e00b8ed2a4746021de8.pdf">Charles and Ty Bollinger,</a> who have featured on Bigtree's influential podcast "The Highwire," which was recently removed by YouTube for violating anti-disinformation policies. Another major anti-vax activist and "Highwire" guest, Joseph Mercola, has appeared on Steve Bannon's podcast, further illustrating how the movements have cross-fertilized. Last October, Bigtree appeared at AMP Fest, hosted at Trump's Doral resort in Florida, alongside influencers from the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy-theory movement. Tara Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State University, told Insider that Bigtree had long hosted guests who backed Trump's attempts to downplay the pandemic or undermine public-health officials."His bottom line pushes distrust of the government and experts, which fits in well with the Trump playbook," she said. Ana Santos Rutschman, Assistant Professor of Law at Saint Louis University, said ICAN and Bigtree were "taking advantage of the way anti-vaccine messages resonate with many Trump supporters and deliberately propagating vaccine disinformation with those supporters in mind."As well as forming ties with the right, ICAN has spearheaded legal challenges to vaccine mandates in schools and other organizations across the US. Bigtree defended his position in a telephone interview with Insider. "We simply are a consumer-advocacy group that seeks to make sure that people are getting the safest products they can. There is a protocol to how we approve pharmaceutical drugs, and we believe that vaccines should adhere to those same protocols and principles," he said. He said public-health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were wrong to advocate Americans to get the shot: "I believe it's reckless. I believe it's dangerous and I think it is unnecessarily putting people in unknown risk situations."Claims that the vaccines have not been properly tested for safety have been squarely rejected by most public-health professionals and infectious-disease experts. The shots have been found in clinical and real-world trials to be safe and effective.The CDC says on its <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/safety-of-vaccines.html">website</a> that the US COVID-19 vaccines "have undergone and will continue to undergo the most intensive safety monitoring in US history." The Food and Drug Administration <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-gains-full-fda-approval-2021-8">fully approved Pfizer's vaccine</a> on Monday, <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine">saying</a> "the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality."<div type="image" title="Del Bigtree anti-vax" height="2397" width="3196" msid="85589539" hostid="261"></div>Bigtree denied allegations that he had sought to broker ties specifically with Trump supporters, saying he would not "waste time" on supporters of " a man who is no longer president." He also said he has "never quoted or given any attention to the myth of Q," referring to the QAnon conspiracy-theory movement.On his decision to speak at the event preceding the January 6 rally, Bigtree said: "Wherever there's a large audience that will hear the information that we have to share, then I will go there."He also said that while he personally doesn't have any medical qualifications, his work as a producer covering science on TV programs like the "Dr. Phil" show qualified him for his role at ICAN.He said he regularly consulted with medical experts about scientific research on vaccines, but declined to share a list of the experts when asked by Insider. <h2>Selz money</h2>ICAN's campaign is bankrolled by a wealthy New York couple: The hedge-fund manager Bernard Selz and his wife, Lisa, as The Post reported in June.For years the couple has donated to conventional artistic and philanthropic causes, but more recently started channeling money into anti-vax groups and influencers. According to The Post, the couple has provided three-quarters of ICAN's money, including $1 million in 2017 alone. Bigtree said he did not discuss private donors or their views. Selz did not respond to multiple emailed requests for comment.The Post traced the couple's involvement in the anti-vax movement to 2012, and said their money was used to produced "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-removes-vaxxed-documentary-junk-science-2019-3">Vaxxed</a>," the controversial anti-vax documentary Bigtree produced. The film cemented Bigtree's status as a rising star in the movement. ICAN is among the best-financed anti-vax groups in America, giving it an organizational and legal advantage over others, said Santos Rutschman, the law professor."A very limited number of high-resource groups control and fund most the anti-vaccine activity in the US, and ICAN is part of that club," she said. <div type="image" title="trump vaccine operation warp speed" height="2863" width="3818" msid="85589541" hostid="261"></div>In some ways, the alliance between Trump supporters is unexpected. After all, the vaccines were developed as part of the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed, and prominent <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sarah-huckabee-sanders-boasts-of-trump-vaccine-claiming-credit-2021-7">conservative figures</a> - including <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-trump-booed-after-asking-crowd-get-covid-19-vaccines-2021-8">Trump</a> - have urged Americans to get the shot in recent months.But Ahmed said it was inevitable that a hypothetical politician would one day seek to exploit this budding alliance between anti-vax groups and Trump's base, and potentially propel the anti-vaccination movement further into the GOP mainstream."There's always a politician that comes along, thinking they can exploit it. In the US you can see [some Republicans] trying to play to this new coalition," he said."The Trump playbook is that it is possible to build a coalition, a base out of these various crank groups."

How a New York billionaire-funded anti-vax group is contributing to the vaccine hesitancy that's crippling the US recovery

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Prominent anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running for president as a Democrat. </li><li>Kennedy has been repeatedly suspended from Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for spreading misinformation.</li></ul>Before he announced his <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robert-kennedy-jr-challenging-biden-2024-democratic-nomination-anti-vaccine-2023-4">candidacy for president</a> in April, it seemed that anti-vaxxer <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-robert-f-kennedy-rfk-jr-2023-7">Robert F. Kennedy Jr.</a> and his slew of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kennedy-family-not-supporting-robert-f-kennedy-jrs-2024-bid-2023-4">conspiracy theories</a> would remain consigned to the fringes of political debate.He <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kxkxq/robert-f-kennedy-jr-gives-the-game-away">told attendees</a> of a "health policy roundtable" his campaign hosted last month with a variety of anti-vaccine personalities that the mainstream media had ostracized him."I'm somebody who could not get on the press for 18 years," said Kennedy, who has compared pandemic-era public-health measures to Nazism, claimed chemical exposure is causing people to identify as transgender, and said at a campaign event last week that COVID-19 is proof that governments are building bioweapons to target racial groups.Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-bans-robert-f-kennedy-jr-anti-vaxx-views-2021-2">repeatedly suspended RFK Jr.</a> and the accounts he's associated with for spreading misinformation about vaccines and the COVID-19 pandemic. (For his part, Kennedy has said he is not an anti-vaxxer, but he has sown doubt about the safety of vaccines by calling for more studies on links between vaccines and conditions, including autism.)But on Twitter, where he has more followers than on all other platforms combined, RFK Jr.'s misinformation has thrived, amplified by a host of Twitter Blue subscribers whose tweets are algorithmically boosted into other users' feeds.Twitter Blue subscribers pay $8 a month for a suite of features, including an edit function and the ability to write lengthier tweets. But most significantly, their tweets are <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/twitter-showed-us-its-algorithm-what-does-it-tell-us#:~:text=(The%20Twitter%20Blue%20webpage%20does,4x%20in%20the%20ranking%20formula.">prioritized by Twitter's ranking algorithm</a>, meaning they appear higher in users' feeds.Twitter Blue subscribers also receive a blue checkmark next to their name. Before CEO Elon Musk rolled out Twitter Blue last year, only users manually verified by Twitter staff received a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-hiding-paid-blue-check-elon-musk-2023-5">blue check</a>, usually because they were political figures, celebrities, or news media.A blue check "used to signal actor authenticity," four researchers from NewsGuard, an app that assesses the reliability of media sources, concluded in an <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.newsweek.com/2023/04/07/verified-misinformation-blue-check-twitter-accounts-are-flooding-platform-false-claims-1793237.html">April study</a> showing that Twitter Blue subscribers were spreading conspiracy theories. "Now, it's a way for peddlers of misinformation to appear trustworthy."An Insider examination found more than 20 Twitter Blue subscribers with follower counts ranging from 180,000 to 1 million users who have spread RFK Jr.'s conspiracy theories to tens of millions of people in the past two months, according to Twitter's metrics.A Twitter spokesperson, when asked to comment,<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-automatically-responds-to-press-emails-with-a-poop-emoji-2023-3"> auto-replied with a poop emoji</a>. Kennedy's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.The tweets come from right-wing and anti-vaccine activists whose accounts have been penalized by other social media platforms. They include the anti-vaccine activist Del Bigtree, who previously <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/struggling-anti-vaccination-groups-enjoyed-pandemic-windfall-rcna14402">sued YouTube and Facebook</a> for suspending his accounts from their platforms; <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/24/robert-malone-vaccine-misinformation-rogan-mandates/">Dr. Robert Malone</a>, who rose to prominence discrediting the COVID vaccine; and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/health-science/2023/06/09/454104/texas-medical-board-complaint-mary-bowden-houston-doctor-prescription-patient-confidentiality-violations/">Dr. Mary Talley Bowden</a>, who was suspended by a Houston hospital for spreading vaccine misinformation to her patients and online, including tweets promoting the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19.Bigtree and Malone did not respond to requests for comment. In a text message after the publication of this article, Bowden wrote that her tweets "are all based on first-hand knowledge from seeing thousands of patients with COVID, long-haul COVID and vaccine injuries. I have been defamed, censored and retaliated against for speaking out about what I'm seeing."They also include anonymous accounts like The Vigilant Fox, Chief Nerd, and KanekoaTheGreat, all previously suspended from Twitter for spreading misinformation. In the past week, tweets from those three accounts alone showing support for RFK Jr., including repeating the bunk theory that COVID-19 targets certain ethnicities and repeating calls for Kennedy to debate a prominent vaccine scientist, have received more than 15 million views, according to Twitter's metrics.Kennedy, who has 1.9 million Twitter followers, is also a Twitter Blue subscriber.Musk, who unveiled Twitter Blue last year after <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-reach-agreement-to-close-acquisition-deal-2022-10">purchasing the company for $44 billion</a>, has emerged as an RFK Jr. booster, along with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-dorsey-backs-anti-vaxxer-robert-f-kennedy-jr-president-2023-6">other Silicon Valley elites</a>. Musk hosted a bizarre two-hour-long Twitter Spaces last month in which RFK Jr. pronounced that the rise in <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robert-kennedy-jr-elon-musk-american-revolution-twitter-spaces-conversation-2023-6">mass shootings is linked to antidepressant use</a>, implied that pharmaceutical companies are to blame for COVID deaths, and thanked Musk for "reclaiming democracy."Twitter in the Musk era has become an incubation tank for misinformation, propelled in part by Twitter Blue subscribers, according to researchers at the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90829546/twitter-blue-profiles-are-already-a-hotbed-of-misinformation">The center found</a> more than one-quarter of the tweets with the most engagement from Twitter Blue subscribers contain misinformation. On Twitter, anti-vaccination and conspiracy theorists have celebrated the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://counterhate.com/research/toxic-twitter/">reinstatement</a> of accounts previously banned for spreading misinformation."The Twitter blue tick used to be a sign of authority and authenticity, but it is now inextricably linked to the promotion of hate and conspiracism," Center for Countering Digital Hate president Imran Ahmed said in a statement.Meanwhile, Twitter does not act on complaints about Twitter Blue subscribers' tweets <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://counterhate.com/research/twitter-fails-to-act-on-twitter-blue-accounts-tweeting-hate/">in 99% of cases</a>, the nonprofit found.Insider identified blue-check Twitter accounts amplifying Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s conspiracy theories by examining Twitter's database of tweets flagged for review as possibly containing misinformation. However, none of the tweets spreading misinformation that the Insider reporters reviewed ended up with a community note or warning label attached.July 19, 2023 This story has been updated to include comment from Dr. Mary Talley Bowden.

Elon Musk and Twitter Blue subscribers are boosting RFK Jr. anti-vax conspiracies to millions

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Baseball icon <keyword id="619519" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hank-Aaron">Hank Aaron</keyword> died on Friday, aged 86. </li><li>In the wake of his <keyword id="6355784" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="death">death</keyword> anti-vaxxers tied his death to the <keyword id="8904563" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19-vaccine">COVID-19 vaccine</keyword>, which he had recently gotten. </li><li>But Georgia's Fulton County Medical Examiner's office said on Monday that Aaron died of natural causes. </li></ul>Baseball Hall of Famer <a href="https://www.insider.com/barack-obama-hank-aaron-letters-show-racism-baseball-legend-endured-2021-1">Hank Aaron's death</a> has been exploited by anti-vaxxers, but health officials in Georgia said this week that there is no evidence his death was related to him getting the <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> vaccine.Aaron died on Friday at 86 years old, three weeks after he received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination.In the days that followed, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-19-anti-vaxxers-are-persuadable-nobel-prize-economist-says-2020-12">anti-vaxxers</a> suggested it was linked to the vaccine. High-profile anti-vaccine supporters including <a href="https://twitter.com/robertkennedyjr/status/1352748139665645569">Robert F. Kennedy Jr.</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/delbigtree/status/1352674718910980096">Del Bigtree</a> even questioned Aaron's death online, calling it "suspicious" and accusing the COVID-19 inoculation of being unsafe. Vaccines are, however, a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/conversations/downloads/vacsafe-understand-color-office.pdf">safe and controlled way to gain immunity</a> to a virus without contracting a disease, and COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna have been <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-statement-following-authorized-dosing-schedules-covid-19-vaccines">approved by the Food and Drug Administration.</a>Amid questions from anti-vaxxers, Georgia's Fulton County Medical Examiner's office said on Monday that Aaron died on of natural causes, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/boomerang-effect-hank-aaron-s-death-falsely-linked-covid-vaccine-n1255735">according to NBC News.</a>Georgia Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey <a href="https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-braves/toomey-aaron-death-not-covid-related/W7AWAMTOLVDNPDUNOQI3ASVQHE/">told the Atlanta Journal Constitution</a> that there is "no evidence" that Aaron's death had anything to do with the COVID-19 vaccine."I know that people are saying that. I've seen it on social media. I think it's just important that we quell these kind of rumors because we don't want people to be dissuaded from getting the vaccine," Toomey said.Aaron had celebrated getting the COVID-19 vaccine at a health clinic at the Morehouse School of Medicine on January 5, saying it made him feel "wonderful." "I don't have any qualms about it at all, you know. I feel quite proud of myself for doing something like this. ... It's just a small thing that can help zillions of people in this country," he told <a href="https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30658279/hank-aaron-gets-covid-19-vaccine-send-message">the Associated Press at the time.</a>Peter Hotez, an expert on vaccine development from the Baylor College of Medicine who wrote the book "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism" about his daughter, called anti-vaxxers who tied Aaron's death to the COVID-19 vaccine "opportunists" in an interview with NBC <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news">News</keyword>."They'll try to glom on to anything they can," Hotez, who previously<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anti-vaxxers-concern-covid-19-vaccine-unhelpful-experts-say-2020-12"> told Insider that he was concerned about the growing anti-vaccine movement and COVID-19</a>, said.A memorial service for Aaron was held in Atlanta on Tuesday, and a funeral service is scheduled for Wednesday.

Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron's death is being falsely linked to the COVID-19 vaccine

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> on Thursday announced it would begin removing content that makes false claims about <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> vaccines.</li><li>The platform has taken a lot of heat for being a hub of anti-vaxx activists and advocates — but the real struggle in the coming months may actually end up being on its trendy, younger subsidiary: <keyword id="819905" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Instagram">Instagram</keyword>.</li><li>Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), tells Business Insider that Instagram has the fastest-growing audience for anti-vaxx accounts.</li><li>Instagram appears to apply Facebook's policies on anti-vaxx content more leniently, and big-name anti-vaxxers who have been kicked off Facebook, including David Icke, still have Instagram accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers.</li><li>Facebook denied that it applies its policies unevenly across Facebook and Instagram.</li><li>"We take aggressive steps to limit the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 and connect people with reliable information," it said, adding that it removed COVID-19 misinformation that "could lead to imminent physical harm."</li></ul>As Facebook brings in new policies to fight the inevitable onslaught of COVID-19 <keyword id="24209" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="vaccine">vaccine</keyword> misinformation, Instagram - where anti-vaxx accounts post images and videos to millions of followers - could become the place it most struggles to keep it in check.Facebook said Thursday it would crack down on COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on both Facebook and Instagram, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-will-start-removing-posts-with-false-vaccine-claims-2020-12">removing posts that make false claims</a>. The new policy comes at a crucial time: On December 2, the UK <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pfizer-and-biontech-covid-19-vaccines-approved-by-uk-regulator-2020-11">approved Pfizer's shot</a>, becoming the first Western nation to authorize a <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> vaccine. The US <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pfizer-and-biontech-covid-19-vaccines-approved-by-uk-regulator-2020-11">could do the same on December 10</a>.As we inch closer to vaccines becoming a reality, it's still not clear how many people will be willing to take one. Experts have voiced their concern that the anti-vaccination - sometimes known as anti-vaxx - movement could <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anti-vaxxers-concern-covid-19-vaccine-unhelpful-experts-say-2020-12">discourage people from taking the vaccine</a>. Even President-elect Joe Biden has warned that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-covid-vaccine-safety-losing-faith-fauci-2020-12">Americans have "lost faith" that the shot will work</a>.But while Facebook has taken a lot of heat over the years for being a hub of anti-vaxx activists and advocates, the real struggle in the coming months may actually end up being on its trendy, younger subsidiary: Instagram.Anti-vaxx accounts there have millions of followers, the number ever-climbing - and prominent anti-vaxx advocates that have booted off of Facebook, such as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52501453">David Icke</a>, have lingered on the photo-sharing app.<h2>Instagram isn't the biggest social network for anti-vaxxers, but it's the fastest-growing</h2>The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that focuses on hate speech and misinformation online, published a series of reports this year on the anti-vaxx movement online.Imran Ahmed, CEO of the CCDH, told Business Insider that although Facebook still has the largest audience for anti-vaxx content, the movement has been picking up steam on Instagram."Every platform is at fault here, but anti-vaxx accounts on Instagram are growing their following, bringing more and more people under their influence, faster than anywhere else," he said.The CCDH published a <a href="https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_6910f8ab94a241cfa088953dd5e60968.pdf">report</a> in July on the audience growth of 409 prominent social media anti-vaxx accounts. It identified Instagram as the "biggest growth area" for these highly-motivated, influential accounts."Instagram accounts for more than half of anti-vaxx campaigners' follower growth during the COVID pandemic, attracting an extra 571,000 people," the report said.In a September <a href="https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_8d23c70f0a014b3c9e2cfc334d4472dc.pdf">follow-up report</a> charting follower growth from July to August, Instagram was still the fastest growing platform. "Anti-vaxx accounts on Instagram grew fastest in this period, adding 620,000 followers or 9% of its previous total," the CCDH said. This brings Instagram's total audience for anti-vaxx accounts to roughly 7.8 million, per the CCDH.It added that audience growth on Instagram accounted for 42% of follower growth for anti-vaxx accounts across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter - although it still only made up a 13% slice of total follower numbers.Facebook still has the largest audience for anti-vaxx accounts, with 31.9 million followers, but that audience only grew 1% over the same period.<h2>Facebook's policies appear less strictly applied on Instagram</h2>One reason Instagram is experiencing such a surge could be that the platform lags behind its parent Facebook on policy enforcement.As part of <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-anti-vaccine-crack-down/">a broad crackdown on anti-vaxx content</a> in February, Facebook announced that while it wouldn't outright ban anti-vaxx posts, it would restrict their visibility. Facebook's search function, for example, is not meant to throw up any posts containing anti-vaxx misinformation.If you type "vaccine" into Facebook's search bar, it returns the pages for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and a few pro-vaccination pages.When Business Insider plugged the same word into Instagram's search on November 24, three out of the top five results - including the number one result - were anti-vaccination accounts.<div type="image" title="A protester holds an anti-vaccination sign as supporters of President Donald Trump rally to reopen California as the coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen, on May 16 in Woodland Hills, California." height="1666" width="2221" msid="79569701" hostid="261"></div>Instagram does seem to have enacted some policy changes since. The same search Friday surfaced accounts for the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization in top three spots. But these were followed by two of the same anti-vaccine accounts that cropped up the week before."It's disgraceful that, at a time when vaccines are in the news and people want to know the latest developments, users who search for terms like 'vaccine' on Instagram are being recommended anti-vaxx content by the platform," Ahmed said. Ahmed is also skeptical of Facebook's policy to take down COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. "[The] policy change is long overdue, but there is no guarantee that it will be properly enforced," he said."As we saw in the months following Facebook's promise to remove misinformation about coronavirus earlier this year, they rarely enforce their own policies."Facebook denied that it applies its policies unevenly across Facebook and Instagram."We take aggressive steps to limit the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 and connect people with reliable information. This includes removing COVID-19 misinformation that could lead to imminent physical harm, such as false claims about cures, ways to prevent COVID-19 or the vaccines now rolling out around the world," it said in a statement."Between March and October we removed more than 12 million pieces of this type of content on Facebook and Instagram. We also ban adverts that include vaccine hoaxes or discourage people from getting a vaccine and put warning labels over posts marked as false by third party fact checkers," a spokesperson said.<h2>Big-name anti-vaxxers who've been kicked on Facebook are alive and well on Instagram</h2>Ahmed believes the best way to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook and Instagram is to deplatform prominent anti-vaxx figures, as the CCDH believes them to be the main drivers of anti-vaxx audience growth. "The majority of the problem lies with a small number of superspreaders - pages and groups with large audiences - who help anti-vaxx misinformation go viral," he said.Ahmed added that Instagram appears to be more reticent to remove anti-vaxx personalities than its parent Facebook."Even when Facebook is pressured into removing an anti-vaxxer from its platform, as it did in May with David Icke and more recently Del Bigtree, those same actors are allowed to continue promoting themselves and their dangerous conspiracy theories on Instagram," he said.<div type="image" title="David Icke" height="2002" width="3000" msid="79569703" hostid="261"></div><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52501453">David Icke's Facebook account was removed</a> after he made various false claims about the coronavirus, including that it was linked to 5G networks. Bigtree's anti-vaccination show The HighWire was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/covid-19-vaccines-face-varied-powerful-misinformation-movement-online-n1249378">removed by Facebook</a> after he suggested viewers deliberately expose themselves to the virus.Icke and Bigtree's Instagram accounts are both still active and have a combined following of 422,000 followers at time of writing.Facebook told Business Insider if someone's Facebook account is removed their Instagram account is not penalized. To be removed from Instagram, the user would have to break its guidelines from their Instagram account.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insider-pfizer-biontech-historic-coronavirus-vaccine-program-2020-11?r=ih-sub">How the pharma giant Pfizer teamed up with a little-known biotech to develop an effective coronavirus vaccine in record time</a>Ahmed also thinks Instagram's Stories feature, which deletes posts after 24 hours, makes it harder to report and moderate content. <h2>If COVID-19 vaccine misinformation picks up steam on Instagram, it could mean more scrutiny for Facebook</h2>Facebook's new policy on COVID-19 vaccine misinformation will apply to both Facebook and Instagram, but it remains to be seen how evenly it will actually play out on the platforms.The company will have to tread carefully. President-elect Joe Biden expressed support early this year for <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/17/21070403/joe-biden-president-election-section-230-communications-decency-act-revoke">regulating Facebook over misinformation</a>.The <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/18a95526-3af9-4545-9d77-b3a0d7a7640a">Financial Times</a> reported in November that the tech giant had started exploring features for encouraging vaccination as a way of getting in Biden's good books, and CEO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-joe-biden-coronavirus-vaccine-misinformation-2020-12">Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday</a> it's planning a "push around authoritative information on vaccines."But Ahmed said that governments are "increasingly wise to Facebook's dishonesty and failure to follow through on spin.""They must introduce tough regulations as soon as possible to ensure these policies are enforced, including criminal sanctions for breaches of their duty to remove harmful material that puts lives at risk," he said.

Social media superspreaders: Why Instagram, not Facebook, will be the real battleground for COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Some recent surveys suggest Americans, especially young ones, are wary of a <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> vaccine.</li><li>The <keyword id="2712090" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="anti-vaccine-movement">anti-vaccine movement</keyword> is capitalizing on this skepticism, including at a recent in-person conference held in North Carolina. </li><li>Top scientific experts have said an effective, widely-used vaccine is the "only hope" at eliminating the coronavirus and achieving herd immunity quickly. </li></ul>As scientists around the world race to develop a vaccine to fight the novel coronavirus, some Americans are still skeptical. A<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-norc-poll-half-of-americans-would-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-2020-5"> poll published May 27</a> found that only about half of Americans would get a coronavirus vaccine, should one become available, while 31% were unsure. One in five said they'd flat-out refuse, according the poll of 1,056 adults from <a href="http://www.apnorc.org/Pages/default.aspx">The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.</a>Many of the undecided or uninterested haven't previously been active in the <keyword id="2334081" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="anti-vaccine">anti-vaccine</keyword> movement. Rather, skeptics seem to be voicing hesitance around this vaccine in particular, including related its rush to development, fears that it will be forced upon unwilling citizens, and growing distrust of mainstream medicine and media. Staunch <keyword id="1757104" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Anti-Vaxxers">anti-vaxxers</keyword> are taking note. <h2>Anti-vaccine sentiments spread at a recent nonconventional medicine conference</h2>About 200 nonconventional medicine practitioners, researchers, anti-vaccine advocates, and members of the public from all over the globe convened for a conference in North Carolina over Memorial Day weekend. Called the Advanced Medicine Conference, the event marketed itself to people "who are seeking the truth, who wish to learn the secret to not only achieving optimum health but who want to know the secret to all aspects of life, who are on the evolutionary path to greater awareness and insight and wish to take the next leap forward," according to <a href="https://advancedmedicineconference.com/about">its website</a>. One of its leaders was osteopathic physician and conspiracy theorist Dr. Rashid Buttar. <div type="image" title="Rashid Buttar hugging at conference" height="1560" width="2874" msid="76110434" hostid="261"></div>The speakers promoted alternative medicine practices, such as restorative breathing and herbal medicine, and expressed their concerns about the safety of a possible coronavirus vaccine. "They are rushing the <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword>. You do not rush science. That is a recipe for disaster," Del Bigtree, CEO of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/313820309356251/videos/1141552786205310/">told Business Insider Today</a> from Charlotte. "It has to be just like every drug, two to three years long, at least preferably five years." Hope Ransom, an attendee, told BI Today she was concerned about the prospect of being forced to get a vaccine. "We are individuals that should be in charge of making our own decisions," she said. "So if you want a vaccine, you take a vaccine, but don't hold me reliable for what it is you choose to do to your body." Their concerns mirror some of those voiced <a href="https://lifepetitions.com/petition/no-mandatory-vaccine-for-covid-19">in a petition</a> that, as of the evening of May 28, had close to 560,000 signatures. "The so-called 'public health experts' have gotten it wrong many times during the current crisis," it says. "We should not, therefore, allow their opinions to rush decision-makers into policies regarding vaccination." <h2>The movement has also gained traction through social media </h2>Prior to the conference, the anti-vaccine message was already gaining traction. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2281-1?utm_medium=affiliate&amp;utm_source=commission_junction&amp;utm_campaign=3_nsn6445_deeplink_PID2190813&amp;utm_content=deeplinkent=deeplink">One recent study</a> showed that anti-vaccine views are growing explosively on social media and could become dominant within the next decade.Bigtree, who hosts the weekly anti-vaccine online talk show "The Highwire," said he's seen his audience grow about 25-fold over the past three months. And Buttar, who told BI Today vaccines are "absolutely, categorically, not based on science," has seen his videos incorrectly claiming the coronavirus is linked to 5G technology spread far and wide. They're repeatedly removed by Facebook and YouTube for spreading misinformation.Some conference-goers told BI Today they attended because they wanted to hear and meet him. <div type="image" title="covid 19 coronavirus vaccine working development britain.JPG" height="1667" width="2500" msid="76110438" hostid="261"></div><h2>A safe and widely-implemented vaccine is "the one great hope" of eliminating the virus</h2>Despite growing skepticism, top medical experts remain united in their message: Until an effective vaccine is developed and widely distributed, the coronavirus will continue to upend life as we knew it. The World Health Organization's Executive Director of Health Emergencies Mike Ryan <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-coronavirus-may-never-go-away-vaccine-years-off-2020-5?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">has called i</a>t the "one great hope" at potentially eliminating the novel coronavirus. Without a widely-used vaccine, it could take four or five years to develop the type of "herd immunity" that could control the outbreak, since some data suggests <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/herd-immunity-few-people-have-had-the-coronavirus-who-2020-5">less than 10%</a> of the population has been exposed to the virus.Waiting that long means millions more people could die in the meantime, as there is also no effective treatment available.And while vaccine testing and development has been fast-tracked, its acceleration isn't at the expense of safety but rather money, White House top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/22/dr-fauci-is-still-confident-us-could-have-a-coronavirus-vaccine-by-december.html">said on NPR.</a> Researchers are investing in multiple stages of the research process at once when they'd typically have to complete one before moving onto the next. "The risk is not to the patient because the safety and the scientific integrity is intact," Fauci said. "The risk is to the investment and we feel that it's important enough to make those investments in order to save months."Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anti-vax-movement-is-seizing-on-hesitation-of-coronavirus-vaccine-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

The anti-vax movement is using growing hesitation around the coronavirus vaccine to attract more people

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Staunch <keyword id="2334081" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="anti-vaccine">anti-vaccine</keyword> advocates are now also preaching the anti-mask message.</li><li>Both movements are fueled by politics, anti-science rhetoric, and a uniquely American "don't tell me what to do" attitude.</li><li>Vaccines and masks serve similar purposes: to protect people and their communities. But those who oppose them see them as a value statement — if they're so privileged.</li><li>The irony is that by grasping at "freedom" by shunning masks, <keyword id="9576453" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="anti-maskers">anti-maskers</keyword> are delaying the true freedom of pre-pandemic life.</li></ul>It used to be that Dr. Rashid Buttar was well known only in alternative-medicine circles, where he promoted an anti-vaccine agenda.But when the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> pandemic hit, his message expanded. In addition to vaccines, he's now lambasting face masks.Buttar, an osteopathic physician and conspiracy theorist, recently <a href="https://twitter.com/DrButtar/status/1265281422304202752">bragged that a conference he organized over Memorial Day weekend</a> attracted hundreds of people "from all over the world" who didn't wear masks indoors. He has <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jun/12/facebook-posts/masks-covid-19-are-effective-six-part-facebook-tak/">falsely claimed</a> that face coverings reduce your oxygen intake, lead to toxin inhalation, impair your immune system, and highlight "your disturbing stupidity."People who wear them, he said, are "COVIDiots."Buttar is far from the only anti-vaccine advocate who's taken on an anti-mask crusade in 2020. And his audience is here for it.A video series in which Buttar peddled coronavirus conspiracy theories garnered millions of views before YouTube removed it. Del Bigtree, the CEO of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anti-vax-movement-is-seizing-on-hesitation-of-coronavirus-vaccine-2020-5">estimated on Business Insider Today</a> that his own weekly anti-vaccine talk show's audience grew 25-fold from late February to late May."I absolutely see the pandemic as an opportunity," Bigtree said.The well-oiled anti-vaccine machine is inhaling the anti-mask movement, playing on a long history of <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> skepticism and rebellion in the US. And it's a serious threat to public health."They're finding the sort of people that share the same values," Rupali Limaye, a social scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Insider."We have our work cut out for us."<h2>Americans were desperate for masks when they couldn't have them. Then they railed against orders to wear them.</h2>As the coronavirus spread across the US in early 2020, many Americans were desperate for masks."Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!" US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said in <a href="https://twitter.com/surgeon_general/status/1233725785283932160?lang=en">a now infamous tweet</a> on February 29, at a time when federal officials were trying to preserve medical masks for the frontline healthcare workers who needed them most.Five weeks later, as evidence mounted that asymptomatic carriers could be a driving force of the pandemic, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-recommending-cloth-masks-face-coverings-in-public-spaces-2020-4">the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised</a> (but didn't mandate) that all Americans wear face masks.Suddenly, some people resisted the face-covering behavior.<div type="image" title="GettyImages-mask-protest-indiana" height="683" width="1024" msid="77223339" hostid="261"></div>Like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-vaccine-court-is-it-real-2019-3">vaccine-hesitant parents</a> who argue that childhood shots are ploys by pharmaceutical companies to make money (<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-vaccine-court-is-it-real-2019-3">they are not</a>), some anti-maskers chalked up the change in tone to a government conspiracy, Limaye said.<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-coronavirus-face-masks-sheriffs-refuse-enforce-governor-abbott-order/">Sheriffs refused to enforce</a> state and local mask mandates. <a href="https://wgxa.tv/news/local/governor-kemp-explicitly-bans-mask-mandates-enforced-by-local-governments">Governors overturned</a> local mask rules. Retail workers and citizens have been <a href="https://www.insider.com/family-dollar-guard-flint-ichigan-killed-mask-law-2020-5">fatally shot</a>, <a href="https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2020/07/14/police-two-crime-scenes-following-stabbing-windsor-township/5433647002/">stabbed</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/retail-workers-are-on-the-front-line-war-over-masks-2020-5">routinely threatened</a> for telling others to put on face coverings."I dunno, somehow I don't see it for myself. I just don't," President Donald Trump, who has promoted <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/health/trump-vaccines.html">dangerous falsehoods</a> about <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-18/gates-says-trump-questioned-vaccines-and-mentioned-his-daughter">vaccines</a>, said of face masks in April as he announced the new CDC recommendations to wear them. "Maybe I'll change my mind."He eventually did — three months later, after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-says-covid-19-serious-problem-but-not-his-fault-2020-7">140,000 Americans died</a> from the virus.<h2>Campaigning against a COVID-19 vaccine, anti-vaxxers are telling people to ditch masks and get infected</h2>Like vaccines, masks have helped to prevent tens of thousands of people around the world from getting sick.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/two-missouri-hairstylists-with-coronavirus-saw-140-clients-none-infected-2020-6">Hairdressers</a> know it. <a href="https://twitter.com/Craig_A_Spencer/status/1284324431863611393">Emergency-room doctors</a> know it. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-director-universal-masking-could-control-virus-in-weeks-2020-7">CDC director</a> knows it. Even the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-wears-face-mask-in-public-for-first-time-coronavirus-2020-7">president of the United States</a> recently changed course and wore a mask while visiting injured US service members, saying he wouldn't want to spread anything around.And like <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/ttu-pra040920.php">vaccine skeptics</a>, anti-maskers are outspoken about unsubstantiated concerns.Anti-maskers like Bigtree and Buttar <a href="https://www.poynter.org/?ifcn_misinformation=the-use-of-masks-causes-us-to-inhale-the-carbon-dioxide-we-breathe-and-to-poison-the-lungs">warn of</a> inhaling carbon dioxide when you wear a mask (to which Limaye said, "Welcome to planet Earth") and falsely claim that wearing masks destroys the immune system.Anti-vaxxers latch on to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-vaccine-court-is-it-real-2019-3">one-in-a-million stories of a bad reaction to a vaccine</a> rather than the real risks of contracting measles, hepatitis, or the coronavirus.Ultimately, the two agendas feed each other by <a href="https://twitter.com/delbigtree/status/1256670405567418369">implicitly encouraging people to get infected</a> — a strategy they say will remove the need for a vaccine, despite evidence to the contrary.Limaye said that "bringing these fringe groups together" was "frightening.""Because it's more people, it's more ways for them to think about how they infiltrate and spread this misinformation," Limaye said.<h2>Anti-vaccine and anti-mask messages tend to be more emotional and powerful than the truth</h2>Both groups' messages <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5014162/anti-vaccine-messages/">can snowball on social media</a>, where emotional, sensational, and unusual personal stories are far more powerful than bland public-health messages."If I post something [on Facebook] that's like, 'Hey, I took my 4-year-old to get the flu shot, it was an amazing experience' — that's not what I'm going to post," Limaye said. "I'm going to be like, 'Oh my God, it was terrible, she had a huge welt.' That's going to go viral."Some people who had the coronavirus realized on their deathbeds that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/people-who-died-from-coronavirus-after-not-taking-it-seriously-2020-7">this kind of uneven risk calculation was wrong</a>."This is no joke," a California man wrote on Facebook before he died of COVID-19. "If you have to go out wear a mask and practice social distancing. Don't be a f---ing idiot like me."<h2>Anti-masking is global, but the US is a haven for science skepticism</h2>Announcing his COVID-19 diagnosis to reporters this month, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-bolsonaro-removed-masks-near-journalists-lawsuit-2020-7?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">ripped off his mask</a> and beamed. "Just look at my face," he said. "I'm fine."Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador <a href="https://apnews.com/9eab8d0bb9e4e07904fbcf3777664038">said recently</a>: "If a mask was an option for the economy's reactivation, I'd put one on immediately. But it's not like that."Anti-mask marches have been held in places with a stronger handle on the virus than the US, such as <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/20/uk/london-face-mask-protest-gbr-intl/index.html">the UK</a> and <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/anti-mask-rallies-held-across-canada-despite-increased-support-for-mandatory-masks-1.5031078">Canada</a>.But the US uniquely prizes independence. And research has suggested that the strength of the country's anti-mask movement has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wearing-face-masks-could-save-33000-us-lives-2020-6?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">responsible for tens of thousands of deaths</a>."We Americans, we value liberty," Ken Frazier, the CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Merck, <a href="https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/merck-ceo-ken-frazier-speaks-about-a-covid-cure-racism-and-why-leaders-need-to-walk-the-talk">said in a recent talk with Harvard Business School</a>.He added: "I've always believed it's because historically we've had these two big, beautiful oceans protecting us from the rest of the world. And so we could say, 'It's all about my liberty.' It's not about security, or group security."Well, this virus doesn't really care about that. And if you're going to do it, if you're going to exercise your liberty at my personal expense, then we can't control the pandemic."<div type="image" title="Mask protest MAGA hat " height="2000" width="3000" msid="77223340" hostid="261"></div>Social scientists call the discomfort of feeling that your choices are being threatened "reactance" — and American culture encourages it to thrive.In anti-vaxx circles, there's reactance against vaccines, seen as limiting a person's choice to decide what to put in their body. In anti-mask circles, there's reactance against masks, seen as threatening one's right to dress, breathe, and act in public as they please."This country was founded based on the premise that people didn't want the government telling them what to do," Adams, the surgeon general, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/surgeon-general-jerome-adams-wants-coronavirus-shaming-to-stop-2020-6?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">recently told Business Insider</a>. "And that's just a historical fact. And we always will struggle in the United States when we try to compel, by government fiat, people to do things that they don't understand why they should be doing them."Perhaps there's no better example of this than the saga of the anti-vaxx leader <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/26/texas-vaccinations-safety-andrew-wakefield-fear-elections">Andrew Wakefield</a>. After the British doctor was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lies-anti-vaxxers-spread-about-measles-vaccine-debunked-2019-1">discredited for falsely linking vaccines and autism</a> and spreading fear globally, the UK's General Medical Council in London <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/news/medical-practice/ruling-on-doctor-in-mmr-scare/">said Wakefield had acted unethically</a>, and his UK medical license was revoked.But by then, Wakefield had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/18/how-disgraced-anti-vaxxer-andrew-wakefield-was-embraced-by-trumps-america">already moved to the US</a>. He's <a href="https://www.statesman.com/news/20180614/report-travis-county-has-among-highest-vaccination-opt-out-rates">set up shop in Austin, Texas</a>, where childhood vaccination rates have plummeted.<h2>Anti-vaxx and anti-mask sentiments are built on a scaffolding of privilege</h2>Like resistance to vaccination, anti-mask sentiment is privilege at work.People who <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-warning-to-anti-vaccine-parents-2019-2">live in communities that have never been exposed</a> to deadly, vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles are similar to people who don't see the atrocities of COVID-19 because they don't work on the front lines of the fight to control the pandemic.Both can wrongfully assume that they're not at risk of serious illness because they're not exposed, or think the threat is not as deadly as people say. But they're wrong.In 2015, a 28-year-old immunocompromised woman in Washington state <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/port-angeles-woman-confirmed-as-first-us-measles-fatality-since-2003/">died of a measles infection</a>. Her mother said she was vaccinated as a child, but her health status — and <a href="https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/jefferson-county-third-lowest-rate-for-measles-vaccinations-in-state-while-west-end-highest-on-peninsula/">decreasing vaccination rates</a> in the area — put her at a much higher risk.COVID-19 is <a href="https://cleavonmd.com/coviddeaths/">killing Americans young and old, poor and wealthy</a>. Some people <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/long-term-coronavirus-symptoms-patients-sick-for-months-2020-7">spend months</a> battling the disease.<h2>Will anti-maskers gain steam or fade away?</h2>As <a href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200724-covid-19-sitrep-186.pdf?sfvrsn=4da7b586_2">more than 1,000 Americans die</a> from the coronavirus <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/25/coronavirus-covid-updates/">every day</a>, there's been a distinct shift in tone. More people have, out of desperation, embraced wearing masks.Research has suggested that, without a vaccine, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wearing-face-masks-could-save-33000-us-lives-2020-6">if everyone in the US were to put on a mask to go out in public</a>, 33,000 lives could be saved by November.Trump <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-surpasses-1000-daily-coronavirus-deaths-first-time-since-may-2020-7">acknowledged for the first time last week</a> that the mounting toll of the virus would "probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better." He then produced his own mask.His about-face could shift the needle, despite the emotional tug of anti-vaxx voices like Buttar's and Bigtree's."Public opinion tends to take cues from political leaders that share your views," Cary Funk, the director of science and society research at the Pew Research Center, told Business Insider. "I would see the mask-wearing, in particular, as another example of that."<div type="image" title="coronavirus deaths texas " height="1667" width="2500" msid="77223344" hostid="261"></div>But while <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/06/25/republicans-democrats-move-even-further-apart-in-coronavirus-concerns/#most-americans-say-masks-should-be-worn-always-or-most-of-the-time">polls have indicated that most Americans understand</a> that masks are a necessary part of pandemic life, health officials know that the American drive to live free or die will always push against orthodoxy in the US. Anti-maskers might fade into the background, their ranks swelling and receding much as the anti-vaxxers have over the years, but they will never quite disappear.The irony is that "living free" by not wearing a mask is accelerating the road to death and hindering the path toward truly living free — taking a spontaneous vacation, belting out your favorite song at a concert, or shooting the breeze with strangers in a bar.As the White House counselor Kellyanne Conway <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbYJsW3GxUg&amp;feature=emb_titleitle">recently put it in an interview with Fox News</a>: "To all these people out there who are resisting wearing a mask: Listen, folks, it costs nothing, it takes two seconds, and you'll get your liberties back sooner if you wear your mask."

Anti-maskers are the new anti-vaxxers

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11293201" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nikki-phillippi">Nikki Phillippi</keyword> is a lifestyle and family influencer with 1.27 million YouTube subscribers.</li><li>Nikki and her husband Dan faced backlash after announcing that they had euthanized their dog in May.</li><li>The influencer has been the subject of controversy online in the past.</li></ul>YouTuber Nikki Phillippi and her husband, Dan Phillippi, have come under fire and into the spotlight in recent weeks after announcing on social media that they had put down their dog, Bowser, following aggressive behavior. Afterward, people online have highlighted previous content from the Phillippis as well as old controversies. Nikki Phillippi is a YouTuber with 1.27 million subscribers who typically posts family, lifestyle, and Christian content. Over the years, followers have been privy to her life with her husband Dan, and son Logan, alongside their dogs. In previous videos from Nikki that are being resurfaced, she discusses <keyword id="6354750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health">health</keyword> topics and family decisions. While Phillippi doesn't appear to have deleted prior videos from her YouTube channel, comments seem to have been turned off.<h2>Phillippi has come under fire for promoting Young Living, a multi-level marketing company that sells essential oils</h2>Phillippi <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPzj_dJWE3w">said in a 2018 video</a> that she was a distributor for Young Living, a <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/3/26/21187035/mlms-coronavirus-recruit-young-living-doterra-essential-oils">multi-level marketing (MLM) company that sells essential oils</a>. She also has an essential-oils-focused Instagram account that is currently set to private, but linked in the description of the aforementioned 2018 video. The profile links to a page on the Young Living website. Multiple <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/jpaqan/nikki_phillippi_shills_young_living_to_her_131/">Reddit threads on r/BeautyGuruChatter</a> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/8s3z2j/nikki_phillippi_constantly_promotes_mlms/">criticize Phillippi's promotion of the company</a>.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/young-living-essential-oils-medical-claims-2020-7?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">Insider's Nicole Einbinder reported</a> that some Young Living sellers were making claims about essential oils curing cancer and coronavirus in 2020, and the company told Insider that it was "determined to prevent misleading claims relating to the COVID-19 pandemic." <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/young-living-sales-average-income-2020-7?r=US&amp;IR=TIR=T">Insider also reported in 2020</a> that 89% of Young Living's members were making, on average, $4 annually.<h2>Phillippi faced criticism for recommending a vitamin treatment for COVID-19</h2>In March 2020, Phillippi published a video titled "My Virus Story" with a medical disclaimer. In the video, she said that she was treated for what her family believed to have been a viral infection with "high-dose intravenous vitamin C," and recommended it as a treatment for COVID-19.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wellness-influencers-say-near-lethal-vitamin-doses-prevent-coronavirus-2020-2">Insider reported in February 2020</a> that some wellness influencers were encouraging their followers to take high levels of vitamins to protect themselves from the coronavirus. <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-vitamin-c-and-coronavirus-2020-4">Insider also reported in April 2020</a> that while some doctors were giving COVID-19 patients vitamin C because their levels were low, it wasn't a "cure" for the disease.Critics online,<a href="https://gurugossiper.com/viewtopic.php?t=33474&amp;start=700=700"> as in one thread on the Gossip Guru forum</a>, said that the title of Phillippi's video was "misleading" and accused her of spreading false COVID-19 treatment.<h2>In late 2020, some said that Phillippi was anti-vaccination following comments she made in a Q&amp;A</h2>In an August 2020 video titled "Vaccines, CBD &amp; Intimacy After Baby! Q&amp;A 2020" Phillippi responded to a question asking for her feelings on vaccination.Phillippi <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IShg20-Lnew&amp;t=1546s546s">said in the video</a> that she doesn't think she should be called an "anti-vaxxer" but is "pro-safety." She explicitly recommended Del Bigtree, an anti-vaccination activist and the <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/18/texas-coronavirus-vaccines-ppp/">founder of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network</a>, as her "number one source" when it comes to vaccinations.The video prompted discussion online, including a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BeautyGuruChatter/comments/iqfsi5/nikki_phillippi_anti_vaxx/">thread on the subreddit r/BeautyGuruChatter</a> that included multiple users condemning her comments in the video. <h2>Phillippi and her husband Dan came under fire for putting their dog Bowser down in 2021</h2>In May, Nikki and Dan <a href="https://www.insider.com/nikki-phillippi-husband-put-down-dog-youtube-2021-5">said that they had put down their bull terrier, Bowser,</a> after he bit their son Logan. "Bowser had an aggressive side that reared it's ugly head a few times over the years… and recently he bit Logan," Nikki wrote in the caption of an Instagram post that is currently unavailable publicly. "After a lot of counsel, we decided it was time for Bowser to pass peacefully on." In a YouTube video, Phillippi said that they had attempted to find a home for Bowser, but were told after consulting with a humane society that rehoming wasn't an option. Her followers and other <keyword id="860150" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="YouTubers">YouTubers</keyword> criticized the decision, with some accusing the couple of "animal cruelty" and saying that they should have found another solution. Liv Hagen, the manager of shelter behavior services at the <a href="https://www.animalhumanesociety.org/about/about-animal-humane-society">Minnesota-based Animal Humane Society</a>, told Insider that while she couldn't comment on Phillippi's case specifically, but that situations involving aggressive pets required nuance."An end-of-life decision is not something anyone ever wants to do," Hagen told Insider. "If it is the case where the animal is truly unsafe - again, making that decision in consultation with experts and professionals - then maybe it is an appropriate discussion to have with the expert that you're working with. And as heartbreaking as it is, it sometimes happens."<h2>A video of Nikki and Dan discussing canceling an adoption from Thailand resurfaced amid the controversy</h2><a href="https://www.insider.com/nikki-dan-phillipi-adoption-controversial-youtube-video-resurfaced-2021-5">As Insider's Moises Mendez II reported</a>, people online resurfaced a video in which the couple discusses canceling an adoption from Thailand amid the controversy surrounding Bowser's death.In the video, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYUw3Hq8vNg">which is still publicly available on Phillippi's YouTube channel</a> with comments turned off, Nikki and Dan spoke about deciding to not adopt a child from Thailand given what they said was a social media policy that's part of Thai law. According to Holt International, the adoption agency that the Phillippis said that they worked with, the law restricts the release of an "adopted child's information, photos, videos and films to mass media or Internet before finalization by Thai Law."<h2>Phillippi returned to YouTube in July and relaunched her Patreon</h2>On July 14, Phillippi posted a video titled "long time no see," breaking a two-month social media hiatus following the controversy around Bowser's death. In the video, Phillippi said that she believed that she and Dan had downplayed Bowser's aggressive behavior in the video announcing his death. She also said that she had decided to take a break from social media for mental-health reasons, saying that she had received death threats, been "mobbed" online, and lost sponsorships.Phillippi also announced that she was relaunching her Patreon, which she appears to have paused posting on in 2019. <a href="https://www.patreon.com/nikkiphillippi/posts">Her Patreon is now open with a $5 subscription tier</a>, and Phillippi said that while she's keeping comments turned off on YouTube at the moment, she'll cross-post videos onto Patreon where patrons will have the ability to comment. Nikki Phillippi did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.This article was originally published in May. It was updated after Nikki Phillippi returned to YouTube in July.

Nikki Phillippi faced backlash for euthanizing the dog that bit her kid. Here's what led to her social-media hiatus and recent return to YouTube.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>About 200 vaccine and <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> skeptics gathered in a North Carolina hotel for a conference over Memorial Day weekend. </li><li>Attendees did not wear masks, practice social distancing, or heed the governor's guidelines to limit gatherings to 10 people. </li><li>The hotel ended up calling the local police to help enforce social distancing policies. </li></ul>As many Americans weighed the risks of going to the beach and backyard barbecues over Memorial Day weekend, hundreds of coronavirus and vaccine skeptics gathered in a Charlotte, North Carolina, hotel. "The Advanced Medicine Conference" attracted about 200 nonconventional medicine practitioners, researchers, <keyword id="2334081" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="anti-vaccine">anti-vaccine</keyword> advocates, and members of the public, based on the best estimates of <keyword id="9054837" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="business-insider-today">Business Insider Today</keyword>, which sent a videographer to help conduct interviews.Very few attendees wore masks, and the group didn't comply with local guidelines to limit group gatherings to 10 people, leading to police enforcement. Del Bigtree, CEO of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network and a conference speaker, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/313820309356251/videos/1141552786205310/">told BI Today's Katie Nixdorf</a> that he wanted attend the event in person to support the conference organizer's desire to "make a statement that we are not afraid of this and that we stand in the real <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword>." <div type="image" title="Attendees of the Advanced Medicine Conference" height="1570" width="2868" msid="76110422" hostid="261"></div><h2>The conference marketed itself to people as "seeking the truth" </h2>The second annual conference marketed itself toward people "who are seeking the truth, who wish to learn the secret to not only achieving optimum health but who want to know the secret to all aspects of life, who are on the evolutionary path to greater awareness and insight and wish to take the next leap forward," according to <a href="https://advancedmedicineconference.com/about">its website</a>. It was organized by Dr. Rashid Buttar, an osteopathic physician and conspiracy theorist whose videos incorrectly claiming the coronavirus is linked to 5G technology have been repeatedly removed by Facebook and YouTube for spreading misinformation.<keyword id="9223917" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="judy-mikovits">Judy Mikovits</keyword>, the discredited doctor who was recently in the conspiratorial "documentary" Plandemic, was also slated as a featured speaker, though it's unclear if she showed up. The speakers promoted alternative medicine practices, such as restorative breathing and herbal medicine, and expressed their concerns about the safety of a possible coronavirus vaccine. "The entire premise behind the conference is to show from a philosophical standpoint and from a scientific standpoint, the nuances that are being ignored, the advances in science that are being ignored by mainstream medicine," Buttar told BI Today. <div type="image" title="Rashid Buttar hugging at conference" height="1560" width="2874" msid="76110425" hostid="261"></div><h2>The gathering defied guidelines and led to police enforcement </h2>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html#clusters">worst coronavirus clusters</a> around the US have been tied to places that force people into close quarters for extended periods, like nursing homes, correctional facilities, and meatpacking plants. Religious services, choir practices, and birthday parties have been dubbed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-super-spreader-events-reveal-gatherings-to-avoid-2020-5">"super-spreader" events</a> too."The farther away you are and the shorter duration of contact between you and other people means you get less efficient virus transmission," William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at Vanderbilt University, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-assess-your-risk-of-catching-coronavirus-2020-5">previously told Business Insider.</a>Still, attendees gathered indoors, largely without masks or practicing social distancing. According to the Embassy Suites where the conference was held, organizers had agreed prior to the conference to limit each room to 10 people, per local guidelines. Buttar told BI Today the event didn't have to comply with local restrictions since the governor's order allowed exceptions for health, safety, and education. He also called on the First Amendment right to assemble.(The <a href="https://files.nc.gov/governor/documents/files/EO138-Phase-1.pdf">executive order</a>, which forbids mass gatherings — meaning more than 10 people in a single space — states that "Mass Gatherings do not include gatherings for health and safety, to look for and obtain goods and services, for work, for worship, or exercise of First Amendment rights, or for receiving governmental services.") The Embassy Suites eventually called in the local police department, hotel manager Kevin Plucker, <a href="https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/memorial-day-weekend-crowds-social-distancing-charlotte-north-carolina/275-ee618fa4-960d-4a3d-a0e9-5f1943c4d4a3">told WCNC Charlotte in a statement</a>. "We were in constant touch with this professional organization about changing COVID guidelines leading up to their arrival, yet they still chose to have their group meeting and agreed to the terms about number of people allowed in each room," he wrote. "On Saturday, when it became clear their attendees were not respecting social distancing requirements, we called CMPD to help us enforce it, which they did. The safety of all hotel guests is always our priority, even more so during the COVID-19 crisis."Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anti-vaxxers-attended-medical-conference-memorial-day-weekend-north-carolina-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

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