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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRobert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Anti-Vaccine Film Targeted To Black Americans Spreads False Information
The New Apartheid? Conspiracist Robert F. Kennedy, Jrs latest anti-vaccine film spins real history of medical racism to scare Black Americans into rejecting COVID shotshttps://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/06/08/1004214189/anti-vaccine-film-targeted-to-black-americans-spreads-false-information
When a filmmaker asked medical historian Naomi Rogers to appear in a new documentary, the Yale professor didn't blink. She had done these "talking head" interviews many times before. She assumed her comments would end up in a straightforward documentary that addressed some of the most pressing concerns of the pandemic, such as the legacy of racism in medicine and how that plays into current mistrust in some communities of color. The subject of vaccines was also mentioned, but the focus wasn't clear to Rogers. The director wanted something more polished than a Zoom call, so a well-outfitted camera crew arrived at Rogers' home in Connecticut in the fall. They showed up wearing masks and gloves. Before the interview, crew members cleaned the room thoroughly. Then they spent about an hour interviewing Rogers. She discussed her research and in particular controversial figures such as Dr. James Marion Sims, who was influential in the field of gynaecology but who performed experimental surgery on enslaved Black women during the 1800s without anaesthesia.
"We were talking about issues of racism and experimentation, and they seemed to be handled appropriately," Rogers recalls. At the time, there were few indications that anything was out of the ordinary except one. During a short break, she asked who else was being interviewed for the film. The producer's response struck Rogers as curiously vague. "They said, 'Well, there's 'a guy' in New York, and we talked to 'somebody in New Jersey, and California,' " Rogers told NPR. "I thought it's so odd that they wouldn't tell me who these people were." It wasn't until this March that Rogers would stumble upon the answer. She received an email from a group called Children's Health Defense prominent in the anti-vaccine movement promoting its new film, Medical Racism: The New Apartheid. When she clicked on the link and began watching the 57-minute film, she was shocked to discover this was the movie she had sat down for back in October. "I was naïve, certainly, in assuming that this was actually a documentary, which I would say it is not. I think that it is an advocacy piece for anti-vaxxers," Rogers says. "I'm still very angry. I feel that I was used."
The free, online film is the latest effort by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the founder of Children's Health Defense. (He's the son of the former U.S. Attorney General Robert "Bobby" Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy.) With this film, Kennedy and his allies in the anti-vaccine movement resurface and promote disproven claims about the dangers of vaccines, but it's aimed squarely at a specific demographic: Black Americans. The film draws a line from the real and disturbing history of racism and atrocities in the medical field such as the Tuskegee syphilis study to interviews with anti-vaccine activists who warn communities of color to be suspicious of modern-day vaccines. At one point in Medical Racism, viewers are warned that "in black communities something is very sinister" and "the same thing that happened in the 1930s during the eugenics movement" is happening again. There is lengthy discussion of the thoroughly disproven link between autism and vaccines. For example, the film references a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism rates as evidence that African American children are being particularly harmed, but in reality the study did not conclude that African Americans are at increased risk of autism because of vaccination.
The movie then displays a chart claiming to use that same CDC data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request to make a connection between vaccinating Black children and autism risk. The findings in the chart closely resemble another study sometimes mentioned by anti-vaccine activists, but the medical journal later retracted the study, because of "undeclared competing interests on the part of the author" and "concerns about the validity of the methods and statistical analysis." (That study's author was also a paid independent contractor for Kennedy's group as of 2020 and sits on its board of directors.) The film also brings up a 2014 study from the Mayo Clinic that showed Somali Americans and African Americans have a more robust immune response to the rubella vaccine than Caucasians and Hispanic Americans. One of those interviewed in Kennedy's film then asks, "So if you have that process that could be caused by vaccines, why wouldn't there be a link between vaccines and developmental delays?" But the study's own author and leading vaccine researcher, Dr. Gregory Poland, says this conjecture is not accurate. According to a statement provided to NPR by the Mayo Clinic, the study demonstrated "higher protective immune responses in African-American subjects with no evidence of increased vaccine side effects" and that any claim of " 'increased vulnerability' among African-Americans who receive the rubella vaccine is simply not supported by either this study or the science."
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Solly Mack
(90,799 posts)uriel1972
(4,261 posts)But I'm too tired. I wish it was just the 'Trumpers' we are battling, but this stuff has to happen as well.
progressoid
(50,011 posts)Klaralven
(7,510 posts)Films like this are a "gateway drug" to the full multi-conspiracy Qanon addiction.
Mike Nelson
(9,980 posts)... he has been adversely affected by the tragedies in his life. I feel bad for him and wish him well, but I wish his family and friends could change his mind about his promotion of what we call "conspiracy theories."
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)Its a good example of how marrying for looks instead of brains is really destructive.
Old Joe was really smart. His boys less so. Their boys even dumber with a lot of problems.
Joe's daughters did somewhat better in picking spouses.
intheflow
(28,516 posts)while also being sexist.
"Marrying for looks" ? "dumb children." Because - and hear me out on this - women can be beautiful AND smart.
Also, Old Joe was a well-known anti-Semite who thought we should negotiate with Hitler. So hardly a "really smart" man.
electric_blue68
(14,999 posts)calimary
(81,565 posts)His father would have been so disappointed.
UTUSN
(70,779 posts)Last edited Mon Jul 19, 2021, 10:34 AM - Edit history (1)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215634357********QUOTE******
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/17/covid-misinformation-conspiracy-theories-ccdh-report
CCDH finds disinformation dozen have combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms
The vast majority of Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people, a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) cited by the White House this week found. ....
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. ....
Among the dozen are physicians that have embraced pseudoscience, a bodybuilder, a wellness blogger, a religious zealot, and, most notably Robert F Kennedy Jr, the nephew of John F Kennedy who has also linked vaccines to autism and 5G broadband cellular networks to the coronavirus pandemic. ....
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. ....
*********UNQUOTE********
12 people are responsible for 73% of all COVID disinfo on Facebook
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215632860#post53
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/17/covid-misinformation-conspiracy-theories-ccdh-report
So much of the rest of QMAGAt crazy is nonlinear warfare and reflexive control amplified now by social media
Create a fog of war, destroy valid measurements and norms, zig when all else in a normal predictive system says you will ZAG.
Non-Linear Warfare and Reflexive Control - NATO Defence College
https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/195099/rp_121.pdf
What is Hybrid Warfare?
https://globalsecurityreview.com/hybrid-and-non-linear-warfare-systematically-erases-the-divide-between-war-peace/
Redefining Hybrid Warfare: Russias Nonlinear War against the West
http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1538&context=jss
Putins Way of War
The War in Russias Hybrid Warfare
https://press.armywarcollege.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2987&context=parameters
The Hidden Author of Putinism
How Vladislav Surkov invented the new Russia
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/hidden-author-putinism-russia-vladislav-surkov/382489/
I am the author, or one of the authors, of the new Russian system, Vladislav Surkov told us by way of introduction. On this spring day in 2013, he was wearing a white shirt and a leather jacket that was part Joy Division and part 1930s commissar. My portfolio at the Kremlin and in government has included ideology, media, political parties, religion, modernization, innovation, foreign relations, and ...here he pauses and smilesmodern art. He offers to not make a speech, instead welcoming the Ph.D. students, professors, journalists, and politicians gathered in an auditorium at the London School of Economics to pose questions and have an open discussion. After the first question, he talks for almost 45 minutes, leaving hardly any time for questions after all. Its his political system in miniature: democratic rhetoric and undemocratic intent.
BradAllison
(1,879 posts)....to this kind of rhetoric right now.
The con artists are taking full advantage.
electric_blue68
(14,999 posts)...other good work he's done previously.