People Got Sick at a Conspiracy Conference. They're Sure It's Anthrax.

[Jilly_in_VA]

A group of unvaccinated people who attended a huge conspiracy conference in Dallas earlier this month all became sick in the days after the event with symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, and fever. Instead of blaming the global COVID pandemic, however, the conspiracy theorists think they were attacked with anthrax.

This far-right conspiracy claim began after a dozen people spent time together in a confined space at the ReAwaken America tour event in Dallas over the weekend of Dec. 10. And the fact that this was likely a COVID outbreak and superspreader event has been almost entirely ignored.

The anthrax claim was first made by Joe Oltmann on his Conservative Daily podcast earlier this week. In a video recording of the podcast, Oltmann can be seen coughing and sneezing on camera, symptoms often associated with COVID-19 or other illnesses.

Instead, Oltmann, who has spent much of 2021 spreading bogus election conspiracies, claimed that he and his fellow conspiracy theorists who recently attended the conference had been attacked by anthrax. The conference, run by Tulsa businessman Clay Clark, was headlined by figures like disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump adviser Roger Stone, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Eric Trump, the son of former President Donald Trump, also spoke at the event.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7wz5a/people-got-sick-at-a-conspiracy-conference-theyre-sure-its-anthrax

[MineralMan]

1. Well, it's easy enough to test for anthrax, so no doubt those people

have all gone to the medical professionals for testing, right?

[erronis]

21. They've been taught not to trust the medical professionals. Howabout a shaman?

[leftieNanner]

33. I think he's still in jail

[KS Toronado]

26. No, they went straight to Google Hospital.

[MineralMan]

27. Yup!

[Probatim]

41. Dr. Facebook is in today...

[KS Toronado]

62. Dr. Facebook invades my privacy

I suggest staying away from that Grinch.

[Rebl2]

42. Maybe Ivermectin

will help with that anthrax exposure 🙄

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. Well sure ... these people live in a fantasy world, lotsa imaginary boogeymen and giant conspiracies

going on all around them, all the time.

Literally whatever they imagine to be the case, becomes reality for them.

This really is a type of mental illness.

I have a question though ... was Stephen Hatfill there?

[Irish_Dem]

4. It is group psychosis and mass hysteria.

Paranoid and delusional.

I am sure glad I am retired from the mental health field.
Don't think I could handle the high levels of clinical insanity right now.

[Nevilledog]

9. Glad you're not having to deal with it professionally.

[Irish_Dem]

19. These people are going to be very hard to treat.

Even the shock of going to jail doesn't make them start facing reality.

And they are violent, hostile and dangerous, especially if challenged.
Well known to attack health care workers trying to help them.

[Hortensis]

48. Doesn't make them less potentially dangerous that this

attack, underlining how important they are and ruthless their enemies -- NOT that they got Covid, was probably floated by someone rational and smart enough to drive the story.

[SergeStorms]

43. Their paranoid conspiracies spread almost as fast....

as the omicron variant itself. One super-conspiranut gets a whacko conspiracy theory in his fevered brain, and POW! It spreads faster than Donald Trump can grift a dollar.

Next thing you know, the entire conspiranut-verse has the exact same theory triggering every brain synapse among the lot.

It's almost like alien hive mentality, if I actually believed in such a thing. Lord, don't anyone tell them about alien hive mentality, please!

[Bantamfancier]

3. When you hear hoofbeats,

Think horses, not zebras.

[IronLionZion]

20. Sometimes it's zebras

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/14/us/maryland-zebra-captured.html

[greenjar_01]

5. Sure, the "official version" is that it's actually COVID, but what if ALL of COVID is Anthrax???

[Bernardo de La Paz]

39. Oltmann is just like that

[niyad]

46. I don't think that they will appreciate my prayer. . .May they receive everything they

deserve.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. A danger to themselves and to society

Admit them to a psychiatric ward, they need help.

[Ocelot II]

7. They didn't have anthrax. Even if they did, it would probably have been inhalation anthrax,

which means 85%-90% of them would be dead by now if they hadn't been treated for anthrax. With aggressive treatment only about 45% would be dead. https://www.cdc.gov/anthrax/pdf/evergreen-pdfs/anthrax-evergreen-content-english.pdf

[Ray Bruns]

8. I was about to post the same thing.

[JHB]

10. What's the betting pool like for number of days this takes to go from...

..."far-right conspiracy theory" to Republican Party-line messaging?

[ZonkerHarris]

16. 48 hours

Tucker will bake the cake

[Crunchy Frog]

11. That explains why "anthrax" was just trending on Twitter.

[Buns_of_Fire]

12. Why would anyone waste perfectly good anthrax on that crowd? nt

[Nevilledog]

13. ...

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
·
Dec 22, 2021
I have been following this saga for days. Basically, the guys behind the ‘election fraud audits’ are all sick after attending Michael Flynn and Clay Clark’s big QAnon conference, and they believe that anthrax was pumped in through the churches’ fog machines to poison them.
Image

Mynmnobody 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️
@PMynmnobody
Love to see his proof on this. Fog machines that pumped anthrax through the air system and yet somehow was able to target some of them? That’s technology the government would be interested in. To send something in the air to only go after certain cult members…amazing.
9:50 AM · Dec 22, 2021

[ProfessorGAC]

17. The Church Has A Fog Machine?

That seems odd to me.

[erronis]

22. Churches ARE fog machines.

[tikka]

28. K & R great post

[ProfessorGAC]

52. A Most Excellent Point (nt)

[JHB]

54. When they rely on "showy", yes. Mists to accentuate dramatic lighting.

And why do these nitwits think it was anthrax? There was a "mist".

[IronLionZion]

23. COVID targets the unvaccinated and unmasked

for more severe illness, hospitalization, and even death. Vaccinated folks are mostly spared from the worst. That's proof this is all a conspiracy.

[patphil]

14. Inhalation Anthrax is almost always fatal.

This Oltmann character is incredibly stupid. If they contracted Anthrax by being in a room together, they should be either dying or already dead.

Of course he could just be brain dead...a common, and quite incurable condition often manifested by right wingnuts.
Amazingly, brain dead right wingnuts can function for decades without having a single rational, coherent thought.

[IronLionZion]

25. Deep state engineered a gain of function version of Anthrax

that closely mimics COVID symptoms. It's the only possible explanation.

[Nevilledog]

15. Oops.....negative test for anthrax........lol

Link to tweet

Umm....how about the results of the Covid test?

[FakeNoose]

18. Maybe it's the Omicron variant ... of anthrax I mean

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. I told them not to hold it on Gruinard Island.

But no, they wouldn't listen ... https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gruinard-island

[Hulk]

29. Hope they ALL contract the virus

Damn! At the very least, may the suffer misery and lasting miserable symptoms.

G'damned idiots.

[Takket]

30. how the hell do people this stupid get through life?

like... how do they even tie their shoes? let alone do all the things adults have to do.

[louis-t]

34. My saying was always...

"How do they get their shoes on the right feet and get to work in the morning?"

[CaptainTruth]

53. I sometimes fear we have made society too safe.

I hate to say it, but there are times when I feel like with all the safety requirements on everything we use every day we have eliminated 99% of the ways stupid people could kill themselves before they breed. If someone thinks it's a good idea to put their toaster in the bathtub, who are we to require a GFCI on the branch circuit to save them from their own stupidity?

Yes, I'm being sarcastic, a little bit, anyway.

[IronLionZion]

63. When I heard a teen girl electrocuted herself with a plugged in phone in the bath tub

I'm sure her parents didn't raise her right.

Oh well, COVID is culling some of the herd.

[PurgedVoter]

31. Well yes, it was Anthrax, specifically "I'm Alive"

[louis-t]

32. And lung cancer. Lots of lung cancer.

At least that's what the idiots dying of COVID are claiming. Screaming at the doctors that it's all fake.

[louis-t]

35. November 2001 I had a blood infection.

They treated me with Cipro. It's an antibiotic used to treat anthrax. Made my bones itch. It was pretty horrible. The infection was no picnic either. I think all these assholes should take Cipro. Just to be on the safe side.

[jmowreader]

47. I took Cipro eye drops for an eye infection

The fun thing about those: you will taste Cipro for a week after your treatment.

The not-fun thing is they taste exactly like what I imagine Trump’s shit tastes like after he eats a bag of McRibs.

[paleotn]

36. A pity it's not ebola.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

37. Claiming anthrax make them More Important ... in their minds. . . . nt

[monkeyman1]

38. just adding to the right wing death toll !!

[DFW]

40. Awww, rats. Somebody told them.

They must have heard what happens to humans when they inject horse medicine and/or bleach. DAMN!!!

Since they wish to maintain their public denial of Covid-19, they can't very well now admit they all have it and request treatment for it. Those that were secretly vaxxed, and survive, won't want to admit it in public, and they will be expected to cover for the others who will ask for it on their death beds within the next several weeks.

[TygrBright]

44. "Teh stoopid, it BUURRRRRNNNNZZZ!!!"

Yeah, but the existent and reliable tests for anthrax will confirm or deny this suspicion quickly, right?

Always assuming they are administered by those who are not Part of the Great Conspiracy!

I believe this is called "the infinite tail-chase."

amusedly,
Bright

[jmowreader]

45. Gee guys...

Didn’t anyone tell you? The COVID shot also protects you from the strain of anthrax you catch at those meetings.

[niyad]

49. I was going to say to oltman, "no, you idiot, anthrax is what YOU F'n assholes

use to target women's health care providers, because you hate women. But the responses here are so much better.

[ecstatic]

50. Yes, because that's what pro-vaxx groups are known for.

Anthrax attacks and other acts of domestic terrorism.

Get the shot or be shot.

[Tommy Carcetti]

51. I bet they all also got gonorrhea from a tractor, too.

[summer_in_TX]

55. His salary depends on his not understanding it

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

~Upton Sinclair

[Poiuyt]

56. This sounds like an article from the Onion.

[Silent3]

57. Is it the alien DNA version of anthrax?

Soaking in Borax helps with that. In a ceramic tub with your head pointing north, of course.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

58. Pathetic need for melodrama.

Real life isn't exciting enough for them.

[leftyladyfrommo]

59. Attacked by anthrax?

That sounds like a Greek City State is attacking them.

I don't think anthrax is vicious unless you bother it first.

[IronLionZion]

60. Deep state developed a diabolical strain of anthrax

that mimics COVID symptoms, targets unvaccinated for more severe illness, and evades anthrax tests.

[Martin Eden]

61. How lethal is anthrax?

And will they DIE soon?

[Takket]

64. not lethal enough apparently.........

[lame54]

65. Must have done their own research