Russian Disinformation Campaign Aims to Undermine Confidence in Pfizer, Other Covid-19 Vaccines, U.S

[TomCADem]

7. Right Wing Media Is Working Hand In Glove With Russian Disinformation

Russia and Republicans have been pushing vaccine disinformation with Republican governors in Texas and Mississippi end mask mandates even as positivity rates soar over 10 percent because they want to undermine the success of U.S. efforts to combat the spread of the pandemic. Republicans just want the U.S. to fail as they did in 2009 when there primary goal was to try to make President Obama a one term President. Russia, of course, just wants to generate division and chaos in the United States.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/16/maga-coronavirus-vaccine-446022

MAGA-world may resist the vaccine, but it still wants Trump to get credit

Across the far-right, and especially in the conspiratorial corners of MAGA world, Trump’s supporters are finding novel ways to both lavish the president with praise for speeding a Covid vaccine, while arguing against taking the vaccine itself.

Some explanations focus on limiting vaccinations — only high-risk individuals and health care workers should get it, while the rest should simply resume our pre-pandemic lives. Others are reflexively anti-establishment — a vaccine is needed, but the government shouldn’t dictate what we put in our bodies. Others are fantastical — the vaccine is somehow part of an elitist conspiracy to control the world. And increasingly, the loudest anti-vaccine advocates are high-profile MAGA supporters.

Emerald Robinson, White House correspondent for the pro-Trump television network Newsmax, tweeted this month that people don’t need vaccines, but “the politicians want it for control.” The Gateway Pundit, a pro-Trump news organization that has prompted untrue conspiracy theories, called the prospect of widespread immunizations “creepy.” Senate Republicans allowed a Covid vaccine skeptic to testify last week, and Fox News host Tucker Carlson called the possibility of mandatory Covid vaccination — even though no such dictate is on the table — “a legitimate crisis.”

“You know, Trump, probably 80 percent of your base does not want that vaccine,” said DeAnna Lorraine, a high-profile influencer among the QAnon set, during her Infowars program last week. “They are not willing to take a foreign, rushed substance and jab it into our arms. I don’t care who takes it. I don’t care if Jesus takes it, I’m not taking the vaccine.”