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In places like Texas where the legislature took a strong anti-vaccine stance, the consequences have been devastating.

Billionaire-Funded “Anti-Science” Campaigns Are Causing Unnecessary Deaths - Truthout Skip to content Skip to footer Truthout Logo Truthout Latest About Donate Trending: Ukraine Disability Justice Abolition Abortion Labor Truthout Logo Truthout Latest About Donate Menu Search Search Filter Search Search All Articles Audio Posts Video Posts Authors Social Media Facebook Facebook Circle Icon Twitter Twitter Circle Icon Flipboard Flipboard Circle Icon Instagram Instagram Circle Icon RSS RSS Circle Icon Sections Culture & Media Economy & Labor Education & Youth Environment & Health Human Rights Immigration LGBTQ Rights Politics & Elections Prisons & Policing Racial Justice Reproductive Rights War & Peace Series & Podcasts Trending Ukraine Disability Justice Abolition Abortion Labor Latest Racism Arizona Governor-Elect Taps Critic of Racism in Child Welfare to Lead CPS Agency Climate Crisis College Textbooks Cover the Climate Crisis Less Than They Did Before 2010 Brazil Brazil Celebrates Lula’s Inauguration and End of Right-Wing Bolsonaro Reign Abortion Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers Claim to Be Medical Clinics and Get Away With It More About Donate Manage Your Donation Subscribe Submission Guidelines Financial Information Privacy Policy Job Openings Report an Issue Contact Us © 2023 Truthout News Analysis | Environment & Health Billionaire-Funded “Anti-Science” Campaigns Are Causing Unnecessary Deaths In places like Texas where the legislature took a strong anti-vaccine stance, the consequences have been devastating. By Lily Meyersohn , Truthout Published November 15, 2022 Activists and faith groups protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions at a rally in Washington, D.C., on January 23, 2021. Shuran Huang for The Washington Post via Getty Images Part of the Series Despair and Disparity: The Uneven Burdens of COVID-19 In February 2020, just around one month before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared SARS-CoV-2 a “global pandemic” and as nations scrambled to respond to the novel coronavirus, that same organization declared an infodemic. At the time, the WHO described the infodemic as an “over-abundance of information — some accurate and some not — that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.” Two and a half years later, Peter Hotez –– the Nobel Prize-winning physician-scientist, global health expert, and co-inventor of the patent-free COVID vaccine, Corbevax –– is done with the “infodemic.” Experts overuse that term, he told Truthout this week. But “infodemic” is an obscuring phrase. Even the WHO’s old description reads as naive, it seems to suggest that misinformation and disinformation are random, isolated issues –– a benign overload that leaves the public confused and in the dark. Hotez is countering this depiction. The movement, he says, is “organized and deliberate.” The problem can’t be solved with small-scale solutions like relying on social media companies to deplatform “repeat offenders” or changing algorithms. That type of reform, warns Hotez, “doesn’t get at the monster. The monster is letting people die unnecessarily from vaccine-preventable disease.” And the monster, Hotez asserts, “has actors, political power, money and nefarious designs.”Don’t miss a beat Get the latest news and thought-provoking analysis from Truthout. Email