The anti-vaccine movement -which has taken on a lethal dimension and impact in this pandemic- unites the extreme right with the extreme left and has very old roots that go back to Eduard Jenner's first vaccination in the 18th century.
Even then there were movements of organized ignorance and rumors against vaccinations. This continued with polio and other pre-COVID diseases and will surely continue because there are lobbies of lawsuit attorneys in the US who have bulti a cottage industry out of making lawsuits for alleged negative effects of vaccines.
Although
those lawsuits invariably fail, they generate billionaire fees for the
lobbyists who make a living from them.
Among them, the eldest son of Robert Kennedy, Robert Kennedy Jr, stands out sadly these days. Kennedy Jr. has broken with his family and combines the power of his last name with a mix of left-wing environmentalism and anti-vaccine propaganda supported by Donald Trump.
This movement, whose factual base descends into a mix of the most grotesque ignorance and disproven claims by repentant authors of discredited papers, is dangerous due to the billionaire figures it mobilizes in social media, lobbies, and paid militants.
It is another example of the reactionary nature of extremism -coming from the Left or from the Right end of the political spectrum-.
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