Since the pandemic started, Children’s Health Defense has expanded the reach of its newsletter, launched an internet TV channel and started a movie studio. In addition to opening new
The group has become one of the most popular “alternative and natural medicine sites” in the world, according to data from digital intelligence company
As CHD has worked to expand its influence, experts said, it has targeted its false claims at groups that may be more prone to distrust the vaccine, including mothers and Black Americans. It’s a strategy that experts worry has deadly consequences during a pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people, when misinformation has been deemed a threat to public health.
Kennedy has been a key part of the anti-vaccine movement for years, but doctors and public health advocates told the AP that COVID-19 launched him to a new level.
“With the pandemic, he’s been turbocharged,” said Dr.
Dr.
“He’s really the ringleader of the misinformation campaign,” said Williams.
Even Kennedy’s own family members call his work “dangerous.”
Kennedy, 67, is a nephew of President
More than 15 years ago, he became fixated on a belief that vaccines are not safe. While there are rare instances when people have severe reactions to vaccines, the billions of doses administered globally provide real-world evidence that they are safe. The
A Kennedy spokesperson told the AP he was not available for an interview.
More than 200 million Americans have been given a COVID-19 vaccine, and serious side effects are extremely rare. Government safety tracking and testing have shown that any health risks posed by the vaccine are far lower than the risks posed by the virus.
Children’s Health Defense and its followers, seeking to undermine that message, use canny techniques to bring anti-vaccine misinformation even to those not looking for it.
The AP found links to Children’s Health Defense articles all over
Kennedy has hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook and Twitter, although he was kicked off Facebook’s Instagram platform earlier this year. Children’s Health Defense remains on all three platforms.
CHD’s website has seen an explosion in traffic. According to
According to tax filings, Kennedy was paid
Still, he told the conspiracy site InfoWars this month that he had “the opposite of a profit motive.”
“Probably I’ve lost 80 percent of my income because of what I’m doing, along with a lot of friendships and, you know, and damaged relationships even with people in my family,” Kennedy said.
Still, CHD’s fundraising success has only grown with Kennedy’s involvement.
Filings the group made with charity regulators in
Children’s Health Defense’s new movie studio released a film this year, called “Medical Racism.” Doctors and public health advocates said it was aimed at spreading misinformation and fear of vaccines within the Black community, which has been disproportionately hit by the coronavirus.
The movie brings up racist abuses in medicine, such as the
Williams, of the
In the movie, Kennedy and others invoke the legacy of his family and its involvement in causes such as civil rights, the
“There’s always plenty of people and good conversation,” he said in one video posted in 2020. “If my mom decides to come, adventure is guaranteed.”
His sister,
“Anyone
“I love Bobby, I think he’s just completely wrong on this issue and very dangerous,” she said. “Failure to take vaccines puts people’s lives at risk. It not only impacts the person
Last month, Kennedy appeared at protests in
It has become something of a stump speech for Kennedy, one delivered not to win political office but to persuade as many people as possible not to get vaccinated.
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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/.
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