Newsmax spread its share of COVID misinformation over the years, though it tried to cover itself by adding disclaimers conceding that most the people it published spreading that misinformation were “non-clinicians.” And that misinformation is not stopping. Michael Reagan spent a Dec. 6 column attacking Pfizer for developing a “clot shot”:
And so far, even the most blatant alleged fraudsters have yet to suffer any penalty. But that may end very soon as Pfizer is being taken to court.
Not by the U.S., which gave the vax companies max immunity, but by another state attorney general doing the job the feds refuse to do.
This time Outkick relates Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton will be suing Pfizer for allegedly “misrepresenting COVID–19 vaccine efficacy.”
Paxton’s news release is damning:
[…]And then when Pfizer allegedly knew the clot shot didn’t protect against getting COVID-19 or transmitting COVID-19, it doubled down on preventing the public from learning the facts.
Reagan is lying. The Pfizer shot does, in fact, protect against COVID; vaccines need to be reformulated periodically has the virus mutates. (And, yes, he quoted Outkick, filled with right-wing sports writers and other non-clinicians, to attack Pfizer.) But the truth doesn’t matter to Reagan when there’s a conspiracy theory to peddle:
The COVID-19 panic was a fraud from top to bottom.
Crooks, corporations, and politicians all purportedly fed at the trough at our expense.
At the federal level there has been almost no accountability up to now and prospects are dim for the future.
That’s why this state lawsuit is so important.
If a state can sue tobacco companies for the harm cigarettes did — a legal product that everyone knew caused cancer — they can certainly sue Big Pharma for experimental products Big Pharma allegedly knew were useless and often harmful.
And then worked to conceal that damning knowledge from the public.
A Jan. 1 article by Michael Katz hyped an anti-vaxxer’s petition targeting the military for mandating that soldiers get the vaccine:
More than 200 U.S. active duty and retired service members are vowing to hold senior military leaders in the Biden administration — “who broke the law” — accountable for establishing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The Pentagon made COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for service members in August 2021, and 8,000 service members were discharged for not taking it.
“While implementing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, military leaders broke the law, trampled on constitutional rights, denied informed consent, permitted unwilling medical experimentation and suppressed the free exercise of religion,” read a letter from active duty service members and veterans sent Monday to senior military leaders. A copy of the letter, titled a Declaration of Accountability, was posted on X by Brad Miller, who describes himself as a former Army officer.
“I sent it on behalf of myself & 230 other signatories of the letter,” Miller wrote in his post. “The letter is not addressed to the military leaders but rather to the American people. The email was merely to inform these military leaders that there is group of troops & vets pledging to the American public that we will do everything lawfully within our power to stop the willful destruction of our military by its own leadership.
“Let’s take our country back in 2024 & let’s begin by defending our military from its own leadership.”
Katz made no effort to get an alternate view of the petition, and no evidence is offered to back up Miller’s claim that vaccines have anything to do with “the free exercise of religion.”
Nicole Wells was a servile stenographer for Florida’s anti-vaxx surgeon general in a Jan. 4 article:
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo slammed the COVID-19 vaccines during a Thursday appearance on former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast, calling the shots the “anti-Christ of all products.”
“Doctor, help me out here for a second,” Bannon said on his “War Room” podcast. “When we’ve had other experts on or other people on from other streaming services or podcasts or whatever, the mainstream media immediately … It’s all of sudden, we’re conspiracy theory guys, we’re kooks that we’re talking about keeping people away from this tremendous vaccine that saved so many lives.”
“What evidence do you point to?” he continued. “Because I know you’re a man of science. … I think you were at UCLA after Harvard. You came and took the surgeon general job under Gov. [Ron] DeSantis because you actually want to get this out into the field. What evidence do you point to that backs up your contention?”
Wells uncritically quoted Ladapo prattling on about “billions of particles, small particles of DNA with each dose” supposedly in the vaccine, but she didn’t mention that his insinuation that DNA fragments in the vaccine is harmful has been discredited. And when Ladapo huffed that “these vaccines are, honestly, they’re the anti-Christ of all products,” Wells said nothing beyond noting that “Ladapo has long been outspoken about the efficacy and safety of the COVID vaccines” — but wouldn’t tell readers that his claims have been repeatedly discredited, or that Ladapo resorted to altering evidence in a study he cited to boost his anti-vaxx claims to make the vaccines look dangerous.