The Most Popular Anti-Vaccine Influencers

Do you know who the most popular anti-vaccine influencers are today?

Some of the names have changed over the years…

The Most Popular Anti-Vaccine Influencers

Some haven’t…

And of course, even after millions of unvaccinated people died after vaccines became available during the COVID pandemic, these anti-vaccine influencers continue to use the same old arguments that they have always used – vaccines aren’t necessary, vaccines are dangerous, and everything is a vaccine injury.

The Newest Anti-Vaccine Influencers

These new people pushing misinformation about vaccines who came on the scene during the COVID pandemic include:

• Dr Peter McCullough – he started innocently enough, pushing ivermectin and the idea that children and younger adults do not need to get a COVID vaccine, but Peter McCullough soon became “one of the best-known faces of COVID-19 misinformation,” and now claims that no immunizations are safe for children. His transformation is indeed complete.
• Steve Kirsch – Steve Kirsch uses biased polls and surveys of his own followers and misleading statistics to try and prove that no vaccines are safe
• Alex Berenson – a reporter, he has been nick-named “the pandemic’s wrongest man,” but somehow Alex Berenson rode that to huge fame and fortune as an anti-vaccine influencer
• Dr Mary Talley Bowden – got famous for her views on treating COVID with ivermectin.
• Martin Kulldorff – a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, Martin Kulldorff pushed for the idea of allowing everyone to get COVID so that we reached herd immunity levels, despite the fact that a lot of people would die. Kulldorff also argued against vaccinating children against COVID.
• Dr Jay Bhattacharya – a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, Jay Bhattacharya also pushes the idea that COVID vaccines only work for a short time, never mentioning that COVID variants will also reinfect those who have had natural infections.
• Dr. Simone Gold – Simone Gold is the founder of America’s Frontline Doctors, which has been described as “one of the world’s most arrogant promoters of COVID-19 misinformation.” Simone Gold pushes the idea of forced vaccination, suppression of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as effective treatments for COVID by the FDA, and selling ivermectin prescriptions via telemedicine visits.
• Dr. Pierre Kory – Pierre Kory continues to push ivermectin to treat COVID and that long COVID is really “long-vax”
• Michael Yeadon – an ex-Pfizer scientist, he has said masks don’t work, and Yeadon stated that the pandemic was over in October 2020, so we didn’t need vaccines…
• Dr Robert Malone – he says that he invented mRNA vaccines, a claim that has helped Robert Malone to become “an anti-vaccine darling.”
• Dr Paul Marik – his thing is vitamin D… he pushed vitamin D as a treatment for COVID and that long COVID is really “long-vax“
• Dr. Marty Makary – pushed the idea that we would have herd immunity for COVID by April of 2021. We didn’t, but that didn’t stop Makary from continuing to tell folks that herd immunity was coming! He also favored natural immunity over vaccines and pushing anti-vaccine myths.
• Joe Rogan – considering the size of his audience, he is so wrong about COVID (he downplays how many people died, how serious it can be to get sick with COVID, and overstates the risks of COVID vaccines) that it is scary. And of course, he pushes ivermectin as a miracle cure.
• Dr. Vladimir Zelenko – made up his own Zelenko Protocol to treat COVID, including a variety of supplements (that he sold) and drugs, including hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and azithromycin. Zelenko also pushes most COVID conspiracy theories, including that COVID vaccines are a poison shot and part of a bioweapon, a eugenics program designed to murder people and reduce the world’s population. He died of cancer at the age of 48 in 2022, even though he almost certainly had not received a COVID vaccine.
• Dr. Joseph Ladapo – appointed as Florida surgeon general, he has been a big spreader of COVID misinformation, Joseph Ladapo recommended against healthy children getting a COVID vaccine and for use of updated COVID vaccines in adults.
• Candace Owens – a political commentator, Candace Owens has advocated against COVID vaccines and pushes a lot of COVID misinformation and misinformation about vaccines
• Dr Lee Merritt – an orthopedic surgeon (that does laser tattoo removal and vaginal rejuvenation) that “they” may have weaponized spike proteins by turning them into self-replicating proteins that we are transmitting to others. She also claims we can shed prions to others if we have had a COVID vaccine.
• Dr Carrie Madej – also believes in shedding from COVID vaccines, but thinks nanolipid particles in COVID vaccines act as nanobots that transmit EMFs and can enhance those who are vaccinated = transhumanism.
• Dr Stella Immanuel – a pediatrician who pushed the use of hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and azithromycin as a cure for COVID, seems to believe that alien DNA is being used in medical treatments, and many gynecological problems occur after women have sex dreams with demons and witches.
• Dr William Makis – is heavily pushing the idea of ‘vaccine turbo cancer‘ by posting about any and all cancer deaths and blaming them on COVID vaccines and/or COVID-19 vaccine turbo cancer
• Dr Richard Urso – an opthalmologist who has been described as an outspoken proponent of hydroxychloroquine and claimed that “the triple vaxxed are the most likely to die from covid-19,” which is not true
• Alan Lash
• Toby Rogers – an economist, Toby Rogers got a little more popular during the pandemic
• Dr Harvey Risch – an epidemiologist at Yale who studies chronic disease, Harvey Risch not only pushed the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID, but said the FDA was suppressing evidence that it was effective! He also supports the idea of COVID vaccines causing turbo cancers.
• John Campbell – a retired nurse who has become a popular YouTuber who pushes COVID conspiracy theories, including that it is dangerous if you vaccinate someone without aspirating first.
• Judy Mikovits – has long claimed that retroviruses contaminate vaccines and are a cause of vaccine injuries, but gained notoriety during the pandemic for her conspiracy filled Plandemic video
• Dr Didier Raoult – a French doctor who claimed that hydroxychloroquine, with azithromycin, could effectively treat COVID based on his own very flawed study. He has since had many of his other studies retracted for ethical issues…
• James Thorp – a gynecologist who claimed that COVID vaccines were causing infertility and Americans to drop dead
• Dr Stephen Smith – claimed hydroxychloroquine is a miracle drug for COVID
• Dr Tess Lawrie – not only promotes ivermectin to treat COVID, but Tess Lawrie also promotes homeopathy to treat COVID and long COVID and pushes anti-HPV vaccine misinformation
• Dr Aseem Malhotra – Aseem Malhotra claimed that COVID vaccines do more harm than good
• Dr Drew – unfortunately, yes, Dr Drew Pinsky, as he gives anti-vaccine folks a platform on his show
• Russell Brand – the comedian? yes, that Russell Brand. His YouTube and Rumble videos are full of conspiracy theories about COVID and COVID vaccines.

And there are several groups of anti-vaccine influencers too, including the:

• Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC Alliance) – started by Pierre Kory and Paul Marik, it has been described as “a conspiracy-mongering bunch of grifting quacks promoting disproven ‘repurposed’ treatments for COVID-19″
• America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) – started by Simone Gold, the AFLDS is made up of “a handful of conspiracy-minded physicians,” has promoted hydroxycholoquine, and has been described as an “ivermectin prescription mill.”
• American Frontline Nurses – founded by Nicole Sirotek, American Frontline Nurses tell parents to give kids ivermectin and of course, sell Frontline Defense Supplements
• World Doctors Alliance – described as “a group that has spread various problematic, false and conspiratorial claims about COVID-19 and vaccines,” including that COVID-19 is a hoax, COVID vaccines are dangerous,
• Brownstone Institute – an institute that is against fact checking, which is not surprising since they host articles written by many of the folks listed above. They also promote the Great Barrington Declaration.
• British Ivermectin Recommendation Development Group (BIRD) – promotes ivermectin and other FLCCC Alliance protocols to treat COVID
• The Evidence-Based Medicine Consultancy Ltd
• U.K. Health Advisory and Recovery Team (HART)
• Wellness Company – “a striking example of the very lucrative libertarian medical movement that claims to stand against the profit-motivated pharmaceutical industry while replacing drugs with expensive dietary supplements.”
• FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation (FFFF) – a group working to expose what they call the ‘FDA Death Protocol’ (they believe remedesivir is harmful and that it, not COVID, killed people), and push the ideas that COVID vaccination is harmful
• Freedom Alliance of South Africa (FASA) – a fringe anti-vaccine group that promotes everything from anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to typical anti-COVID misinformation

Of course, there are all of the anti-vaccine experts who were around before the pandemic. They are still here pushing their many different theories behind vaccine injuries.

Some have even used the pandemic to their advantage!

• Robert F. Kennedy, Jr
• Joseph Mercola
• Del Bigtree
• Andrew Wakefield – yes, Andy Wakefield is still around and has been appearing at anti-vaccine summits during the pandemic to not only say that vaccines cause autism and that half of kids will have austism by 2032, but that vaccines will kill us and that COVID isn’t that serious
• Sherri Tenpenny
• Larry Cook
• Christiane Northrup
• Paul Thomas
• Lawrence Palevsky
• Barbara Loe Fisher
• Suzanne Humphries
• Neil Z. Miller
• Stephanie Seneff
• Ben Tapper
• Bill Maher
• Mary Holland

Did I miss any?

The Useful Idiots for Anti-Vaccine Propagandists

I did.

I missed the useful idiots for anti-vaccine propagandists. Can you guess the etymology of that idiom?

• Dr Vinay Prasad – Vinay Prasad has been described as “a useful idiot for antivax propagandists,” as he pushes COVID misinformation that is used by anti-vaccine folks to affirm their beliefs against vaccines.
• Dr John Ioannidis – made early predictions that many folks used to downplay how serious COVID could be.
• Dr Monica Gandhi – downplayed the risk of COVID variants and “unleashed a firehose of poor predictions and bogus statistics throughout the pandemic, always minimizing the virus, of course.”
• Dr Leana Wen – pushed the idea that COVID deaths have been overcounted
• Dr Zubin Damania – ZDoggMD went anti-vaccine? Kind of…
• Dr Hooman Noorchashm – his claim to fame was warning that we should screen everyone for COVID antibodies because the vaccine might trigger an autoimmune reaction if you have already had COVID. It doesn’t…

While idiots might be a strong term for some of these folks, by providing conflicting information they did likely contribute to the COVID confusion we have seen.

More on Who’s Who in the Anti-Vaccine Movement

• Follow These Social Media Doctors Fighting Medical Misinformation
• More Questions to Help You Become a Vaccine Skeptic
• Come for the Misinformation About Vaccines and Stay to Buy Supplements
• How Misinformation About Vaccines is Created?
• Who’s Who in the Anti-Vaccine Movement
• Who’s Who in the Anti-Vaccine Movement – 2019 Edition
• Who’s Anti-Vaccine Now?
• Who Are the Real COVID-19 Experts?
• Why There is Still So Much COVID-19 Confusion
• How hateful extremists are exploiting the pandemic
• The making of COVID-19 “contrarian” doctors
• Reining in doctors promoting COVID-19 misinformation
• Are You Getting Anti-Vaccine Information From Russian Propagandists?
• The Anti-Vaccine Movement in 2020
• History of Anti-Vaccination Movements