WaPo: Anti-Vax Groups Have Raked In Over $118M

The Washington Post reports:

Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., received $23.5 million in contributions, grants and other revenue in 2022 alone — eight times what it collected the year before the pandemic began — allowing it to expand its state-based lobbying operations to cover half the country.

Another influential anti-vaccine group, Informed Consent Action Network, nearly quadrupled its revenue during that time to about $13.4 million in 2022, giving it the resources to finance lawsuits seeking to roll back vaccine requirements as Americans’ faith in vaccines drops.

Two other groups, Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance and America’s Frontline Doctors, went from receiving $1 million combined when they formed in 2020 to collecting more than $21 million combined in 2022, according to the latest tax filings available for the groups.

Read the full article. Gift link here. The piece notes that Simone Gold, the leader of America’s Frontline Doctors and a convicted Capitol rioter, has purchased a multi-million dollar mansion and has a fleet of luxury cars.

Four major nonprofits that rose to prominence during the coronavirus pandemic by capitalizing on the spread of medical misinformation collectively gained more than $118 million between 2020 and 2022, a Post analysis shows. https://t.co/BPXBsP4nKZ

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 21, 2024