Last week’s Defeat The Mandate March in Washington D.C. saw a who’s-who of conspiracists address thousands from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Live-streaming and mic’d up— some fresh from massive exposure on the Joe Rogan Experience—they complained about censorship and tyranny, and compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.They present themselves as bold outsiders who reveal forbidden knowledge and stand up against the corrupt establishment. But scratch the surface of anti-vax celebrity and Covid-conspiracism and you’ll find the well-oiled machinery of affiliate marketing and global quack-medicine sales networks.
Julian reports on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Simone Gold, Pierre Kory, and Sayer Ji. He follows the money and asks, “What’s the difference between a misguided activist and a cynical grifter?”Show NotesKennedy Xmas Party Hypocrisy Ravens’ Theory of Mind Research Primate Theory of Mind Goldfish-Broccoli Study $1M in PPP Loans for Anti-Vax Groups CCDH Pandemic Profiteers Grandview Research on CAM Global MarketNCCIH Spent $2.5 on Failed Alt-Med Studies Skeptical Inquirer Report on CAM Grants
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We've already established that RFK's anti-vax organization doubled its income during the pandemic.
We also know that five prominent anti-vax organizations, including his children's health defense And companies under Joseph Mercola's umbrella and Sherry Tenpenny's Integrative Medical Center all received forgivable PPP loans from the government during the pandemic, totaling close to $1 million.
We've also obtained records showing that J.P.
Sears, who's hit the Democrats or Communists messaging pretty hard over the last year, was also the recipient of a suspiciously socialist forgivable loan of $56,000.
Aubrey Marcus, who we've been covering a lot lately and who sold his company Onnit, co-owned with Joe Rogan by the way, to Unilever for between $100 and $400 million.
also received free money from the government to the tune of over $100,000 through Black Swan Yoga in Dallas, which he owns.
Now, Pierre Corey, Robert Malone, and Peter McCullough, those are those three anti-vax rising stars, may sincerely believe they're trying to save the world may sincerely believe they're trying to save the world from vaccine injuries or the stronger variants that they claim vaccines cause, even though the opposite is true, or by blowing the trumpet on suppressed miracle cures But
Consider this.
In September of last year, an article from The Intercept showed that hacked data had revealed how 72,000 customers paid in excess of $6.7 million for online medical consultations promoted by Simone Gold and her America's Frontline Doctor's Group from the Supreme Court steps you may remember.
They were also featured at Defeat the Mandates with their signature cosplay white coats freshly laundered.
Now when you factor in the off-label medications available from these websites and the combination of hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, zinc, and azithromycin, plus those consulting fees, the total rises to at least 15 million dollars paid.
Of course, America's frontline doctors is directly tied to the Tea Party Patriots, well known for their opposition to the Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration.
Simone Gold was also arrested and charged for being involved in the capital riots.
Pierre Corrie's group is called the Frontline COVID Critical Care Alliance, or the FLCCC, and they advertise several different branded treatment protocols that and they advertise several different branded treatment protocols that combine these unevidenced remedies.
There's a submission form that pharmacies can fill out to apply to be listed on their website if they want to ship these branded protocols.
I'm willing to bet my rent money that listing is not a free service, and as of right now, they list 259 pharmacies around the world.
I don't know how much money, specifically, they're making from this, but they have set themselves up as the global hub for Ivermectin, and reaching the millions of people that Corey's appearances on Weinstein and then Rogan's podcasts did has cemented his position as the Pope of the horse-paced sacrament.
So much for censorship.
The FLCCC website also has a store that sells, I kid you not, pretty good quality hoodies, sweatpants, and t-shirts.
They feature well-designed logos and slogans like FLCCC army or hashtag let doctors be doctors and COVID kills, ivermectin saves.
Oh, there's also a page featuring coffee mugs, water bottles and beanies, all festooned like everything else with FCC, FLCCC lettering and images of the globe or a cutesy graphic molecule that could either represent COVID or Ivermectin, I'm not sure.
But the page that makes me almost wish I had river blindness myself and so had never seen it is the one dedicated to products for children and toddlers.
Yep.
Onesies, bibs, and tiny little beanies with multicolored children's TV style branding for a quack medicine during a global pandemic.
So yeah, with fame comes an audience, and with an audience comes sales opportunities, and that's not a new phenomenon.
Alex Jones pioneered the conspiracy misinformation crossover with online supplement sales that will protect you from the imaginary dangers he just convinced you to fear.
SayerG's GreenMedInfo has been running the same scam since 2008.
The lucrative affiliate marketing network that exists between figures in the disinformation dozen and many others in this sector has been built over time using email marketing funnels and online advertising on e-commerce websites that have self-published blogs which can in turn easily be shared as posts or ads on social media.
And I just want to say that stodgy, Poorly coordinated public health messaging is no match for this marketing machine.
In a follow-up to their initial Disinformation Dozen report titled Pandemic Profiteers, the Center for Countering Digital Hate says that the anti-vax industry generates $1.1 billion for social media giants.
It also lists the example of Ty and Charlene Bollinger, who are on the Disinformation Dozen list, claiming to have paid, bragging about this actually to try and lure people in, Over 14 million dollars to others who promoted their products online in an affiliate marketing scheme.
So I'll read to you from the report.
In these schemes, anti-vax entrepreneurs with a product to sell will recruit other anti-vaxxers as affiliates, who then share marketing materials with their own audiences.
By assigning a unique ID to each affiliate, entrepreneurs can track the number of sales generated by each affiliate and pay them a commission on each sale.
CCDH has identified three such affiliate marketing schemes for anti-vaccine videos and conferences from the last year.
All 12 anti-vaxxers studied in this report either featured in these videos and conferences directly or promoted them on their social media accounts, in some cases embedding a URL that could be used to track affiliates' activity, and I'll add here, and thereby pay them handsomely.
Describing a specific example, the report continues.
The Truth About Vaccines is a video series produced by Ty and Charlene Bollinger who have claimed that the COVID vaccine is a killer.
Leading anti-vaxxers including Andrew Wakefield and Joseph Mercola feature in the series, and every other anti-vaxxer studied in this report has promoted the series in some way.
In some cases, the Bollingers created custom landing pages carrying quotes from leading anti-vaxxers such as Del Bigtree and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Archived copies of a webpage advertising their affiliate marketing scheme listed a number of leading anti-vaxxers including RFK, Sherry Tenpenny, and Mike Adams amongst the top 10 of their overall sales leadership board.
I wasn't joking when I said they were bragging.
The same page states that affiliates will earn 40% commissions on all digital products and 30% on all physical product sales, with video packages currently for sale of prices up to $499.29.
Organizations associated with leading anti-vaxxers have also promoted the Bollinger's Alternative Health Series, The Truth About Cancer.
