RFK Jr fueled the "plandemic"

New video shows how the propaganda film was funded

In May 2020, I reached out to Matthew Remski and Julian Walker to discuss the anti-vax propaganda film, Plandemic, on the EarthRise podcast. That episode became the foundation of Conspirituality.

While we’ve covered a wide range of topics at the intersection of conspiracy theories in wellness circles and right-wing politics over the years, the anti-vax movement remains front and center, especially now that RFK Jr is about to head up the 17 agencies underneath the Department of Health and Human Services.

And so it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that video of Bobby admitting that his nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, funded Plandemic is circulating. Still, when I discovered this fact via Rolling Stone last night, it hit me like a ton of bricks—a true “of course” moment.

Reporter Miles Klee explains,

“We have a film division at Children’s Health Defense,” Kennedy said in a clip from a virtual interview shared by the anti-extremism social media account PatriotTakes on Wednesday. A major source of vaccine misinformation, CHD is an activist nonprofit that was chaired by Kennedy until he took leave in 2023 to run for president. “We produced two films. One of them is Vaxxed II, which was, you know, a huge success,” Kennedy continued. “And then Plandemic, which we financed, which is now — by some metrics — the most successful documentary in history.

The anti-vax movement began when rudimentary tests were being conducted by Edward Jenner in 1796. Despite the vaccine's success in reducing smallpox deaths, it faced immediate criticism on sanitary, religious, scientific, and political grounds.

Some objectors, including the local clergy, believed the vaccine was “unchristian” because it came from an animal. For other anti-vaccinators, their discontent with the smallpox vaccine reflected their general distrust in medicine and in Jenner’s ideas about disease spread.

An organized anti-vaccination movement launched in 1853 when the British government made the smallpox vaccine mandatory for children. This mandate sparked opposition from various groups who objected to government interference in personal health decisions.

Others worried that the vaccine was dangerous, or that they were being used as guinea pigs — what proof was there that this concoction even worked? Protests were staged, opinion pieces written, and parents resorted to subterfuge to avoid vaccinating their kids — they changed addresses to confuse officials, got fake vaccine certificates, and even tried to reverse the process once their kids had already been vaccinated.

Anti-vaccination leagues formed in England in response to mandatory vaccination laws. Up to 100,000 activists protested at the Leicester Demonstration in March, 1885. Overseas, the Anti Vaccination Society of America was founded in 1879, with similar leagues popping up in New England in 1882 and New York City in 1885.

The modern face of the movement is Andrew Wakefield, who helped inspire Bobby’s anti-science rhetoric. To this day, the long-disproven link between vaccines and autism persists, in large part due to these men.

The movement has always relied on a combination of personal affect and fears around government overreach. And now, in an administration that wants to weaken as many federal agencies as possible, Bobby will be given the keys to deconstruct at whim.

There’s a notion going around that he’s not actually anti-vax. Yet, as he told podcaster Lex Fridman earlier this year, “there’s no vaccine that’s safe and effective.” While overwhelmingly false, Bobby’s about to be given power to put that belief into action. The fact that he helped fund the largest source of vaccine misinformation in decades completely tracks.

Meanwhile, the largest measles outbreak in the Canadian province of New Brunswick is spreading through a population of unvaccinated children. Expect more of this, and worse.