‘Stop the Steal’ extremists now target vaccines

Adherents of far-right groups who cluster online have turned repeatedly to one particular website in recent weeks: the federal database showing deaths and adverse reactions nationwide among people who have had COVID-19 vaccinations.

Although negative reactions have been relatively rare, the numbers are used by many extremist groups to try to bolster a rash of false and alarmist disinformation in articles and videos with titles like “COVID19 Vaccines Are Weapons of Mass Destruction — and Could Wipe out the Human Race” or “Doctors and Nurses Giving the COVID-19 Vaccine Will be Tried as War Criminals.”

If the so-called “Stop the Steal” movement seemed to be chasing a lost cause once President Joe Biden was inaugurated, its supporters among extremist organizations are adopting a new agenda from the anti-vaccination campaign to try to undermine the government.

Bashing the safety and efficacy of vaccines is occurring in chatrooms frequented by all manner of rightwing groups including the Proud Boys; the Boogaloo movement, a loose affiliation known for wanting to spark a second Civil War; and various paramilitary organizations.

These groups tend to portray vaccines as a symbol of excessive government control. “If less people get vaccinated then the system will have to use more aggressive force on the rest of us to make us get the shot,” read a recent post on the Telegram social media platform, in a channel linked to members of the Proud Boys charged in storming the Capitol.

The marked focus on vaccines is particularly striking on discussion channels populated by followers of Qanon, who had falsely prophesied Donald Trump would continue as president while his political opponents were marched off to jail.

“They rode the shift in the national conversation away from Trump to what was happening with the massive ramp-up in vaccines,” said Devin Burghart, the head of the Seattle-based Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, which monitors far-right movements, referring to followers of Qanon.

On Jan. 6, as rioters advanced on the Capitol, numerous leading figures in the anti-vaccination movement were onstage nearby, holding their own rally to attack both the election results and vaccinations.

Events overshadowed their protest, but at least one outspoken activist, Dr. Simone Gold of Beverly Hills, California, was charged with breaching the Capitol. She called her arrest an attack on free speech. She was one of several doctors who appeared in a video last year spreading misleading claims about the coronavirus. Trump shared a version of the video, which Facebook, Youtube and Twitter removed after millions of viewers watched it.