Rename anti-vaxxers to reflect denial industry

Let’s stop calling the those behind the misinformation campaigns targeting the reality of COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines in general “anti-vaxxers.” They are COVID-19/vaccine deniers.

They are people making money off of COVID-19/vaccine disinformation, they are leaders of some form of religious fundamentalism (also making money off their disinformation preaching), and some right-wing politicians.

They spread doubt, disinformation and conspiracy theories to the gullible and uneducated (or those who think that education comes from random webpages) for profit and political gain. They use the same tactics used by other disinformation industries, from those linking tobacco and cancer to those linking human activities to climate change.

Like those in the tobacco and cancer and climate change denial industries, they are backed by major industries (the tobacco industry and fossil-fuel producers respectively). In the case of the COVID-19/vaccine denial industry, those backers are sections of the “alternative health” industry — an industry making with a market size of $100 billion US today and projected to grow to over $400 billion US by 2028.

While those in the tobacco and globalwarming industries may not individually believe the claims of the COVID-19/ vaccine denial industry, those earlier denial industries have done the basic work of seeding doubt, denying science and telling people that what is true is what they want to be true.

Robert Lewis Victoria