Anti-vaccine groups have falsely claimed for decades that childhood vaccines cause autism, weaving fantastic conspiracy theories involving government, Big Business and the media.
Now, the same groups are blaming patients’ coincidental medical problems on covid shots, even when it’s clear that age or underlying health conditions are to blame, [infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter] Hotez said. “They will sensationalize anything that happens after someone gets a vaccine and attribute it to the vaccine,” Hotez said.
As more seniors receive their first covid shots, many will inevitably suffer from unrelated heart attacks, strokes and other serious medical problems — not because of the vaccine but, rather, their age and declining health, said epidemiologist Michael Osterholm.
…
Anti-vaccine groups such as the National Vaccine Information Center and Children’s Health Defense, founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are already inflaming fears about a handful of deaths — mostly in Europe — that have followed the worldwide rollout of immunizations.
“If you give a vaccine to a large enough number of people, there are going to be rare adverse events but there are also going to be coincidental events unrelated to the vaccine,” [Dr. Adam] Cuker said. “If an anti-vaccine group uses a single case, where no link has been proven, to discourage people from vaccination, that’s terrible.”
