Discredited COVID-19 vaccine skeptics tied to RFK Jr. group try to sway Franklin County
Dec. 19—A panel of medical professionals, who have all previously been investigated for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, were invited to a Franklin County Commission meeting this week, where they made inflammatory and discredited claims.
The commissioners also heard from self-described researchers whose claims have been debunked.
Speakers claimed the COVID vaccine caused miscarriages at the same rate as the abortion pill, that the coronavirus pandemic was a “biological weapon” and that medical organizations were bribed by the government to promote the vaccine.
All the speakers have links to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense. The group has been described as one of the primary sources of anti-vaccination misinformation, according to research on the spread of misinformation.
The speakers have all either given talks directly with the organization’s media arm, spoke at their conferences or have been cited as sources used to spread misinformation, according to records on the group’s website.
Public meeting
The nearly hour-long presentation Wednesday was sandwiched in the middle of public business at this week’s Franklin County Commission meeting, apparently organized by commissioner and Benton Franklin Health District board member Clint Didier.
The speakers joined the public meeting online and shared presentations about their claims.
“I just wanted to get this before the Tri-Cities, I tried to get it before the board of health but they didn’t want it. I just want the people to hear both sides of this,” Didier said during the meeting.
“The testimony we’ve heard today is powerful, the courage they’ve shown today is incredible. Because of their faith and their belief in God, they will prevail,” he said.
No medical professionals were on hand to refute the claims being made, but the speakers have given similar presentations to other governmental bodies across the nation.
Their claims were uniformly debunked by fact checks. Many of the speakers acknowledged they had been investigated by their home state’s medical boards for spreading misinformation and their medical licenses had been at risk.
Laura Demaray, a nurse who says she works in Idaho and Oregon, organized the presentation. Despite Didier saying their intent was not to frighten anyone, Demaray began the conversation by claiming the vaccine presented an “existential crisis.”
She said she had been part of the push to successfully convince an Idaho health district to stop offering the vaccine in October. Demaray coordinated the speakers and attended in person.
It’s unclear what the commission’s next steps will be, but Demaray gave the board a suggested resolution that would make the board’s position clear on not vaccinating children and urge the state to investigate the efficacy of the treatment.
“Thank you so much for having me here today to contend for life, our health, our children, our military members, our cellular integrity and no less than the future of humanity,” Demaray said.
“I hope to encourage you today that as lesser magistrates, elected or appointed officials like you have the authority and the duty to stand in the gap, to interpose and to protect liberty, person and property in your jurisdiction,” she continued.
“When the highest authorities in the land fail to do so, it is your historical and biblical precedence, God given authority, really that directs the lesser magistrates. You can mitigate, oppose, resist unlawful, unjust, harmful or evil laws or policy.”
Demaray told commissioners it was their duty to take action when state and federal governments will not.
“It falls on each of us to to hold the line for humanity and our communities,” she said.
More than 4.4 million people died from COVID-related illnesses, and while children were at lesser risk of death from the infection, UNICEF estimates 17,400 children died from the virus. About half of those deaths were children under 10.
Research from Columbia University also has found indications that COVID infections could cause neurological issues in children.
While the vaccine is intended to help prevent the spread of the virus, it also helps reduce the risk of serious infections leading to hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Misinformation and debunked claims
The first speaker Wednesday was Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist from Hawaii, who was investigated by the state’s medical board for allegedly spreading misinformation about the use of hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin as treatment for the virus.
Milhoan advocated for not vaccinating children, claiming he’d seen a variety of cardiac issues he believes were caused by the vaccine.
He claimed people who were vaccinated and boosted were at higher risk of infection, and said that children who have the lowest risk of side effects such as myocarditis events were those who weren’t vaccinated.
He did not talk about the impacts of the virus on children who were infected, and claimed the reason healthcare guidance encouraged vaccinating children was to ensure uniformity of messaging.
Milhoan appeared at an online hearing with Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in January, alongside Dr. Ryan Cole, who was scheduled to appear at the Franklin County meeting but ran late, and Dr. Kirk McCullough, who gained notoriety for his role in the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 vaccines were causing athletes to have heart attacks.
Cole’s medical license was restricted in Washington for spreading misinformation.
Another speaker was Dr. Christina Parks, a molecular biologist who teaches science for a Michigan home school organization, according to her previous testimony before the Michigan Legislature.
Parks said the vaccine does not actually prevent transmission, claiming it was actually a form of gene therapy.
“Maybe for some people (the vaccine) was able to prevent viral replication in the lungs, but not in the nose or throat,” she said. “So if we don’t mandate people go get cancer treatments, why are we mandating people go get this therapeutic?”
The claim that the vaccine is gene therapy has been widely disbunked, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
She went on to claim that the vaccine would cause “a huge amount of auto immune diseases, a huge amount of cancer.”
Sasha Latypova, purportedly a retired pharmaceutical research and development executive, has become well known for claiming the coronavirus pandemic was a military operation, not a viral pandemic.
A 2017 Rochester Business Journal article describes Latypova and her husband as owners of a medical device company.
Her evidence for this was based on a total and complete misunderstanding of what emergency declarations and emergency use authorizations are used for and the role they play in allowing emergency authorizations of drugs and funding for research and crisis response, according to the Annenberg Policy Center’s Factcheck.org.
She later said the vaccine was the result of an “international biological weapon and racketeering organization.”
She was followed by Dr. James Thorp, who said he was investigated and had his accreditation threatened over his claims about vaccine related miscarriages.
He claimed his research showed there was an 81% miscarriage rate among pregnant women who take the vaccine, comparing it to the abortion pill.
The Annenberg Policy Center also had scientists and experts review, fact check and debunk Thorp’s research.
Thorp implied the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and other medical organizations focused on maternal medicine, have entered a “quid pro quo” with the government if they “abided by the narrative.”
His evidence for this claim was a graph that appeared to show the flow of grants from the federal Department of Health and Human Services to state health departments down to local health bodies and then organizations such as the Massachusetts Medical Society.
“Ladies and gentleman this genetic product is not safe, it is not safe for human use and must be taken off the market immediately,” Thorp said.
He cited papers he had authored, which included input from “independent researchers” who are not doctors or medical professionals. McCullough is cited as a co-author on some of Thorp’s research.
Dr. Renata Moon also spoke to the commissioners. She recently sued Washington State University after she was removed from teaching duties after some students took issue with remarks she made about race and gender discrimination and her questioning of whether the COVID vaccine was appropriate for children, according to the lawsuit.
Moon said that children were hospitalized with COVID-19 infections, but likened it to the rate of hospitalizations for the flu and other illnesses throughout the year.
She echoed the sentiment of the other speakers who encouraged not vaccinating children.
The board took no action, but left the door open to bringing the speakers back.