Anti-Vax Group Promotes Public Illness Via Legal Bullying
As a lawyer quoted in the article said, they do not need to be able to win court cases on the merits. They only need to convince organizations it's too risky to resist their demands: “If you have a limited budget to deal with litigation, it doesn’t matter if you might win at the supreme court level. The costs of that litigation are so existentially threatening that you’re not going to take the risk.”
It's a shame that tactics like that work. So far when these things have gone to court, the anti-vaxxers have lost.
What is behind these attacks on vaccinations? It appears it may be another case of anti-vaxxing for dollars. The Guardian reports that in 2019 ICAN raked in and spent $3.5 million. A little less than half of that has gone to a New York law firm associated with ICAN's founder, Del Bigtree. What happened to the other half? Your guess is as good as mine, but I'd be shocked if a big chunk isn't going into the pocket of the boss.
Bigtree is a propagandist who has been accused of using misleading arguments to fight vaccinations. Even the name of the organization is misleading.
Informed consent, in a medical setting, is defined as the "communication between a patient and physician [that] results in the patient’s authorization or agreement to undergo a specific medical intervention." I had such communication before getting my jab, and you probably did too.
That's because US law provides for that in the case of COVID-19 by stating that people should be able to “accept or refuse administration” of the vaccine, and “of the consequences, if any, of refusing.” So, there is no need for an "action network" to advocate for informed consent. It is already provided for.
The ICAN name is just another tactic to make the "marks" feel righteous when they're handing over their cash and endangering the health of all the rest of us.
Image by Ordercrazy (photo) is marked with CC0 1.0
