Federal government forgives more than $ 1 million in PPP loans to the best anti-vaccines

Ttalk about a sick case.

The Small Business Administration gave vaccine conspirators a shot in the arm of more than $ 1 million by forgiving massive loans to major vaccine opponents, a Daily Beast review revealed. Ironically, this infusion came through the Paycheck Protection Program, intended to ease the economic pressure brought on by the pandemic – the same pandemic that widespread misinformation about anti-COVID-19 injections now threatens to prolong.

Recipients of the SBA reimbursement amnesty include the Children’s Health Defense Co, founded and chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., perhaps America’s most famous anti-vaccine advocate. Kennedy did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but public records show the federal government forgave a P3 loan worth $ 145,399, plus more than a thousand dollars in interest, in March this year. .

Kennedy, a descendant of a legendary political dynasty, used his inherited fame to propagate discredited conspiracy theories linking vaccinations to everything from food allergies to autism to cancer. Last September, he met German followers of the QAnon cult, who believe that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles controls several national governments.

Kennedy also wrote the foreword to Plague of corruption, a book co-authored by the infamous Dr Judy Mikovits, star of the documentary “Plandemic”, which makes numerous false claims about the origin of the novel coronavirus, the safety of masks and the conduct of the National Allergy Institute and of Infections Director of Diseases Dr Anthony Fauci. The Children’s Health Defense Co. was involved in the publication and promotion of the book, and its logo appears on its cover.

Kennedy has used the organization to advance other bizarre ideas about COVID-19, posting an article on his website last year warning of Microsoft founder Bill Gates’s “global vaccination program”. Two months before the federal government forgave his group’s P3 loan, he hinted on Twitter that Moderna’s stunt killed baseball icon Hank Aaron.

But Kennedy is far from the only lopsided anti-vaxxer to receive SBA pardon. Osteopathic physician Dr Sherri Tenpenny, who went viral last month for testifying in the Ohio state legislature that the COVID-19 vaccine had ‘magnetized’ people through alchemy involving 5G towers , also saw his alternative medical practice’s $ 72,500 loan canceled in April.

Tenpenny has been peddling debunked vaccine safety studies since at least the mid-2000s. She also did not respond to a request for comment.

However, another osteopathic doctor, Dr Joseph Mercola – who made himself a millionaire peddling unproven health supplements – had a lot to say when The Daily Beast contacted him regarding the nearly half a million. dollars in PPP loans received by two of its companies. The SBA forgave the loans this spring.

“I encourage you to carefully review the PPP loan application as I have not found anywhere to profess unwavering loyalty and endorsement of vaccine propaganda,” Mercola wrote in an email to The Daily Beast.

Mercola, whom the Food and Drug Administration reprimanded in March for marketing bogus “cures” for COVID-19, is right on at least this point: the PPP forgiveness program is agnostic about the type of work applicants do. Rather, it only requires that employee compensation remain constant, 60 percent of borrowed funds go to payroll and the rest to other approved expenses.

The SBA did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Neither did Ronnie Cummins, who co-wrote a book with Mercola – with another foreword by Kennedy – earlier this year proposing the “Great Reset” conspiracy theory, which alleges that COVID-19 lockdowns are a prelude to a new governance and corporate regime. control. The vaccine-skeptical Organic Consumers Association saw its $ 165,400 PPP loan canceled last November.

Ditto the National Vaccine Information Center, which has received millions of dollars from Mercola and promotes its products, which last month was discharged of $ 137,646 in PPP debt.

Another anti-vaccine recipient was TTAC Publishing, which saw a quarter-million-dollar PPP loan canceled on Jan.8, two days after its founders Ty and Charlene Bollinger rallied on the U.S. Capitol against the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. . And psychiatrist Dr Kelly Brogan, former collaborator of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and promoter of COVID-19 and vaccine conspiracy theories, saw his Miami-based practice’s PPP debt wiped out in late 2020. Neither Brogan nor the Bollingers did not respond to requests for comment. .