It's no secret what motivates many folks to push misinformation about vaccines or how anti-vax folks monetize misinformation. There is big money to be made in their selling you supplements, books, subscriptions, and tickets to attend seminars, etc.
While some describe it as a grift, this is hardly small-scale swindling.
Come for the Misinformation About Vaccines and Stay to Buy Supplements
Some of these folks have made hundreds of millions of dollars pushing misinformation and selling unnecessary 'health' products to their visitors.
“InfoWars is actually an infomercial, right?”
The Truth vs. Alex Jones: How the DSHEA of 1994 gave conspiracy mongers the means to fund their empires
Of course it isn't just misinformation about vaccines...
The lawyers also show that Jones’s telling of Sandy Hook lies is directly tied to his income. Every time Infowars floated a hoax theory, viewership went up, as did sales of his supplements, measured by “spikes in engagement.”
‘The Truth vs. Alex Jones’: How Sandy Hook lies got peddled for profit
These influencers are part of a $21 billion industry, which includes the dietary supplement business, which is itself a $60 billion industry in the United States alone!
"Online celebrities turn followers’ attention into material resources, a process that is often referred to be part of the “attention economy.”
The political economy of digital profiteering: communication resource mobilization by anti-vaccination actors
But it's not just about supplements anymore, especially since COVID...
Have you ever wondered why some "health care providers" still push the idea that ivermectin and other cocktails of drugs work to treat COVID?
Is it so they can charge for a visit and a prescription?
"In the week of August 13, 2021, private and Medicare plans paid an estimated $1 568 996.00 (43 888 × $35.75) and $924 720.16 (23 632 × $39.13) for ivermectin prescriptions for COVID-19. The weekly total of $2 493 716.16 extrapolated to $129 673 240.30 annually."
US Insurer Spending on Ivermectin Prescriptions for COVID-19
Prescriptions that most studies have shown have no benefit for COVID, but which were typically paid for or subsided by insurance companies.
How Anti-Vax Folks Monetize Misinformation
How else do anti-vaccine folks make money?
In addition to selling premium priced supplements (mostly self-regulated and often contaminated) that often make controversial health claims and non-evidence based treatments for COVID, these anti-vaccine influencers and supplement shills might:
- sell subscriptions on Substack - there are more than a few anti-vax Substack newsletters on the Health and Fitness leaderboard
- sell anti-vaccine books, often books that they self-publish
- make money selling anti-vaccine videos
- make money with amazon affiliate links and from the AmazonSmile fundraising program
- make money from ads and sponsors on podcasts, websites, and other social media sites, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube
- appeal for donations that are supposed to go toward real research projects
- sell MLM products, including those that sell essential oils and CBD products
- charge big speaker fees to appear at events
- make money selling tickets to their online and in-person anti-vaccine seminars
And they aren't the only ones making money off misinformation.
"The global anti-vaccination industry, including influencers and followers, generates up to $1.1 billion in annual revenue for social media giants, according to a damning new report published this week."
Anti-vaxxers make up to $1.1 billion for social media companies
So next time you read or see something that scares you away from vaccinating and protecting your family, just know that there is big money to be made from spreading that kind of vaccine misinformation.
Want some good news?
You don't have to listen to the supplement shills! After all, while they are cashing in, you and your family are left at risk to get a vaccine-preventable disease.
More on the Money Behind the Anti-Vax Movement
- Money and Motivation of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- The Moral Responsibility of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- Do Anti-Vaccine Parents Ever Change Their Minds?
- More Questions to Help You Become a Vaccine Skeptic
- Vaccine Injury Stories That Scare Parents
- The Truth vs. Alex Jones: How the DSHEA of 1994 gave conspiracy mongers the means to fund their empires
- The Wellness Company: How antivaccine grift becomes plain old quackery
- Is Joe Rogan Complicit In The Ivermectin Grift?
- ‘The Truth vs. Alex Jones’: How Sandy Hook lies got peddled for profit
- The True Dollar Cost of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- A Snapshot of the Deep Pockets of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- Hidden cameras capture misinformation, fundraising tactics used by anti-vaxx movement
- Anti-vaxxers make up to $1.1 billion for social media companies
- The political economy of digital profiteering: communication resource mobilization by anti-vaccination actors
- Measuring the monetization strategies of websites with application to pro- and anti-vaccine communities
- Here's the Money Behind the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- CNN: The money behind the vaccine skeptics
- A major funder of the anti-vaccine movement has made millions selling natural health products
- John Oliver takes a shot at the anti-vaccine movement and the ‘opportunistic quacks’ behind it
- The American Board of Internal Medicine finally acts against two misinformation-spreading doctors
- History of Anti-Vaccination Movements
