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Introducing Dr Anti-vax: the making of a modern panic

How did the anti-vax movement become so mainstream?

25 years ago, a British doctor Dr Andrew Wakefield sparked a global vaccine panic. Today, Alexi Mostrous, the reporter behind chart-topping hit podcasts Sweet Bobby and Hoaxed investigates how anti-vaxxers have gone from the fringes of public life to the centre of the culture wars that divide America and so many other countries, and the beguiling fall and rise of the man who started it all.

Episode 1 goes live on Tuesday 24th October and all three episodes will be available to Tortoise members on the free Tortoise audio app, and subscribers to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts.

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31:T4fc,A very strange – and very visual – story of a vaccine injury predates Tiffany Dover by almost 10 years. The woman at the center of it now says she was taken advantage of – by the media, by the anti-vaccination movement, including Jenny McCarthy, and by Dr. Rashid Buttar, who she called a “money hungry, ego-maniac.” This same Dr. Buttar also leapt on Tiffany’s story, using it to advance his idea that the vaccines are deadly. He was following the anti-vaccination movement’s playbook: Seize on a novel story, ride it as far as it’ll go, discard, repeat. There was a panic in the early ‘80s, another in the late ‘90s, and a peak in the mid-2000s. The current push to sow doubt in vaccines is led by people seasoned from those battles, especially Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But something new is happening this time, as those drawn in by Covid, people like tech millionaire Steve Kirsch, produce wrenching videos that don’t need mainstream media airtime to spread. People like the protestors at a January march in Washington D.C. seem more open to the possibility of a dark global plot—and joining the new resistance. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.32:T4cd,

Andrew Wakefield becomes a superstar thanks to the support of celebrities and an army of mothers – and establishes anti-vax as a moneymaker.

This is part 2 of a 3-part series - to listen exclusively to episode 3 today subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts or become a member and listen on Tortoise's audio app.

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Panic Virus Pt. 2