‘New-agey types’ and pro-Trump activists. Anti-vaccine crusade finds new allies amid coronavirus
They post images comparing Gov. Gavin Newsom to Hitler.
They say wearing a mask is “submission.”
They reject contact tracing for coronavirus as recommended by public health officials, calling it a government tool to “put a target on your back.”
Anti-vaccine advocates who once flooded the state Capitol to protest a law that school children be innoculated against disease are back again.
But this time they are joining far-right organizations that share a disdain of government directives and public health guidelines, including the stay-at-home order issued in March to slow the spread of COVID-19.
These mothers, who fear vaccines cause more harm than they prevent, are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Make America Great Again enthusiasts, Second Amendment devotees and militia members to protest coronavirus mandates they believe are undermining their civil liberties.
“We are standing together by the millions, and it will grow and grow. Because whether (or not) they’re out here with us now, they’re with us in spirit,” said Tara Thornton, co-founder of a well-known California anti-vaccine coalition called Freedom Angels, during a recent prayer gathering at the Capitol. “They know what tyranny is, they know what freedom is.”
The battle against coronavirus signals a shift in the movement once comprised of both left- and right-leaning members to an uber-conservative campaign, said Richard Carpiano, a UC Riverside public policy and sociology professor.
“We’ve normally thought about it as the left-leaning, the granola, new-agey types,” Carpiano said. “But we see a lot more of an alignment with right-wing and Republican lobbying.”
The evolution was apparent during protests in April and May, where signs reading messages like “No Mandatory Vaccines” or “Flu+Media=COVID-19” dotted a crowd filled with Trump 2020 banners and red MAGA caps.
Carpiano said what ties the seemingly “strange bedfellows” together is a shared passion for individual liberties and freedoms. An era of more extreme politics, combined with an unprecedented global pandemic, accentuates those values, he said.
“COVID brought out a whole bunch of different groups,” he added, “and gave them an opportunity for new allies.”
Seventy-one percent of 1,146 Californians surveyed in a recent report from the nonprofit California Health Care Foundation said they support sheltering at home for as long as it takes to battle the virus. Another 60 percent said they would share personal information with officials studying the virus’ movement once California moves into a ramped-up testing and tracing phase.
Most Californians also support vaccines, with 73 percent reporting in a September Public Policy Institute of California poll that “parents should be required to vaccinate their children for diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella.”
But the coronavirus has given anti-vaccine groups opportunity to rail against the possibility of a shot to prevent COVID-19 and Newsom’s plan to train thousands of people to trace cases.
The efforts are largely led by Thornton and Freedom Angels co-founders Heidi Muñoz Gleisner and Denise Aguilar.
The group filed as a religious organization and its website includes a link to donate anywhere between $3 and $20,000 to fund protest transportation and “boots on the ground support.”
The group has used social media to share event details for a handful of protests they’ve coordinated in the last month, with a “Liberty Fest” scheduled for May 23 at the Capitol. They regularly post video updates of their plans for the 13,000 people who’ve “liked” their Facebook page.
Online posts also include depicting masks as muzzles and calling Newsom’s tracing efforts “measures that put a target on your back based on perceived health risk.”
They also denounce Bill Gates, whose foundation is funding COVID-19 vaccine efforts, and Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as “Unelected Destroyers of Freedom.”
“Calling out Bill Gates for Crimes Against Humanity! Gates you are not King of the World and we are NOT your slaves,” an April 15 post read. “We will never comply.”
An April 8 post alleges Democratic governors are rejecting alternative remedies “like hydroxychloroquine and IV Vitamin C” to treat COVID-19 as a way to craft “the perfect set up for coerced acceptance of their terms” for easing stay-at-home orders.
There are no known cures for COVID-19.
Freedom Angels also took the helm last year to coordinate protests in Sacramento against a law to increase oversight of the number of vaccine medical exemptions a doctor writes for California children enrolling in school. The legislation, Senate Bill 276, built on a 2015 law, Senate Bill 277, that eliminated personal and religious beliefs from a list of reasons children can skip the shots.
In both instances, the supermajority of Democrats passed the immunization oversight laws over the objections of large crowds of anti-vax and vaccine-skeptical families who crowded the Capitol’s corridors in protest of the regulations.
Demonstrators – not all of them members of Freedom Angels – went to great lengths in hopes to block SB 276.
They stood on chairs and chanted over lawmakers during committee hearings. They likened themselves to the Civil Rights movement and carried upside-down American flags through the Capitol. On the final day of the Legislature’s session, one woman threw from the viewing balcony a menstrual cup full of blood, which splattered onto senators and their desks.
Their views, if not their actions, have resonated with GOP lawmakers. Republicans voted against both vaccine measures, arguing last year that the legislation intruded on parental decision-making and was an example of government overreach.
“This is about personal freedoms and the right of the parent to make the best choice for their children,” said state Sen. Brian Dahle, R-Bieber. ”This bill goes too far. You’re telling everybody how to live their lives.”
Legislative Republicans now are pushing for certain counties with few COVID-19 cases to reopen more quickly than jurisdictions hard hit by the virus, but they’ve stopped short of publicly supporting the Capitol protests.
The California Republican Party said in an email to The Bee that California needs a “better plan” to get the economy moving, but added its support of “science-based policies that focus on the health and safety of families and communities.”
“We are not familiar with the Freedom Angels and have no official connection to the events recently at the Capitol, but absolutely support Californians’ right to voice their opinions to their political leaders,” the statement said.
Nationally, President Donald Trump has wavered between supporting and expressing skepticism about vaccines, though he’s in recent months proposed cutting the required time needed to safely test one to prevent the coronavirus. In March 2019, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul questioned the value of mandatory vaccination amid a national measles outbreak.
The trend represents the evolution of a Republican Party once concerned with community well-being into one that champions individual interests, said Sacramento-based Republican strategist Mike Madrid.
“The concepts of freedom and liberty were reliant on an individual to make society better,” Madrid said. “Now, it’s saying, ‘to hell with society. I have the right, the freedom, to do what I want to, even if it jeopardizes your health.’”
This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘New-agey types’ and pro-Trump activists. Anti-vaccine crusade finds new allies amid coronavirus."