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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
As the pandemic winds down, anti-vaccine1 activists2 are building a legal network
Steve Kirsch is a tech entrepreneur who made hundreds of millions of dollars after founding an early search engine and helping4 invent the optical computer mouse.
Recently, he stood before a gathering5 of more than 250 lawyers in Atlanta while wearing a custom black T-shirt designed like a dictionary entry for the phrase "misinformation superspreader."
"Our definition is it's someone who's basically pointing out the truth and it just happens to disagree with the mainstream6 narrative7 we're known as misinformation spreaders, because what they're trying to do is they're trying to control the narrative," Kirsch told NPR.
By "they," Kirsch means a network of pharmaceutical8 companies, governments, doctors and journalists that he argues are covering up a pandemic-driven plot to poison the world for profit.
The scientific consensus9 shows COVID vaccines10 are safe and significantly reduce the chances of death or serious illness. While many Americans may share a distrust of pharmaceutical companies and healthcare systems, there is no evidence of the kind of conspiracy11 alleged12 in these circles.
In recent years, Kirsch has become an increasingly vocal13 and generous funder of the anti-vaccine movement. He helped organize and fund the conference to map out strategies for anti-vaccine and COVID-19-focused litigation as the pandemic winds down.
Their proposed targets include hospitals, school systems, medical licensing14 boards and, the holy grail, pharmaceutical companies that make vaccines.
"My goal is to expose every single one of these a**holes," Kirsch told the audience, to uproarious applause.
The lawyers met as the anti-vaccine movement is at a crossroads. The COVID-19 pandemic brought in new energy and supporters but is fading from public life. On May 11, the federal government's public health emergency will expire. To keep the cause alive, some in the movement are trying to build up a legal arm.
The legal conference drew a mix of people who've advocated against vaccines for years before the pandemic, and those, like Kirsch, who are more recent converts. He said he actually got two Moderna shots when COVID vaccines became available.
Kirsch's path to the conference started with an effort to find treatments for COVID.
From funding research to organizing lawyers
"When the pandemic hit, I put in a million dollars of my own money and raised another $5 million dollars. We started the COVID 19 Early Treatment Fund and we started funding early treatments," said Kirsch.
The goal was to run trials on existing treatments that might help combat the virus. Reporting by MIT's Technology Review found the project had brought together highly respected biologists and drug researchers who believed in the work. But when some of the research seemed to run into dead ends, Kirsch reportedly began to clash with the scientists he was funding.
"If the data is is is bad and doesn't make sense and the study was badly done, then I have a right to reject it," said Kirsch. "And so the point is that if a study is well done, you'll see that I will like the study."
Kirsch has a tendency to offer large sums of money to anyone willing to debate his assertions.
"But they won't do that. They won't get into any discussion with me because they don't want to answer a single question," Kirsch said.
Jeffrey Morris has tried to engage with Kirsch for years. In his spare time, the professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania has gone line by line through some of Kirsch's claims, providing answers, context and explanations. They once had a long conversation over Zoom15.
"And it was an interesting discussion, you know, because he admitted that he was not a scientist and didn't think like one. And so I was trying to connect with him and help him understand the leaps he was making in his arguments to get him to think more carefully. Because I could tell he was someone with a lot of energy and passion on the issue," said Morris, who has watched Kirsch pull millions of views on some of his COVID vaccine content.
When someone makes a dramatic claim that vaccines are killing16 millions, it's their burden to show the evidence, said Morris, not the other way around.
"They're presuming that they have the entitlement that what they're saying can be presumed to be true without them demonstrating rigorously that it's true, and that it is the responsibility of society and the scientific community to prove them wrong. And if they fail to prove them wrong, or if they don't show up, then they're really offended. And then to them, that just proves their guilt17. It proves the cover up," he said.
As government cover ups became a regular talking point for Kirsch, the researchers abandoned his early treatment project. Two years and $2 million later, he's hoping to organize a sustained legal insurgency18 against public health agencies, drug manufacturers, hospitals and schools.
Attorney Pete Serano traveled from Washington State, where he represents three doctors accused of spreading false statements about COVID-19 and said finding a supportive community of lawyers and experts he can call for help is "monumental."
"You know, it really felt like it was me against the world, even though there were probably maybe half a dozen to a dozen lawyers in Washington fighting. It still feels - it's extremely lonely. It's extremely difficult," said Serano.
Conference organizers asked reporters not to record entire presentations. But one thing Serano and other attendees heard again and again from speakers: In this room, you're among heroes.
"There are people who are tremendously intellectually talented and gifted in so many ways who are using those talents to fight for your rights, to fight for my rights," said Serano.
Creating a new body of law
The fights include everything from suing educators who enforced mask mandates20, to demanding vaccination21 status be made a protected class, like race or sexual orientation22. Thousands of lawsuits23 pushing back against public health measures have been filed since the pandemic.
The goal of this conference is to bring lawyers behind these suits together, study all that legal spaghetti on the wall and analyze24 what has and hasn't worked. They mean to probe for weak points in the law, build a network of experts and plaintiffs, and, they hope, inspire new laws.
Conference organizers like attorney Warner Mendenhall want to ensure a steady supply of lawyers who see opportunity, whether ideologically25 aligned26 with the anti-vaccine movement or not.
"I hate to say this but greed is good in this instance," said Mendenhall on a webinar promoting the event. "So if lawyers can see that they can get rich, and we're trying to prove that you can - we haven't yet, but we will - it'll bring lawyers in simply for the money."
Fears about vaccines are not new. The current legal structure around vaccines is the result of a wave of lawsuits in the 1970s and 80s. It tries to balance individual freedom with public health needs, according to Anjali Deshmukh, a pediatrician and professor of administrative27 law at Georgia State University.
"It's not only about protecting us, but it's about protecting our community. And that's a different calculus28, where it's now within the government's interests to make sure that these diseases are not spreading," Deshmukh said.
But the law is not fixed29, she added, and well-funded, well-organized groups can be a powerful force.
"And I think like we saw with Roe19 v Wade30, you had a case that was passed 50 years ago and then had various chips away at it until the ground crumbled," said Deshmukh.
The civil rights movement, organized labor31 and women's rights advocates have also relied on a potent32 mix of court battles and ground campaigns to sway public sentiment.
"The court of public opinion is more important than I think we give credit to in both law and medicine. We can have all the science in the world, we can have laws that make sense, but laws change. Science is not always convincing when you're coming from a place of fear," said Deshmukh.
Cases don't even have to succeed in court to have an impact, Deshmukh said. Influencers and headlines can frame settlements, technical legal outcomes or compelling, emotional testimony33 as victories for one side or another. She said these lawsuits also come at a time when the Supreme34 Court is weakening the powers of many regulators.
With the COVID national emergency order set to end, keeping COVID-related grievances35 alive in the courts may also help sustain the larger movement against vaccines.
Serano, the lawyer from Washington State, says the kinds of cases that brought him here may become the bulk of his work for years.
"I plan on being that 80 year old guy talking about what it was like in the 2020s and COVID 19 and telling some young whippersnapper lawyer about how we did it back when," he said.
收听单词发音 |
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vaccine
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| n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的 | |
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activists
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| n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 ) | |
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transcript
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| n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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mainstream
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| n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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pharmaceutical
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| adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的 | |
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consensus
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| n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识 | |
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vaccines
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| 疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 ) | |
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conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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licensing
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| v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的现在分词 ) | |
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zoom
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| n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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insurgency
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| n.起义；暴动；叛变 | |
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roe
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| n.鱼卵；獐鹿 | |
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mandates
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| 托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式） | |
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vaccination
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| n.接种疫苗，种痘 | |
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orientation
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| n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍 | |
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lawsuits
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| n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 ) | |
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analyze
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| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
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ideologically
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| adv. 意识形态上地，思想上地 | |
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aligned
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| adj.对齐的，均衡的 | |
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administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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calculus
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| n.微积分；结石 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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