A quartet of vaccine skeptics that have each been accused for years of spreading medical misinformation is asking a judge to allow them to join Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt's lawsuit alleging the federal government colluded with social media companies to suppress freedom of speech.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Joseph Mercola, and Ty and Charlene Bollinger filed a motion with a federal court in Louisiana asking to intervene in the lawsuit, arguing each has been censored and de-platformed by social media companies.
In a news release last week, the group said the intervention will allow them to gain access to specific discovery and depositions for use in pending litigation against social media platforms.
"We should never have been censored," said Charlene Bollinger, who co-founded a website with her husband that has been criticized for, among other things, promoting unproven methods of cancer prevention. "The world needs to hear our voices in order to make informed decisions about their health."
Asked Friday about the motion to intervene, Chris Nuelle, spokesman for the Missouri attorney general's office, declined to comment.
Schmitt's lawsuit was filed in May alongside Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. On Monday, the attorneys general released a nearly 450-page transcript of a deposition they conducted of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who serves as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The possible intervention comes after Schmitt drew...
I learned about hantavirus misinformation this week in the same way I now learn about most public health misinformation: My followers sent it to me. Within hours of the first headlines about a han...