In October, a conference filled with anti-vaccine activists in Nashville, Tenn., received a high-profile political guest: former President Donald Trump's son, Eric Trump.
While portions of the younger Trump's half-hour address were typical political platitudes, some of his biggest applause lines came when he attacked COVID vaccine mandates.
"Do you want to get a vaccine or do you not? Do you want to be left alone or not?" said Trump to a roaring audience.
Trump was very different from many of the other speakers at the event, put on by longtime anti-vaccine activists Ty and Charlene Bollinger.
The day before Trump's speech, a homeopathic doctor named Edward Group stood on the same stage and suggested to the audience they should drink their urine as an alternative to getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Another speaker, Carrie Madej, said that the vaccines contained microscopic technology designed to put "another kind of nervous system inside you." The true purpose of the vaccines, she claimed, was to turn humans into cyborgs.
It's the sort of fringe views that kept political figures away from this conference in the past. But as America heads into midterm elections next year, the political right and the anti-vaccine movement are drawing ever-closer together. It's an alliance that promises to give both sides more power, but the cost is potentially thousands of American lives.
To understand what's going on, it's important to understand where the parties are coming from. The...
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