Anti-Vaccine Facebook Groups Paved Way for Current MAHA Health Crisis

In 2007, Oprah Winfrey gave Jenny McCarthy, former Playboy model turned activist, a platform to discuss her son’s autism diagnosis. “The University of Google is where I got my degree from,” McCarthy declared during her appearance. This moment marked the beginning of McCarthy’s influential role in spreading misinformation about vaccines and autism, persuading numerous parents that vaccines cause developmental disabilities.

McCarthy’s journey reflected the struggles of many mothers navigating autism diagnoses for their children. Women, who constitute the majority of caregivers for people with autism, have historically faced dismissal from the medical establishment. For decades, scientists even blamed “unloving mothers” for autism, driving many women like McCarthy to seek information online about this complex and often misunderstood condition.

While McCarthy’s celebrity amplified her message, countless less famous bloggers were equally instrumental in spreading vaccine misinformation throughout the 2000s and 2010s. These “mommy bloggers” frequently focused on supposed links between vaccines and autism, even as the scientific community repeatedly debunked such connections. This grassroots movement made mainstream media efforts to combat vaccine misinformation increasingly difficult.

The groundwork laid by these early anti-vaccine advocates created fertile soil for widespread vaccine skepticism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ironically, despite the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed successfully developing COVID vaccines, many right-wing activists preemptively undermined public confidence in them.

The internet has become a breeding ground for medical misinformation, from self-diagnosis based on TikTok videos to snake-oil salesmen promoting bogus cures on social media platforms. Conspiracy theories about autism have proven particularly damaging, eventually influencing federal health policy under the Trump administration with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary.

This progression from fringe theory to federal policy began in 1998 when British physician Andrew Wakefield published a study suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The study, later retracted by The Lancet in 2010 after Wakefield lost his medical license, had fatal flaws. It was revealed that lawyers involved in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers had funded portions of his research.

By the time the study was discredited, Wakefield’s claims had already spread widely online. Anti-vaccine Facebook groups framed their position as a moral stance against government and media oppression. This created a dangerous feedback loop: parents searching for autism information would encounter misinformation, then amplify it on social media, making accurate information increasingly difficult to find.

The anti-vaccine movement gained significant momentum in 2014 following a measles outbreak at Disneyland. When California proposed legislation eliminating personal belief exemptions for vaccines, Stanford professor Renee Diresta discovered that a small but vocal group of anti-vaccine activists used social media to intimidate legislators. Their messaging also evolved, adopting right-wing rhetoric about “parental choice” and “safe vaccines” rather than outright conspiracy theories.

Foreign actors recognized the divisive potential of the vaccine debate. A 2018 study published in the American Journal of Public Health revealed that Russian trolls and sophisticated bots posted vaccine content at significantly higher rates than average users, giving equal attention to both pro- and anti-vaccination arguments to promote discord—a known Russian tactic applied across various controversial topics.

When COVID-19 emerged, the established anti-vaccine infrastructure quickly mobilized. Media Matters documented how figures like Wakefield appeared on QAnon-aligned programs to spread misinformation about COVID vaccines.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer turned anti-vaccine activist, played a pivotal role in mainstreaming vaccine skepticism. In 2005, Rolling Stone and Salon.com published Kennedy’s article “Deadly Immunity,” which claimed a link between a vaccine preservative and neurological disorders—the article was later retracted. Kennedy used platforms like HuffPost to criticize the CDC, joining celebrities like McCarthy in questioning vaccine safety.

Twitter amplified these messages, with Donald Trump being among the most influential promoters. In 2014, Trump tweeted: “Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn’t feel good and changes – AUTISM.” He maintained this position during the 2016 presidential debates.

Right-wing media personalities like Glenn Beck embraced anti-vaccine sentiment, comparing critics of anti-vaxxers to persecutors of Galileo. Meanwhile, wealthy funders like Bernard and Lisa Selz financed numerous anti-vaccine groups, including Del Bigtree’s Informed Consent Action Network.

During the pandemic, Kennedy seized the opportunity to promote his theories widely. The Center for Countering Digital Hate identified him as part of the “Disinformation Dozen,” responsible for creating 65% of anti-vaccine content on Facebook and Twitter during early 2021. After falsely suggesting COVID-19 vaccines caused Hank Aaron’s death, Kennedy had his social media accounts temporarily suspended, though they were later reinstated during his presidential campaign.

Kennedy’s political journey—starting as a Democrat challenging Joe Biden, switching to an independent run, and ultimately endorsing Trump—mirrors the evolution of the anti-vaccine movement itself. Now as HHS Secretary, Kennedy has pledged to investigate the “autism epidemic,” dismissed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, and implemented plans to collect Americans’ data to track autism despite privacy concerns. The Trump administration also removed CDC Director Susan Monarez for resisting Kennedy’s vaccine policy directives, triggering an exodus of experts from the agency.

What once existed on the fringes of scientific discourse has now reached the highest levels of government health policy. The cranks, once dismissed, now control the levers of power.