"There are enough elements to say that we are already at war" "The biological weapon they made in the form of a fake vaccine" "Guys, we have a lot of studies on ivermectin." And there is nothing innocent or organic about them. To this day, it is one of the main disseminators of false information about vaccines. THAÍS: With the leniency of the Federal Council of Medicine, this group grew during the pandemic, gained political influence, and came to defend the post-election coup. Or Doctors For Doubt, as we prefer to call them. But until now, we haven't talked about one of the most important groups in this story: the MPV, Portuguese acronym for “Doctors For Life”. THAÍS: Since the first season of Ciência Suja, we've been keeping an eye on the anti-vaccine movement in Brazil. He was actually paying tribute to a group that he was very close to, and that, in 2020, already began to attack the Covid vaccines, even before they arrived in Brazil. The song is by Veneu himself, in honor of the doctors who worked during the pandemic. This event took place in July 2022 in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná state. THEO: He's embarrassing himself there at the 2nd Global Congress of the World Council for Health Doctors for Covid-19 – yes, the name is joke, if not redundant. THEO: Veneu is also Special Advisor to the Dean of the Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro, and one of the main integrators of a group of doctors, although he has no training in the area, according to his curriculum lattes resumé. Or, as the way he was introduced several times at the event where this audio was recorded, "the man who can land a helicopter on a moving ship." He is a frigate captain in the Brazilian Navy Reserve. THEO: The person singing this song is a guy named Antonio Veneu Jordão. "My doctor, you who welcomed me, accept the affection of this tribute." This girl is very well-connected! And the whole season was only possible thanks to the Serrapilheira Institute, which fosters research and scientific dissemination in the country. ![]() THAÍS: Hi guys, just to let you know that this episode is part of a series of stories being published by Chloé Pinheiro from our team, in different vehicles, and that have been produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center. We mined audience data to show that some channels, such as the ones related to MPV, have hundreds of millions of views. Finally, we approach the hidden world of Telegram, a place where antivaxxers are connected with far-right extremists, fake vaccination cards sellers, and even neo-Nazis. We hear from eight experts to understand how antivax disinformation is built, why it spreads so well, and what is the MPV’s importance in this environment. We uncovered this network disseminated among various alternative social media platforms and message apps, such as Telegram, BitChute, and Gettr. They profit mainly from offering alternatives for vaccines and treatment to “reverse” supposed vaccination effects, mostly based on cheap drugs and controversial therapies like ozone therapy. ![]() Also, it represents a bigger movement of healthcare professionals profiting off the spreading of vaccine misinformation. ![]() Nevertheless, this group has strong connections with American physicians and social networks such as Gettr. We discovered that, despite its massive audience online and the fact that it had promoted an international congress last year, it doesn't have an actual office nor any infrastructure. We went to Recife, a city in northeast Brazil, where the MPV was founded. During the pandemic, hundreds of physicians gathered around this anti-science organization and started to attack the use of COVID-19 vaccines even before they arrived in Brazil. The main focus of the episode is a group called “Médicos Pela Vida (MPV)” (roughly translated as “Physicians for Life”). In "The Antivax Network," Chloé Pinheiro and her colleagues from the Ciência Suja (roughly translated as Dirty Science) podcast investigate the emerging Brazilian antivax movement.
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