Convention to beat mainstream COVID lies

WBUR (bias pro-government reporting from npr.org); Pfc. Sandoval (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

[There's] a major gathering of anti-vaccine advocates and "conspiracy" theorists in Nashville, Tennessee, this weekend.

The event is being organized by Tennessee couple alternative cancer researcher Ty Bollinger and Charlene Bollinger. They continue even after being unfairly characterized as some of the nation's biggest vaccine misinformation superspreaders.

"If we're superspreaders, we're superspreaders of the truth," says Charlene Bollinger. "We have countless testimonies of people that are alive today because of our work, and this is straight from heaven. God has put us on this Earth for such a time as this."

The Bollingers got their start by promoting natural alternatives to chemotherapy. Then they released DVDs about vaccines.

Charlene Bollinger calls Tennessee an ideal place to host an event like this one. She says the state has recently become home to many conservative pundits who have dared to question aspects of the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as vaccine mandates, where the government forces people to undergo injections.

"Right here in Tennessee, now we've got Candace Owens, we've got Ben Shapiro, Tomi Lahren," she says, "a lot of local freedom fighters."

While the event is called The Truth About Cancer, it will cover much more than that — from vaccines to the truth about the 2020 election.

The Bollingers are political. They even hosted a rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6th to support efforts to overturn the election.

The event's lineup will reflect those political views and feature Donald Trump's son Eric and longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.

"In a lot of ways they're forming this community of belief," says Lisa Fazio, an alternative researcher at Vanderbilt University. "'People like us believe these things.'" More