The Feds Forgave Over $1 Million in Paycheck Protection Program Loans to Anti-Vaxxers

Photo caption: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaking at “Keep It Clean” To Benefit Waterkeeper Alliance at Avalon in Hollywood, California, in April 2017. Photo: Rich Polk / Getty Images for Waterkeeper Alliance (Getty Images). Article by Tom McKay. Gizmodo – July 8, 2021.

The feds forgave Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans totaling over $1 million to antivax organizations including ones run by conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., discredited scientist Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, and others, the Daily Beast reported on Thursday.

The PPP was ostensibly intended to protect small businesses impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic and help them retain workers by extending businesses and other entities federal loans that were potentially forgivable if the borrowers didn’t lay off workers. But much of the $800 billion+ in funds handed out so far have gone to big businesses with banking connections which sucked the pool dry faster than many others could apply. According to the Daily Beast’s review of public records, groups that spread misinformation, hoaxes, and lies claiming vaccines aren’t safe and effective managed to get a cut of that sweet, sweet funding too. […]

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