Vaccinating the World in 2021 Join us for a conversation with Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Ambassador Mark Green. Wilson Center

Event: WIlson Center  

Vaccinating the World in 2021

Join us for a conversation with Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Ambassador Mark Green.

RSVP for event

Date & Time

Monday

May. 17, 2021

11:00am – 11:45am ET

The couple in the website videos could be hawking any number of products.

“You’re going to love owning the platinum package,” Charlene Bollinger tells viewers, as a picture of a DVD set, booklets and other products flashes on screen. Her husband, Ty, promises a “director’s cut edition,” and over 100 hours of additional footage.

Click the orange button, his wife says, “to join in the fight for health freedom” — or more specifically, to pay $199 to $499 for the Bollingers’ video series, “The Truth About Vaccines 2020.”

The Bollingers are part of an ecosystem of for-profit companies, nonprofit groups, YouTube channels and other social media accounts that stoke fear and distrust of COVID-19 vaccines, resorting to what medical experts say is often misleading and false information.

An investigation by The Associated Press has found that the couple work closely with others prominent in the anti-vaccine movement — including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Children’s Health Defense — to drive sales through affiliate marketing relationships.

LA Times owner pledges $210 million to transfer vaccine technology to  South Africa

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire biotechnology entrepreneur who owns The Los Angeles Times, announced on Wednesday that his corporation and his philanthropic foundation would commit an initial 3 billion South African rand (about $210 million) to transfer the latest technology for producing vaccines and biological therapies to South Africa, where he was born.

Companies there, he said, could then use them to make a second generation of vaccines to address variants of the coronavirus that might make current vaccines less effective.

Dr. Soon-Shiong spoke at an international meeting on the equitable distribution of coronavirus vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics that was co-chaired by the director-general of the World Health Organization.

Poll: Plurality says masks should still be worn outdoors regardless A plurality of voters said they think that people in their area should continue to wear masks outdoors regardless of the guidelines, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds. Gabriela Schulte TheHill

A plurality of voters said they think that people in their area should continue to wear masks outdoors regardless of the guidelines, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds.