How anti-vaxxers target grieving moms and turn them into crusaders – NBC News, NBC News
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Fifteen miles west of Minneapolis, a billboard looms over a field of tall grass beside Highway 55. The sign features a photo of Evee Clobes, a baby girl with sparkling eyes, flushed cheeks and an expression frozen in wonder. Next to her face are the words, “HEALTHY BABIES DON’T JUST DIE.” The web address of a group opposed to mandatory vaccinations is at the bottom.
Evee’s story, as her mother Catelin Clobes tells it, is of a healthy 6-month-old who died 36 hours after a checkup where she got severalvaccinations. Clobes and an army of online activists now say the vaccines caused Evee’s death. That belief, and Clobes’ willingness to make Evee part of a national media campaign, have turned the grieving mom into a rising star in the anti-vaccination world. Her Facebook posts draw hundreds of thousands of views, and multiple fundraisers set up by anti-vaccination activists on her behalf have raised tens of thousands of dollars. She has become a champion of other anti-vaccination parents around the country.
But there’s a problem with the story at the heart of this crusade, and with Clobes’ new role as an anti- vaccine heroine. Her local medical examiner has ruled that the evidence – collected in an autopsy and by first responders – shows Eveeaccidentally suffocatedwhile co-sleeping with her mother.
Anti-vaccination activistshave long targeted their message to parents of autistic kids. They have also, however, pursued another vulnerable population of parents searching for answers – mothers and fathers of babies who have died unexpectedly, especially when the deaths are linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS. At a time when the U.S. faces the largest outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses in decades, a network of activists is finding new recruits to the anti-vaccination cause by raising questions about the sudden deaths of several dozen babies and young children.
That network includes discredited physician-turned-anti-vaccination celebrity Andrew Wakefield, whose retracted study popularized the false belief that vaccines are linked to autism; Del Bigtree, a former “Dr. Phil” producer who runs the country most well-funded anti-vaccine nonprofit, Informed Consent Action Network; and social media activist Larry Cook, who hosts the largest and most active anti-vaccination community on Facebook.
Since 2018, Cook has published at least 20 different articles alleging a baby’s death was the result of a vaccination – despite official, medically supported explanations that include SIDS, pneumonia and accidental asphyxiation. Clobes joined Cook’s group after Evee died, and her story is among Cook’s 20.
Stories like Evee’s are “incredibly common and very effective,” said Naomi Smith, a lecturer at Federation University Australia who has studied the anti-vaccination movement. “Anti-vaccination communities have long favored this type of personal testimony to get their message across. These stories are also presented as being more meaningful and more ‘real’ than official statistics.”
” They [hit] that core fear parents have about keeping their children safe, “Smith added.
And as public health officials work to contain outbreaks ofpreventable diseases like measlesand social media platforms crack down on vaccine misinformation, Clobes serves another purpose for the anti-vaccination community. Testimonies like hers don’t just drive billions of views to anti-vaccination websites or raise millions for the cause, they also provide a kind of human shield. Who wants to pick a fight with a grieving mother?
How Evee’s story spread
Catelin Clobes spent the night of Feb. 28 as she did most others – with Evee. Clobes breastfed Evee to sleep and set her down in the queen bed they shared, according to theWright County Sheriff’s report. Clobes then had a whiskey cocktail, watched some basketball and, a few hours later, lay down beside Evee, according to the report.
When Clobes woke up the next morning, Evee didn’t stir and she was cold to the touch, Clobes told investigators.
Distraught, Clobes called 911. “This can’t be real,” Clobes told the operator, according to a transcript of the call. “This is because she was sleeping with me.”
According to reports by a detective who examined Evee at the scene and the medical examiner who performed Evee’s autopsy, the skin on Evee’s face had creases that looked like they could have come from a blanket. Areas of her nose, chest, arms and legs were discolored and pooled with blood, indicating Evee had been face-down for some time.
The medical examiner initially found the cause of death to be “undetermined,” with co-sleeping with an adult as a “significant condition.” Three months later, at Clobes’ request, the same examiner reviewed the case and amended the cause of death to positional asphyxia, or suffocation.
“There are no scene or autopsy findings and no scientific literature to support vaccination as a cause of, or contributor to, Evee’s death, “the Wright County medical examiner, Dr. A. Quinn Strobl, wrote in a Juneletterexplaining the official change to Clobes.
Clobes rejected these findings in an interview with NBC News.
“I safely co-slept with my daughter, that has nothing to do with her death,” she said via Facebook Messenger.
The day after Evee died – before the medical examiner had issued any findings – Clobes started pouring out her heartbreak and confusion on Facebook.
“This feeling of pain is indescribable,” Clobes wrote next toa videoof Evee laughing that has now been viewed over half a million times and attracted 3, 000 comments. “The unanswered questions of how or why make it worse.”
Clobes’ grief and Evee’s giggle were like a siren, attracting dozens of family and friends, and then hundreds and thousands of strangers offering condolences in the comments.
Within hours of her post, some had answers.
“Vaccine injury is real and a movement is spreading across the nation , “one woman wrote. “Organizations are filled with people and parents who understand what you are going through and can help offer guidance and support to you.”
Some posters added links to Stop Mandatory Vaccination, a website founded by Larry Cook, a man without medical training who has made a name as a leader of the online anti-vaccination movement.
The links posted to Clobes’ timeline were testimonials and interviews featuring mothers who suggested their children had been irreparably injured or killed by vaccines, pages that make up the most popular and engaged-with section of Cook’s site.
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