Anti-vaxx Island: ex-Pfizer exec behind infertility claims to build Zanzibar resort for conspiracy theorists
One of the world’s most popular “anti-vaxx superspreaders” is planning to build a tropical holiday resort, which will be exclusive to fellow conspiracy theorists and like minded-people, according to the London-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).
Michael Yeadon, a British ex-Pfizer executive, is thought to have been instrumental in popularising conspiracy theories that Covid vaccines cause infertility in women.
Together with his wife, he has reportedly set up plans to build a luxury resort exclusive to anti-vaxxers on the tropical island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania.
According to Liberty Places it will “ensure that our freedom estate is filled with the most authentic and empathetic liberal neighbours you could hope for.”
“Our community estate will be exclusively for like minded people… who view the world as it was, not as it’s become,” it reads.
It has promised prospective holidaymakers fully-furnished apartments with ocean views and a waterside bar and grill for residents.
Infertility claims
Following Yeadon’s controversial claims last year, mostly spread via social media, researchers at King’s College London found that 7 per cent of UK adults polled believed that Covid vaccines may cause infertility, roughly the equivalent of 3.8m people.
This was much higher among people whose primary source of news was social media.
Polling in the US has shown that 13 per cent of unvaccinated Americans had encountered the false claim “Covid-19 vaccines have been shown to cause infertility”.
Moreover, nearly half of US adults aged 18-49 reportedly said they were concerned that “the Covid-19 vaccine may negatively impact their fertility in the future.”
Over the last 12 months, Yeadon has appeared as a guest on the War Room Pandemic show, hosted by Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former Chief Strategist.
The anti-vaxxer also appears to have met former London mayoral candidate Laurence Fox, who shared an image of the encounter with the caption “making plans to reclaim our freedom”.
Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), said: “Michael Yeadon has been a key figure in the scaremongering that Covid vaccines cause infertility.
“A lot of anti-vaxxer, who usually claim to be in it for the truth—are actually making money from this nonsense,” he added.
“Yeadon has only been able to spread his nonsense, build a following and market his resort thanks to the social media companies,” Ahmed said.
He urged the UK government needs to pass the Online Safety Bill to clamp down on abuses of online services “when it puts the public at risk of serious harm or—when it comes to Covid—death,” Ahmed said.