The loose rules of the Paycheck Protection Program have allowed virtually any small business or enterprise in America to qualify for a government-backed loan. Citizens and activist groups have criticized thousands of recipients who view them as unworthy, including wealthy lawyers, politicians and political lobbyists, in publicly traded companies and businesses being investigated by the government.
An advocacy group that fights misinformation online is now drawing attention to a group of loan recipients he finds worrying: anti-vaccine activists.
Six organizations that dispute the safety of vaccines and claim that scientists have called false have received loans totaling more than $ 1.1 million, according to data from the Small Business Administration, which manages the program. (The data was released under a court order last month in response to a lawsuit by The New York Times and other news organizations.)
The groups that received the loans were Children’s Health Defense, founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr .; the Network for Informed Consent Actions; the National Vaccination Center for Vaccinations; Mercola.com Health Resources and Mercola Consulting Services, both affiliated with leading vaccine skeptic Joseph Mercola; and the Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center, a medical practice run by dr. Sherri Tenpenny, a physician and author who opposes vaccinations.
The loans, made by banks and backed by the government, ranged from $ 72,500 to Drs. Tenpenny’s Medical Center up to $ 335,000 to Mercola.com. They do not seem to be violating the rules for small business administration: PPP loans were widely available to any small business or non-profit organization (usually those with 500 employees or less) that was willing to declare that ‘the current economic uncertainty this loan request is necessary ‘to support their continuing operations. .
The Center for Countering Digital Hate, an advocacy group in London, exposed the loans and warned The Washington Post, which first reported on it. Imran Ahmed, CEO of the group, calls it ‘bananas’ that such groups are eligible for tax money funded by taxpayers.
“Here’s a deviation,” he said. Ahmed said. “The OBP was needed to deal with the economic shock of Covid, and the anti-vaxxers fundamentally hinder our ability to defeat Covid and move through it.”
Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center in Sterling, Va., Said in an email that her group was applying for the loan “when it became apparent that locks and restrictions on social distance directly affected the job security of a number of of our employees and jeopardized the continued lease of our Virginia headquarters. ”The group used the loan to retain all of its 21 employees, she said.
Fisher disputes the idea that her group is anti-vaccine. The organization “does not make recommendations on vaccines and encourages everyone to be fully informed about the risks and complications of infectious diseases and vaccines,” she said.
The Paycheck Protection Program distributed $ 523 billion to more than five million small businesses from April to August to help them endure the shutdowns and other economic shocks caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As long as recipients use the most money to pay their workers and comply with other rules, the U.S. government can forgive and repay the loans in full.