#2697: Joshua Coleman

Joshua Coleman is an antivaxer activist associated with the conspiracy film VAXXED and the originator of the hashtag #SaidNoMother for antivaxx parents to create memes with their child’s (alleged) vaccine injury story in a way that maximizes emotional appeal (so as to downplay the facts). The rationale for the hashtag and campaign is of course that “vaccine injury” is, according to antivaxxers, often scorned in the media, as if “injury can not exist.” But, according to antivaxxers, the campaign shows that “[i]t exists. From this we know.” Yes, who would rely on evidence when they could listen to antivaxxers making memes, and what is careful study compared to antivaccine parents making causal inferences based on gut feeling and failure to grasp basic statistics? In any case, Facebook got littered for a while with memes like “ ‘My child quit talking after getting the MMR vaccine and now bangs his head against the wall every day, lost all his eye contact, doesn’t recognize me anymore and is now afraid to eat new foods, but HEY – I’m glad he doesn’t have the Measles, which can cause a runny nose, cough, and a rash, can be treated with vitamin A, typically lasts only 7-10 days and resolves itself.’ ~Said no mother of a vaccine injured child, ever.” [courtesy of antivaxx conspiracy theorist Lyndsy Karrie] Of course, vaccines demonstrably do not cause autism, and Karrie’s variant of the Brady Bunch misinformation gambit about measles is dangerous nonsense. But yeah: the hashtag was used to run virtually any piece of antivaccine talking point, conspiracy theory and associated quackery in existence.

 

As an antivaxx activist, Coleman is zealous and tireless, and he has, over the last five years, emerged as a major figure in the antivaccine movement. In 2020, he and his organization V is for Vaccines for instance organized protests outside Jimmy Kimmel Live and the Frozen II premiere to protest vaccines, and had infiltrators interrupt the Jimmy Kimmel broadcast while Kimmel was interviewing Kristen Bell, since Kimmel and Bell, according to Coleman, are “two of the most openly hateful figures towards people who do not or selectively vaccinate” – this is not about facts and evidence for Coleman, but about oppression, marginalization and othering of him and likeminded conspiracy theorists who peddle misunderstandings and falsehoods that seriously threaten public health. Coleman is otherwise the “brain” behind various potentially colorful antivaccine stunts, such as having Star Wars cosplaying antivaxers descend upon Disneyland and V-cosplaying (hence ‘V is for vaccine’, of course) antivaxxers infiltrating the San Diego Comic-Con in 2019.

 

Coleman himself is the father of a boy that Coleman is convinced is vaccine injured; the boy developed transverse myelitis just over 6 weeks after he received a round of vaccines when he was 17 months old, and according to Coleman, “it was in fact determined that it was vaccine induced transverse myelitis,” even though current research does not support a causal link between vaccines and transverse myelitis. Coleman, however, has read and misunderstood vaccine package inserts, where, for some vaccines, “transverse myelitis” is listed as an adverse reaction (which, to emphasize, just means that some people receiving the vaccine have been reported to also develop transverse myelitis – like Coleman’s son – and not that there is any shred of indication of a causal link). Coleman, however, feels that he was not given true informed consent to the vaccines because he wasn’t told that “transverse myelitis” was listed in the package inserts even though there is no indication that vaccines contribute to transverse myelitis.

 

Such details – like facts, evidence or accuracy – doesn’t matter much to Coleman. His organization for instance sells packs of protest signs of what they claim to be “basic vaccine facts” filled with familiar antivaccine misinformation and talking points refuted a thousand times, including claiming that

 

-       “Vaccines are not placebo safety tested” (blatantly false; when confronted with the relevant studies, antivaxxers will of course try to move the goalposts)

-       “Childhood vaccines: 24 in 1988, 69 in 2019” (this is an easily refuted myth, but it is interesting how it never goes away, even though the numbers antivaxxers use vary wildly).

-       “Vaccines are made with aborted fetal cells” (of course they aren’t, but of course Coleman’s group will claim they are)

-       “Vaccine makers are exempt from liability” (blatantly false)

-       “US Law classifies vaccines as unavoidably unsafe” (yes, of course they would be trying to mislead people with that one; it tells you so much about them and so little about vaccines)

-       “Live virus vaccines shed and spread” (nope)

 

Yeah, the claims on those signs are easily debunked, but Coleman, his organization, and their followers, are using them at protests across the nation, and it wouldn’t be surprising if some parents, who don’t, after all, have expertise in these fields, might be scared. “These are all undisputed facts. Everyone should know these things,” says Coleman.

 

Coleman and his V is for Vaccine rose to prominence particularly through their campaigning against California’s SB276, which would protect children from potentially lethal, transmissible disease by making it harder to obtain exemptions from vaccine mandates (receiving the patronage of anti-vaxx celebrity Rob Schneider, for instance). Ostensibly peaceful protests, the antivaccine campaigns were notable for their violent rhetoric, and Coleman and Olivia Mikos (another figure in the group – we haven’t tried to determine official positions, if there are any, but Mikos and one Kyle Evatt are recurring figures) were quick to appeal to conspiracy theories to suggest that people associated with the movement who were demonstrably not peaceful were double agents planted to make the movement look bad (which was, needless to say, demonstrably not the case). We guess it’s tricky to stay on the right side of ‘peaceful’ when you have deluded yourself into thinking you are civil rights martyrs fighting not only tyranny but for your children’s lives; Coleman, who had convinced himself his campaigns are addressing a civil rights issue, struggles mightily with how to position himself along the lines here, especially given that stalking and harassment remain among his favorite activist tools. His group quickly expanded their efforts to other states as well.

 

Coleman was also quick to see the opportunity provided by Covid to ramp up antivaccine rhetoric and attract more followers, especially by coopting the language of rightwing populists to recruit people sympathetic tp wingnut views and associated conspiracy theories – the antivaccine movement was, in March 2020, in Coleman’s words, in “a very unique position in this moment in time.”

 

More recently, Coleman has teamed up with groups like the Proud Boys: “They seemed like really good guys. Over the last few years I’ve met many more and seen them at events they either organized or attended,” says Coleman, who also thinks they “are being unfairly attacked in the mainstream news”.

 

Diagnosis: As a deludedly self-declared civil rights warrior and freedom fighter, Coleman apparently feels justified in employing virtually any tactic that will serve his need, and his willingness to do that, combined with tirelessness and zealotry, has made him one of the movers and shakers in the antivaccine movement, A frightening figure, whose path you don’t want to have intersect with yours.

 

Hat-tip: Vaxopedia