Ozlem Demirboga Carr doesn't really like all the woo-woo stuff. The 41-year old telecoms worker from Reading says, "I'm definitely full-science type of person." She doesn't believe crystals, affirmations, or salt lamps. However, she was able to feel unusually anxious during March 2020's UK Covid lockdown and decided, like many others, to practice yoga to relieve stress.
She says, "I tried being open-minded and was open to receiving advice on how to improve my mental and physical health." She followed several social media accounts, including Phoebe Greenacre (somatic therapist, biz coach), who is known for her yoga videos and Kelly Vittengl, a woman's empowerment and spiritual guide. The Instagram algorithm worked. She says, "Suddenly I found myself following so many wellbeing accounts."
Carr noticed posts that bothered her after the Covid vaccine was deployed. These ranged from polite concerns about the social implications of mass vaccination or the politics behind it to outright rejection of the science. She says that the tone and conversation of their posts changed. It was initially about self-care and being a part of a caring community. They began to talk more about the need for vaccine choice. They said things like, "My body, my choice."
Carr watched as Greenacre posted an Instagram Story describing vaccine passports in "medical apartheid". Vittengl went even further. Vittengl, an unvaccinated person, wrote in July that vaccine passports were likened to social polarisation during the Holocaust. He also spoke out about the "messiness" created by the "ideology” of the western medical systems. Vittengl stated that "we aren't being given the whole picture" in a post which was liked by Greenacre. Greenacre invited Vittengl to her podcast. Vittengl spoke about the dangers of big pharma and celebrated the controversial Zach Bush's work, which has been labeled a "Covid denialism" by McGill University researchers.
These views are not uncommon in the wellness community. They are actually on the milder side of the spectrum. Online wellness circles are filled with anti-vaccine and vaccine-reluctant attitudes. They're as common as pastel-coloured Instagram infographics or asana poses at sunset on the beach. Derek Beres, co-host of Conspirituality podcast, says that people are confused by what's happening. Conspirituality is about the convergence conspiracy theories and wellness. "Why is their yoga teacher sharing QAnon hashtags?"
The Center for Countering Digital Hate found that only 12 influencers were responsible for almost 65% of all anti-vaccine content on Facebook or Twitter in May. Callum Hood, CCDH says that many of these anti-vaxxers are alternative entrepreneurs... They reach millions of users each day." This is a serious problem. "Vaccine hesitancy is a major obstacle in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic."
There are thousands of grifters who push untested treatments on impressionable people for every saintly Yoga With Adrienne. Photograph by rbkomar/Getty Images
The CCDH's "disinformation twelve" includes Joseph Mercola, a US-based wellness entrepreneur who was called the "most influential spreading of Covid-19 Misinformation online" by New York Times. Kelly Brogan is a contributor to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop wellness platform. Mikki Willis is the director of Plandemic and is well-known in California's yoga scene. David "Avocado” Wolfe is a conspiracy theorist, raw food advocate, and regular participant at anti-vaccination demonstrations throughout the US.
Other than the CCDH, prominent figures include Stephanie Birch, a yoga instructor, who posted QAnon hashtags to her now-defunct Instagram account. Krystal Tini is a wellness influencer who has 169,000 Instagram followers and has repeatedly posted anti-vaccine content. One post compared lockdowns with the horrors inflicted upon Polish Jews in Warsaw ghetto. Anti-vaccine wellness circles often use the same trope of comparing vaccine deployment to historical atrocities like slavery and the Holocaust. Shiva Rose, a Los Angeles beauty and wellness guru, recently posted a post that compared vaccines with McCarthyism, slavery as well as the Spanish Inquisition, the Cultural Revolution and the Holocaust.
Beres claims that many of these wellness influencers "use cult leader tactics in digital spaces", sowing fear among their followers about the Covid vaccination, one Instagram post at time.
However, they maintain that they are misunderstood and misrepresented. Greenacre disassociated herself from Vittengl’s comments about her podcast when she was contacted by Guardian. She stated that it would be misleading and inaccurate to suggest comments from third parties reflect her own. She said she also used the term "medical apartheid", to describe "the use discrimination and segregation due to medical status, such as treating people negatively based upon their medical status through Covid vaccine passports", instead of historical discrimination based racial.
Vittengl stated, however, that she was not against the western medical system. However, she felt that the industry had been heavily overtaken by large pharmaceutical companies that are more concerned with financial results than health. She also defended Bush's work. She said that Bush is trying to find answers for her by being compassionate.
Carr decided to unfollow both women. She now watches Sweaty Betty's YouTube channel when she practices yoga.
More than a decade has passed since the advent of modern wellness. Vagina candles, chia balls, coffee enemas, and spirulina shots have been a decade. A decade of unhappy, stressed-out women who wanted to detoxify, balance their chakras, and regain their divine femininity. Global wellness is estimated to be worth $1.5tn (PS1.1tn). There are thousands of scammers pushing untested treatments on unsuspecting people for every Yoga With Adriene.
The modern version of wellness was born out of the primordial goop in the late 00s. Although Paltrow, the high priestess of wellness, started her lifestyle brand in 2008 as a newsletter, but the roots of the movement can be traced back to the 1970s hippy counterculture. As a solution to modern-day problems, wellness was conceived in the 1970s. It was based on three principles: strong individualism and distrust of western medicine. It also emphasized self-optimisation. This is done through strict diets and vigorous exercise programs that are designed to prevent disease and death. Barbara Ehrenreich's 2018 book Natural Causes, Life, Death, and the Illusion of Control explains that "Wellness" is the ability to make oneself a better self-correcting machine capable of setting goals and moving towards them with ease.
"You think: I drink smoothies, go to yoga, and train seven days a semaine. Why can't everyone do it? Photograph by Piotr Marcinski/Getty Images/EyeEm
Ann Wigmore, a Raw-Food Diet advocate, promoted the benefits of raw food to treat Aids, diabetes, and cancer in the 1970s and 1980s. Carl Cederstrom, co-author of the book Desperately Seeking self-improvement: A Year Inside The Optimization Movement, says that there is a belief that if one sticks to a certain lifestyle, it will protect you from disease. Living a healthy lifestyle can build a strong armor around you.
Contrary to this, western medicine, and in particular the pernicious influence that big pharma has on it, conspires against the people. Cederstrom said, "There's this doubt about science." "You hear a lot about modern civilisation poisoning our lives and our food. We need to discover ways to clean ourselves up and not be confined by a society that makes us live an unnatural, inauthentic lifestyle."
Unwavering belief that health is a choice and not a result of social predetermination or genetic predisposition has been the main polluting factor in wellness's clear, clean stream. Many wellness professionals don't say that people with type 2 diabetes, morbid obesity, or mental illnesses are unable to manage their health. Instead they use euphemisms as well as misdirection to express their opinions.
Cederstrom says that "Wellness has strong ties to self-help movements." Cederstrom says, "Wellness has very strong ties to the self-help movement." Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret self-help book, once stated that 9/11 victims were at the wrong place at wrong time because of their negative outlooks and thoughts.
Cederstrom says that there is a general reason people will happily listen to the wellness ideology, in particular, this individualistic approach. We live in a culture where health and morality are closely intertwined. You're encouraged to believe you are worthy of a life that is good and middle-class. You didn't work hard enough if you are poor or unhealthy.
The world of wellness has seen health for nearly 50 years as something that can be tossed aside or taken off at will. Doctors should be distrusted. Individuals must take responsibility for their "wellness journey". This anti-scientific attitude grew into something much more dangerous with the introduction of the Covid vaccine program. Hood says that this is a long-standing problem. Hood says, "We are seeing the erosion of trust in mainline medicine flowering now. It's extremely dangerous."
Catherine Gabitan (31 years old and resides in Northern California) was a service worker before she became a "overcoming self-sabotage coach". Gabitan rose quickly to managerial roles, but she never felt she was living up to her full potential as a college student.
She smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol and ate processed food. These habits remained despite her best efforts. Gabitan states, "One of my first inspirations for getting really healthy was making sure that I had a really clean physique so that I could have the best baby possible."
Gabitan purchased a $199 lecture set from Jason Christoff, a self-deprecating coach. Christoff, who is also a nutritionist and exercise expert, posts misinformation about Covid vaccine on both his Telegram channel and public Facebook page.
Christoff replied to the Guardian's request for comment by saying: "Maybe, you should investigate who sponsors your newspaper. But that would get you fired." Christoff then wrote a blog linking Christoff to a plan by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to decrease the world's population by 10-15%. Christoff asked: "Is the Guardian and its sponsors looking out for public safety or are they conspiring to reduce population and public health in order to place remaining population under strict tyrannical supervision?"
Christoff helped Gabitan realize that she didn't believe herself worthy of a "higher level of health" for many years. She says, "My subconscious beliefs about why I didn’t feel worthy to have a business or learn to invest or why I drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes were all related to what I felt worthy to achieve."
Christoff's lecture series had that invigorating effect of an ice bath following a sauna. Gabitan began her "health journey" almost immediately. Gabitan quit smoking, coffee, alcohol, and gluten. She started exercising three days a week, and only eat organic, local food. She quit the service sector and rebranded as a self-sabotage coach.
When it comes to health claims, social media is the wild west. You can say anything you like
Gabitan, an unvaccinated person, started sharing anti-vaccine content via her Instagram account when the Covid vaccine program began. On 8 July, she wrote that "injecting poison will not make you healthy." She wrote that "germs and genetics make you sick" so she doesn't have to accept responsibility for toxic lifestyles. She asked, "Could the need for micromanaging what we put on our bodies or consume be a reflection of their poor health history and inability take responsibility for their own well-being?" on 16 August.
Gabitan views health from a hyperindividualistic moral framework. Gabitan takes responsibility for her own health. If other people can't help themselves why should she? She says, "I don’t smoke and I don’t drink." "I invest a lot in high-quality food. I believe in natural immunity, and support my immune system. Covid is something I have taken on radical responsibility. There are many people who still smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, and they want me to protect them. But they don't care about my health."
Gabitan's example shows the logic fallacy of wellness. The idea that the human brain is a drill sergeant, and the organs in our bodies obediently follow orders, is the basis of Gabitan. Ehrenreich stated in Natural Causes that you can exercise hard and eat a well-balanced diet but still get stung by an irritated honeybee. You may appear to be a healthy, slim paragon of wellness. However, a macrophage in your body could decide to take on an incipient tumor.
Gabitan doesn't need the vaccine because she is a shining example of health. People who die from Covid include people with disabilities and those already sick, obese, or elderly. Gabitan, a able-bodied member in the wellness community, doesn't have to worry about what happens to them.
Gabitan states that many of those who are being hospitalized from Covid have co-morbidities. Or they are overweight. Our government could have promoted healthy living and healthy eating from the beginning. This would have prevented some of these hospitalisations. It would also encourage people to be their best selves. That's right. For me, the most important premise is that people take responsibility for their health.
Derek Beres says that some of those who are pushing anti-vaccine content "believe themselves to be martyrs". Photograph: Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images
It sounds like you're saying that people can become sick anytime. She says, "See? I don't believe it's just bad fortune." "I believe part of it's people taking responsibility for themselves, to ensure they are not putting toxic substances in their bodies - and the second part is not being exposed pollution." She is the only one who has not been affected by Covid.
Gabitan believes that the vaccine is dangerous and ineffective. She says that the vaccine does not stop transmission. The vaccine is believed to lower the risk of the virus being transmitted to others, but this protection diminishes over time. She is worried about the effects of the vaccine on her fertility - this fear is common among vaccine-hesitant people and is especially prevalent in wellness circles that are dominated by females - and doesn’t trust data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US health agency. She prefers to obtain information about vaccines from Telegram, Children's Health Defense (a group that was founded by Robert F Kennedy Jr. and is a major source for vaccine disinformation), or Project Veritas which is a conspiracy theory website.
Gabitan has grown to distrust medical science as a result the research she conducted over the past year. Gabitan would refuse to vaccinate her children against any disease if she were a mother. Except for broken bones, she would not accept modern medicine. She says modern medicine is designed to treat symptoms and not the reasons that the symptoms first appeared.
Gabitan is friendly and willing to answer my questions. I asked her why she agreed to talk with me, considering our vastly different views on the vaccine. She says, "To have open dialog, even with people of different opinions, it is the only way we can heal the world." I told her that her selfishness and inconsiderate attitude would be viewed as disturbing by many. Gabitan replies, "I don’t want to be mean." "Because I want to help others live the best life possible. This is my passion.
It is certain that she believes it.
Gabitan's views do not reflect the opinions of all wellness professionals. Deepak Chopra is a well-known yoga and meditation expert who has encouraged people to get vaccinated. Chopra stated in a June blog that it was unfair and mistaken to refer to a fringe group of people as the tar that stain everyone else. Gabitan's position is a good example of how ideologies of wellness can support anti-vaccine views.
Beres was a yoga teacher before he worked for Conspirituality. He says, "Even though my involvement in yoga and wellness has been since the 90s," he admits. There are many health claims about yoga that sound good if you're in a well-known yoga studio, but they don't represent reality.
Gabitan is his logical conclusion to 50 years of telling people virtue is to be spelled with striated abs, and rippling muscles. Beres states, "When you live somewhere where even a modestly wealthy middle-class lifestyle is far more than what the rest can sustain, it's easy to become locked into anecdote or your circle of friends." You think: I drink smoothies, do yoga seven days a week, and eat organic foods. Why can't everyone else do it?"
The USA - the avocado rock of the global wellness community- is extremely individualistic. Everything is about individual freedom and personal learning. "What we see is late-stage capitalism merging into hyperindividualism," Beres states.
The US also has no universal healthcare. Hood, of the CCDH, says that if you don't have health insurance it can be very expensive to get treatment. People become interested in alternative options and that's where wellness experts step in. There is no need to spend thousands of dollars on doctors. It's easy to take this supplement or this regimen, and it will work.
It is also a country where pharmaceutical corporations have behaved inhumanely for years. After overwhelming evidence that OxyContin's addictive properties had been a problem for years, Purdue Pharma agreed to pay $4.5 billion last month. Anti-vaccine activists are prone to making claims about the pernicious influence that big pharma has on society. Plandemic's main thesis states that big pharma is suppressing affordable treatments for Covid in order to make money off patented medicines.
It is believed that sticking to a certain lifestyle will protect you from disease.
Hood says that alternate health entrepreneurs share one thing in common with anti vaxxers: they often talk about big Pharma. It's not a coincidence that organized anti-vaxx movements have their home in the US. There's suspicion because there's more profit motive in US healthcare. The irony is that many wellness professionals are also motivated to make a profit. Beres says, "It's business for them. But they're not openly about it."
To understand why certain people might be anti-vaccine is not to overlook their larger impact on community health or the troubling implication that they see the lives of others less fortunate than them as being of little value. Hood states that some of the most disturbingly harmful Covid misinformation I have seen has been from wellness influencers.
He refers to the widely-shared meme about a fat person asking for a mask from a thin person. Hood says that Hood is implying that the person on the mobility scooter is morally defective and does not have the authority to request someone wear a mask. Similar attitudes exist when it comes to vaccines. Some anti-vaxxer folks have a nasty belief that people who have contracted Covid are somehow not deserving of it.
Social media companies are reluctant to remove disinformation. Hood says that social media is "the wild west" when it comes health claims. "You can say anything you want," Hood says. In 2020, the CCDH conducted research and found that 95% failed to respond to Covid or vaccine misinformation reported by platforms.
With a wink and a nudge, wellness influencers - which includes members of the CCDH’s "disinformation dozen") - continue to be active on social media platforms. They often refer users to their Telegram channels where they let loose. Telegram is not moderated. Northrup's Instagram account has been disabled. However, her Facebook page links directly to her Telegram channel where she floods 58,000 people daily with anti-vaccine disinformation. Wolfe encourages his Facebook followers to follow him on Telegram where he unleashes.
Because it is so lucrative, technology companies are slow in removing anti-vaccine content. Mercola has 1.7 million Facebook fans; Wolfe, an astounding 11.9m. Outrage drives engagement which in turn drives revenue for the social media influencer. Mercola joined Substack's newsletter platform in March. His paid subscription costs $5 per month and Substack receives 10% commission. It is currently the 11th most-read paid health newsletter. Substack prohibits plagiarism, pornography, intellectual property theft and disinformation.
Many people who advocate for anti-vaccine content believe they are doing so for the greater good of society. Beres states that they believe themselves to be martyrs. They are fully invested. They believe this is the apocalyptic-level fight they were meant for, to be champions." But Beres thinks others are "like: Wow. "I can make a lot of money here."
A calcifying effect occurs when wellness influencers post anti-vaccine content online. People who are pro-vaccine unfollow others. Some people respond in the comments but eventually unfollow them. Meanwhile, followers who are hesitant about vaccines shift towards anti-vaccine attitudes. Those who are committed anti-vaxxers congregate with applause. Gabitan used to post anti-vaccine content on Instagram. An average post would receive 20-30 likes. Now, Gabitan can get over 150 likes for a post about big Pharma. Hood says that the more people are exposed to social reinforcement, they will become more anti-vaxx.
Anti-vaccine wellness bloggers see an increase in followers. Many of these people are new to the site. Beres says, "What happened after Plandemic was that QAnon infiltrated wellbeing circles." "Yoga instructors began using QAnon hashtags, and their following grew by hundreds of thousands." Marc-Andre Argentino from Concordia University in Montreal has called the phenomenon "pastel QAnon". Carr is puzzled at how QAnon (a rightwing movement) has penetrated an area that was once counter-cultural and hippy. She says she is concerned by the similarities between rightwing groups, and the wellness community.
Influencers are influenced by the dopamine-induced pull of engagement and likes, while presenting themselves as victims of online hate mobs or cancel culture. In an Instagram post, Vittengl described herself as a victim in a story. She wrote, "The backlash against vaccination is incredible." It can sometimes get too much for someone who is energetically sensitive [someone who feels emotions in an elevated way] However,... speaking out is no longer an option." Later she said to me that although it may seem like victim mentality, this is a very real phenomenon.
Carr finds this narrative frustrating. "This community feels victimized, but they're not. They are well-off, privileged people with options." Carr, British-Turkish, is furious at the way the community uses the language of human right to oppose vaccines. Carr says, "That drives me insane." Carr says, "To portray vaccines against human rights is... "I come from a country in which human rights are continually being reduced."
Users like Carr have no choice but to unfollow their former gurus in the absence of any action by the social media giants. She says, "In a passive manner, that's mine solution." They will be replaced by many more people. Hood says that if you are an average person with doubts about the vaccine, and you search for answers, it is far more likely that you will find an anti-vaxx source rather than an authoritative source such as the NHS or CDC. These are very effective ways to radicalize people.
Hood hopes this alliance of wellness professionals with conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers will lead to a wider appraisal of an industry that has, for many decades, been full of charlatans, quacks, and profiteers from the most basic human desire - the need for health. Hood said that he isn't saying that the entire industry is bad. Hood says, "But there are more questions that need to be asked about wellness or the alternative health industry. This is the result of telling people that they can control their own health with willpower and diet. We don't see it as so harmful, most of the time. It's clear that the pandemic is dangerous. The harms were probably there all along. The pandemic exposed them.
