International
Vaccine misinformation spawns ‘pure blood’ movement
January 25 | By AFP | Anuj Chopra and Marisha Goldhamer |
Vaccine skeptics blocking transfusions for life-saving surgeries, Facebook groups inciting violence against doctors and a global search for unvaccinated donors — Covid-19 misinformation has bred a so-called “pure blood” movement.
The movement spins anti-vaccine narratives focused on unfounded claims that receiving blood from people inoculated against the coronavirus “contaminates” the body.
Some have advocated for blood banks that draw from “pure” unvaccinated people, while medics in North America say they have fielded requests from people demanding transfusions from donors who have not received the jab.
In closed social media groups, vaccine skeptics — who brand themselves as “pure bloods” — promote violence against doctors administering coronavirus jabs alongside false claims of mass deaths of vaccinated people.
Taking the hysteria to the next level was the recent high-profile case of a New Zealand couple, who sought to block life-saving heart surgery of their infant on the grounds that any blood transfused could have come from a vaccinated donor.
Their stance prompted a New Zealand court to take temporary custody of the baby to allow the procedure, but the case became a cause celebre among vaccine skeptics around the world.
“Cases like this spread like wildfire on both fringe and mainstream news sites and then social media, providing attention for anti-vaccine conspiracy theories,” Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, told AFP.
“There is absolutely no science behind these conspiracies. If you give blood from a vaccinated donor to an unvaccinated person, the person receiving the transfusion does not become vaccinated.”
‘Profitable falsehoods’
George Della Pietra, a Swiss naturopath founded Safe Blood Donation, a global mediation service that falsely labels mRNA coronavirus vaccines a “health threat” and seeks to connect unvaccinated blood donors with recipients.
The Zurich-based nonprofit offers to obtain “fresh or canned” unvaccinated blood for its patrons, according to Safe Blood’s website, which says it has a presence across western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, Asia and Africa.
AFP’s email to Pietra requesting comment elicited a reply from Safe Blood’s media director.
“There are a large number of scientists and doctors who not only have great concerns about the Covid vaccines, but are convinced that they also enter the body via the blood through the back door, so to speak, and remain there,” wrote Clinton Ohlers, the media director, quoting from the website.
That directly contradicts scientific assertions.
“Blood donations from individuals who have received a Covid-19 vaccine are safe for transfusion,” Jessa Merrill, from the American Red Cross, told AFP.
“Similar to other vaccines… the Covid-19 vaccine is designed to generate an immune response to help protect an individual from illness, but vaccine components themselves are not found within the bloodstream.”
Safe Blood’s members are required to pay an initial joining fee of 50 euros ($54), followed by 20 euros each subsequent year, according to its website.
“The ‘safe blood’ movement is absolutely based 100 percent in anti-vaccine misinformation,” said Wallace.
“As with all anti-vaccine misinformation, appealing to people’s fears is sadly profitable.”
Sperm and breast milk
The demand to remain “pure” reaches beyond blood to social media posts soliciting sperm from unvaccinated men — conspiracy theorists speculate online that the precious commodity will be the “next Bitcoin” — as well as breast milk from unvaccinated mothers.
These requests appear to stem from belief in the debunked claims that Covid vaccines can cause infertility or alter the human DNA.
Demand for “unvaccinated” blood is unclear, but experts say it would be a challenge to procure it in countries with high vaccination rates.
The Food and Drug Administration in the United States, where more than 80 percent of the population has received at least one Covid jab, says it does not require blood collectors to test for vaccination status.
Hospitals are also not able to inform the status of donated blood to patients.
“Is the US blood supply tainted?” screamed a headline from Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit founded by Robert Kennedy Jr, a known purveyor of vaccine misinformation.
It falsely asserted that the country’s vaccination campaign may have “contaminated the country’s blood supply.”
An AFP reporter who infiltrated one of the closed “pure bloods” Facebook groups found posts vilifying doctors administering vaccines as “an arm of the state.”
Other posts contained a cartoon image of a nurse holding a syringe and standing in a field full of skulls, and another of “victims” tumbling out of a vaccine bottle in crutches and wheelchairs.
Another post contained a video of a shirtless muscular man headbutting and smashing a car window in what was claimed to be a public outburst against vaccines.
International
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
A 65-year-old Austrian citizen was arrested at a border checkpoint in Croatia after attempting to enter the country in his car with a deceased woman sitting as a passenger, police announced on Tuesday.
The man was detained in a routine check in late November in Gunja, a border area separating Bosnia from Croatia, the police told AFP. Suspicious because they saw “no consciousness or movement” from the passenger, Croatian officers called a doctor, who confirmed the death of the 83-year-old woman, also Austrian, according to her identification.
The woman’s relationship to the suspect is unknown. She had died in Bosnia, and the man intended to repatriate her body to Austria to “avoid the formalities related to transporting a corpse,” according to the police. Croatian media reported that the man was her legal guardian.
Once her death was confirmed, a funeral service took charge of the body.
International
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Colombian authorities arrested two nationals accused of the illegal trafficking of migrants to the United States and of endangering lives due to the disappearance of a boat with 40 people aboard, U.S. Department of Justice officials reported on Tuesday.
Hernando Manuel de la Cruz Rivera Orjuela, 52, and Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, 40, both Colombian citizens, were arrested on December 13 in Colombia at the request of the United States for their alleged involvement in a “transnational human trafficking operation,” the department said in a statement.
According to the charges, the detainees were transporting migrants to San Andrés Island in the Caribbean, where they would then be taken by boat to Nicaragua. The goal was to reach the United States through Central America and Mexico.
The accused are said to have advised the migrants on how to reach San Andrés Island, where they personally received them, arranged accommodations, and “took them to the boats that transported them to Nicaragua so they could enter the United States illegally,” the statement reads.
“These defendants put several migrants on the boat that disappeared off the coast of Nicaragua in 2023,” said Deputy Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, as cited in the statement.
Both men are “directly and personally responsible for the illicit trafficking of migrants on that vessel,” according to the indictment dated October 23.
International
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
Two soldiers were killed and five others were injured by the explosion of homemade landmines planted by a criminal group in a mountainous area of the Mexican state of Michoacán (west), the Secretary of Defense reported on Tuesday.
The attack occurred on Monday morning in the municipality of Cotija, a border area between Michoacán and the state of Jalisco, when the military was conducting a reconnaissance mission after receiving information about an armed camp in the area, explained Secretary General Ricardo Trevilla.
“At that moment, an improvised explosive device detonated. Unfortunately, two soldiers lost their lives, and five others were injured,” the military leader detailed. The affected soldiers were airlifted to hospitals in the region by a military helicopter, while the rest of the team continued with the reconnaissance of the area.
Trevilla stated that before the explosion, the military unit had located the dismembered bodies of three people, and upon continuing the mission, they confirmed the camp was abandoned.
Asked about the individuals responsible for placing the explosives, the general suggested they could be criminals linked to the local group Cárteles Unidos, which operates in Michoacán and uses these tactics in their territorial dispute with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the country.
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