Kevin D. Jenkins is an American social media influencer and the CEO of Urban Global Health Alliance. He has been identified as a major promoter of misinformation about vaccines, especially targeting the African-American population.[1][2][3]

Jenkins has been called one of the "Disinformation Dozen", twelve individuals collectively responsible for 65% of COVID-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories on the internet and social media, according to a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) in 2021.[4][5] The CCDH report said Jenkins berated octogenarian Black civil rights leaders Hank Aaron, Billye Suber Aaron, Andrew Young, Xernona Clayton, Louis Wade Sullivan, and Andrew Young, for participating in a COVID-19 vaccine event on January 5, 2021, to show Black Americans that the shots were safe.[6][7] Jenkins posted on Facebook, "I told you all from the beginning they were going to pay off Black so-called leaders to trick you into becoming permit slaves! They are our modern-day slave catchers!!!!"[5] The following day, Jenkins spoke on stage at the January 6th rallies and told the crowd that "Black people are being targeted with the vaccine."[5] He was also a speaker at a large anti-vaccination rally on January 23, 2022, in Washington.[8]

In 2021, Jenkins co-produced a video — Medical Racism: The New Apartheid that promotes conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines[9] — alongside Nation of Islam's Tony Muhammad. The film promotes "conspiratorial claims about a government-sponsored depopulation plot that targets Black people."[10]

Jenkins is co-founder of Freedom Airway & Freedom Travel Alliance — later shortened to Freedom Travel Alliance (FTA) — a membership-based service that advertises to help people "travel around the world without observing any masking, quarantining, vaccination, or other pandemic control measures." According to The Daily Beast, none of the co-founders of the 2020 start-up have professional experience in the travel industry, though FTA spokesperson Dolores Cahill said they had plans to purchase airplanes and to "have hotlines of lawyers to help people talk their way out of restrictions".[11][5]

References

  1. ↑ Zadrozny, Brandy; Adams, Char (March 11, 2021). "Covid's devastation on Black community used as 'marketing' in new anti-vaccine film". NBC News.
  2. ↑ Jarry, Jonathan (March 31, 2021). "A Dozen Misguided Influencers Spread Most of the Anti-Vaccination Content on Social Media". Office for Science and Society - McGill University.
  3. ↑ Marchman, Tim (25 January 2022). "At DC Rally, Anti-Vaxxers Claim the Legacy of Slavery and the Holocaust (Again and Again and Again)". Vice. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  4. ↑ Salam, Erum (17 July 2021). "Majority of Covid misinformation came from 12 people, report finds". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "The Disinformation Dozen". Center for Countering Digital Hate. 24 March 2021.
  6. ↑ Warren, Michael; Harris, Ron (January 5, 2021). "Hank Aaron, civil rights leaders get vaccinated in Georgia". AP News.
  7. ↑ "Aaron gets COVID vaccine, promotes its safety". ESPN. January 5, 2021.
  8. ↑ Mettler, Katie; Johnson, Lizzie; Moyer, Justin; Contrera, Jessica; Davies, Emily; Silverman, Ellie; Harmann, Peter; Jamieson, Peter (23 January 2022). "Anti-vaccine activists march in D.C. — a city that mandates coronavirus vaccination — to protest mandates". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 28 January 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  9. ↑ Stone, Will (June 8, 2021). "An Anti-Vaccine Film Targeted To Black Americans Spreads False Information". NPR.
  10. ↑ "Nation of Islam Pushes Anti-COVID-19 Vaccine Message, Alongside Conspiracy Theorists". Anti-Defamation League. November 8, 2021.
  11. ↑ Hay, Mark (February 19, 2021). "This Sketchy New Company Wants to Help Anti-Vaxxers Travel". The Daily Beast.
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