this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
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Del Bigtree, a longtime ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., isn’t just anti-vaccine. He’s pro-infection.

Over coffee at a Starbucks just outside Austin, Texas, Del Bigtree told me he wants his teenage son to catch polio. Measles, too. He’s considered driving his unvaccinated family to South Carolina, which is in the midst of a historic outbreak, so that they can all be exposed. He prefers pertussis—whooping cough—to the pertussis vaccine, which he later described to me as a “crime against children.” It’s not the diseases that Americans should be afraid of, Bigtree insists: It’s the shots that stop them.

Spreading that message is Bigtree’s lifework. He produced Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, a 2016 documentary that helped mainstream the modern anti-vaccine movement by alleging—spuriously—that the CDC suppressed evidence of vaccine harms. His weekly internet show, The HighWire With Del Bigtree, mostly targets the pharmaceutical industry and has helped raise millions for his nonprofit, the Informed Consent Action Network, which files lawsuits to overturn school vaccine mandates around the country. He’s been a close adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and served as communications director for Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign.

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[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 35 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

It'll be manslaughter, unless they find evidence that he knew he was a shill.

Though, I wonder if this sort of admission is anything welfare services can work with.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 29 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

At what point does negligence/stupidity outweigh intent. If you go on YouTube and say you don't believe bullets kill people, and that's all a sham brought about by gun companies, "it's very clear people like 50 cent have been shot numerous times and it hardly effected him.". Then go and push someone in front of a shooter at a gun range, I can't imagine any judge would side with, well fuck he's just stupid enough to believe bullets don't kill people and call it manslaughter. Seems like premeditated murder attempts to me.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Never. That's the difference between murder and manslaughter, it's literally the definition.

In your example you'd just have a very hard time convincing a jury that anyone is really stupid enough to believe bullets aren't deadly, whereas I already believe that people are serious about measles and whooping cough being fine. Diseases like measles, while dealt, generally are not as deadly as bullets - risk of death is about 0.3% Vs about 20% from what I found. That makes it much easier to believe that someone has got it wrong.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

So if he gave his family polio it would be equivalent to shooting himself and wife, and hitting his kids in the face with a shovel. Manslaughter you say

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Given polio's deadliness it would be much easier to get a murder conviction in that situation, sure. You'd still have to prove it was intentional though, because that is still the definition of murder. If a defence case is that the accused is not guilty of murder because they didn't intend to kill the victim, and the jury isn't sure that's not true, they mustn't convict.

You mentioned "negligence" in your comment above. If you're claiming negligence, that is going to, by definition, fall under manslaughter laws. In some jurisdictions there is even the charge of "gross negligence manslaughter" which this would probably fall under.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Even the treatments in the past are surreal if you haven't seen them. The "Iron Lung"

[–] starik@lemmy.zip 18 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

It’s illegal to intentionally infect another person with a disease, no matter what your beliefs are

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 2 points 52 minutes ago* (last edited 52 minutes ago)

It's also illegal to rape kids, but here we are in 2026.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Manslaughter is illegal ya silly

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 3 points 52 minutes ago

Wait, a man's laughter is illegal? I THOUGHT THEY MADE COMEDY LEGAL AGAIN

[–] Pirat@lemmy.org 9 points 14 hours ago

Well, there used to be a thing where you would put your child in the way of mumps because a child getting mumps is much less severe than an adult. There may have been other such diseases that it was better to have as a child than as an adult.

This was before vaccines which basically does the same thing.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 6 points 16 hours ago

Though, I wonder if this sort of admission is anything welfare services can work with.

In the current environment, I'm not sure any agency can work with it, unless it's advancing some hidden corrupt agenda.

[–] Pirat@lemmy.org 2 points 14 hours ago

It’ll be manslaughter, unless they find evidence that he knew he was a shill.

and if they do find evidence he was a shill, it's 1st degree murder.