PHOENIX — Ahwatukee resident Jennifer Salome was confused when she recently found a brochure in her neighborhood telling her people dying from COVID-19 was nothing more than "fake news."
She's known people who have contracted the virus and has seen it affect people in her community. So Salome didn't understand why this literature was suddenly appearing on her doorstep.
Like most Arizonans, Salome's life was turned upside down two years ago when COVID-19 began spreading throughout the world.
"Learning to be a (remote) worker was challenging," said Salome. "Change is constant and there was a learning curve."
Many Arizonans stayed inside and began working remotely. Students were sent home to take classes online. Life was full of uncertainty.
“My son got it. My dad got it. My sister got it. A lot of people in my community and my old boss’s husband died from it,” Salome said.
Then came the COVID-19 vaccines and overwhelming scientific evidence that being vaccinated could get all of us back on track. But with the vaccine, came conspiracy and doubt.
Salome is vaccinated and boosted.
“I’d rather take a chance of having a sore arm and feeling tired for a couple days than not breathing because that scares me,” Salome said.
COVID-19 disinformation leads to division and a sense of deja vu
Almost two years into the pandemic and the highly contagious omicron variant is now raging across the Valley. During the first week of the new year, Arizona reported more than 60,000 new cases.
Earlier this week, Salome found a brochure hanging from the handle of her front door along with a newspaper from The People's Chemist entitled "Straight Talk - What's in the Covid-19 Vaccine?"
“I was wondering if we were in Russia or something because that’s how they use to hand out propaganda," said Salome. "At least that’s what I learned about when I was a kid.”
The Florida-based company is owned by Shane Ellison, according to its website. He describes himself as a medicinal chemist who specializes in hormones and weight loss.
However, inside the seven-page paper was a world of anti-vaccine propaganda claiming big pharmaceutical companies are using the COVID-19 vaccines to "exploit the masses."
“The ruling class will continue to push vaccines, control world economies, and snatch up world resources for as long as our collective, willful ignorance to big pharma imperialism remains,” Ellison claims. “The reported Covid deaths are nothing more than fake news being pumped out of profit-hungry add agencies world-wide...”
Living in an alternate reality
“There’s not mass deaths from the vaccine," said Salome. "But there are mass deaths from COVID."
To date, 24,616 Arizonans have lost their lives to the virus and worldwide nearly 5.5 million.
Inside Ellison's paper, he claims COVID-19 is just like the flu.
Why is the "People's Pharmacist" sending propaganda to Arizonans?
12 News reached out to Ellison through his website's number and email. A voice message said, "We will most likely not get back to your response. There are a lot of people to help. However, most of your answers can be found in Shane’s book.”
So far the company has not responded to an email.
The reality of COVID-19 vaccines
“The unvaccinated person is maybe 30x more likely to die,” said former U.S. Surgeon General and Arizona's COVID-19 task force leader, Dr. Richard Carmona. With rising cases, Carmona and state health officials are imploring everyone to get vaccinated.
COVID-19 Vaccine
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