Vaccine critics received more than $1 million in pandemic relief loans

The Paycheck Protection Program’s loose rules allowed virtually any small business or company in America to qualify for a government-backed relief loan. Frustrated citizens and activist groups have criticized thousands of recipients they deemed unworthy, including wealthy lawyers, politicians and political lobbyists, publicly traded companies and businesses under government investigation.

Now the federal loan program has drawn criticism for giving loans to organizations that have challenged the safety of vaccines.

Six organizations that have made claims scientists have called false received Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling more than $1.1 million, according to data from the Small Business Administration, which manages the program. The data was released last month under a court order, in response to a lawsuit filed by The New York Times and other news organizations.

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The groups that received the loans are Children’s Health Defense, an organization founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; the Informed Consent Action Network; the National Vaccine Information Center; Mercola.com Health Resources and Mercola Consulting Services, both affiliated with prominent vaccine skeptic Joseph Mercola; and the Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center, a medical practice run by Sherri Tenpenny, a physician and author.

The loans, which were made by banks and backed by the government in an effort to stave off the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, ranged in size from $72,500 to Tenpenny’s medical center to $335,000 to Mercola.com.

The loans do not appear to violate Small Business Administration rules: Paycheck Protection Program loans were available to any small company or nonprofit organization (generally those with 500 or fewer workers) willing to certify that “current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary” to support their continuing operations. Small Business Administration representatives did not respond to questions about the loans.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a London-based advocacy group, uncovered the loans, and The Washington Post first reported on them.

“There’s an anomaly here,” said Imran Ahmed, the group’s chief executive. “The PPP was needed to deal with the economic shock of COVID, and the anti-vaxxers fundamentally inhibit our ability to defeat COVID and move past this.”