After getting called out during last week’s debate by Governor Whitmer for pushing dangerous conspiracy theories and saying there was “no evidence” children could spread the virus, Dixon tried to hide from her extreme stance by denying that statement – but video doesn’t lie. Neither does new reporting from the Michigan Advance exposing Dixon for continuing to push extreme misinformation about the COVID vaccine during campaign events over the weekend.
While she tries to paper over her views in front of the cameras, she continues pushing conspiracy theories on Michiganders – calling the vaccine “experimental” and highlighting debunked myths about the “dangers” of the treatment.
Read excerpts below of the new reporting highlighting just how extreme Dixon is, no matter how she tries to spin it, and read the full report here:
Michigan Advance: At campaign events in the last week, Dixon questioned the safety of COVID vaccines
By Jon King
GOP gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon has been highly critical of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly her initial actions to shut down businesses and enact mask mandates.
But Dixon’s statements on COVID-19 before she began running for governor and after show several contradictions on vaccines, as well as claims on the virus’ health impacts that are not supported by medical research and experts. Whitmer and Dixon are facing off in the Nov. 8 election.
[…]
In the Oct. 13 gubernatorial debate, Whitmer claimed that Dixon “said kids couldn’t get COVID.” Afterward, Dixon told reporters, “My own children have had COVID, so I would never say that.”
However, as Bridge Michigan reported, in the 2020 episodes of the right-wing “America’s Voice Live” show that Dixon co-hosted, she said “our kids are not at risk” for catching COVID-19.
On the May 11, 2020, episode, Dixon said there was “no evidence” kids could transmit the virus while, on the July 7, 2020, episode, she again referenced her belief that young people were not affected by COVID.
“You heard so many people saying that this is not a virus that affects the young students, and that it’s more important for the students to be in the classroom than to be at home with a mask on,” she said.
[…]
In the days after the debate, Dixon made statements at two public events expressing doubts about the safety of COVID vaccines. Both the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines have received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Michigan currently has an overall vaccination rate (one or more doses) of 68.6%, putting it in the lower half of state vaccination rates. About 61.5% of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated, while 35.1% of the state has received a booster shot.
“We’re seeing now that the news, they’re coming out, and they’re saying, this is a danger for men, young men up to 30, that this could be causing heart disease causing heart failure, causing death,” said Dixon at a Moms For Liberty town hall held on Friday. “So I don’t, and certainly look at our military, those are the people that are in our military for the most part. So I don’t believe that we should be mandating experimental drugs.”
[…]
As a talk show host, Dixon made repeated statements that contradicted public health experts on COVID, as the Daily Beast first reported.
On the June 23, 2020, episode of “America’s Voice Live w/ Tudor Dixon and Matt Locke,” Dixon speculated on the need for a vaccine.
“Now we have a top Italian doctor, his name is Dr. Matteo Bassetti,” said Dixon. “And he says that he thinks the virus is changing in severity. And he says in early March and early April, the patterns were completely different. People were coming to the emergency department with a very difficult to manage illness, and they needed oxygen and ventilation, some developed pneumonia. Now in the past four weeks, the picture has completely changed in terms of patterns. Yes, probably it could go away completely without a vaccine.”
Bassetti, who is the head of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the San Martino-IST University Hospital and a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Genoa, clarified his comments at the time as being personal observations and not scientific conclusions and at no time did he speculate the pandemic would disappear without a vaccine.
More recently, at a GOP gubernatorial forum in Livingston County in May, Dixon criticized Whitmer for not allowing residents to access alternative COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin, typically used as an animal dewormer, and hydroxychloroquine, which is normally used to treat malaria patients.
“Gretchen Whitmer threatened people who were going to give out the other therapeutics in this state and we have to hold them accountable for that because there could have been lives lost because of the fact that she would not allow people to have hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin,” said Dixon.
The FDA has warned the public not to take ivermectin for COVID-19 purposes, citing reports of patients who had been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin. Additionally, studies have shown the drug to have no discernible impact on the disease.
[…]
Maeve Coyle, a spokesperson for the Whitmer campaign, told the Michigan Advance that Dixon’s conflicting statements on COVID fit into a pattern.
“Pick any issue from abortion to elections to public health, and Tudor Dixon has a dangerous conspiracy theory for it,” said Coyle. “No matter how much she tries to pull the wool over voters’ eyes, they can roll the tapes and see exactly what she has said with no regard for the consequences to Michiganders.”
