It's hard to keep up with Mike Bloomberg's web of front groups. The mothership is Bloomberg Philanthropies which funnels money down to the likes of STOP (which funds Anna Gilmore's crew at Bath University) from which cash drips down to groups like the Investigative Desk.
Then there is the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids which was originally funded by the USA's Master Settlement Agreement but now get millions from Mini-Mike. And there is his funding of the WHO's MPOWER programme and the WHO in general, with Bloomberg Philanthropies explicitly funding a WHO report on vaping. All these organisations now take a hard anti-vaping line.
One of the main Bloomberg mouthpieces is Vital Strategies. I had always assumed that Bloomberg created this organisation from scratch, but reading this thread made me realise it used to be a legitimate public health group. Bloomberg pumped his cash into it with the usual result that it became a vocal opponent of harm reduction.
That seems insane, so how the heck did they turn into the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of harm reduction? For the same reason that Vital Strategies became super wealthy, their most recent tax filings showing revenue over $220 million a *YEAR*. Here’s a hint: pic.twitter.com/AOkRrsqcKa
— American Vapor Manufacturers (@VaporAmerican) February 17, 2022
But not all harm reduction. It was recently publishing newspaper ads supporting harm reduction for drug users. Vital Strategies finds itself in an absurd position. On one hand, it wants to cling to its credibility as a public health group. On the other hand, it wants to keep the Bloomberg cash rolling in. And so it runs campaigns like this...
How humiliating.As more countries regulate and ban e-cigarettes, we spoke to @the_hindu about how it will prevent rising use among youth. https://t.co/IdhuAZpvAS #UnionConf pic.twitter.com/Q9W9jH3oaE
— Vital Strategies (@VitalStrat) November 4, 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment