Hoaxes targeted anti-vaxxers with fake rallies featuring dwarf-tossing
A health worker gives a young boy drops of oral polio vaccine (AFP)

On Friday, Gizmondo wrote about a bizarre case in which a man hoaxed anti-vaxers to expose the absurdity of their movement.


A Virginia man named Justin Beights has posed as two different women in an effort to plot fake anti-vaccine rallies. In one case, the event promised dwarf-tossing, knife juggling -- and educating the public about the dangers of vaccines.

“The way we’re countering the anti-vax movement is by trying to educate people,” he told Gizmondo's Anna Merlan.

“And you can’t educate people who’ve already decided that the information you’re providing them is not true. This ... was just a creative idea that I had that I think would have, you know, gone towards sort of, uh, amplifying the ridiculousness of the fact that people believe it’s okay to choose not to use vaccines.”

“I was gonna keep going,” he said. “But you blew it for me.”

As the anti-vaccine movement continues to gain traction, medical professionals worry about the alarming resurgence of eradicated epidemics.

Read the story here.