Del Matthew Bigtree is an American television and film producer, and CEO of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network, who produced the film based on the discredited views of Andrew Wakefield on an alleged connection between vaccines and autism. Despite having no medical training, his appeal as a public speaker and a recent influx of funding make him one of the most prominent voices in the anti-vaccination movement. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bigtree propagated baseless conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus and urged his audience to ignore the advice of health authorities.
Television producer
Bigtree grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He is the son of Jack Groverland, a minister at the Unity of Boulder church. He attended the Vancouver Film School and eventually found employment in the television industry. He briefly worked on Dr. Phil, being credited as a field producer for five episodes. After a gap of two years, he served on the production team of the medical talk show The Doctors, where he produced 30 episodes over five years. Bigtree has no medical training. It was while working on The Doctors that Bigtree learned of Andrew Wakefield's controversial opposition to the MMR vaccine and his subsequently discredited claims that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were hiding proofs of a link between vaccines and autism. Wakefield was looking for help to produce a film based on his conspiracy theories. Bigtree decided he could be the one to help and left the show to produce, write and ultimately appear in Wakefield's film.
Anti-vaccination activist
Bigtree produced the film based on the discredited views of Andrew Wakefield on an alleged connection between vaccines and autism. The film debuted in 2016, and was widely panned by critics. EpidemiologistIan Lipkin wrote that: "as a documentary it misrepresents what science knows about autism, undermines public confidence in the safety and efficacy of vaccines, and attacks the integrity of legitimate scientists and public-health officials". Nevertheless, the movie, its promotional bus tour, and funding from the Selz Foundation quickly established Bigtree as an important voice of a re-energized American anti-vaccination movement. He has since spoken at multiple anti-vaccine events, where he repeats false information about the risks of vaccines and alleges governments are engaged in a vast conspiracy to hide the truth. His anti-vaccine advocacy has been described by medical professionals as fear-mongering. At the time Bigtree got involved with Wakefield, several states -- including California, where Bigtree resided -- had begun to consider legislation that would restrict the types of exemptions for which parents could apply in order to have their unvaccinated children attend schools. He strongly opposed these bills. He has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum for wearing a Star of David at an anti-vaccination event, attempting to compare the treatment of those opposed to vaccination with the persecution of the Jewish people. He is still lobbying legislators to convince them to keep vaccination exemptions in place, often in collaboration with Wakefield and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. Bigtree is the public face and chief executive of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network, with Lisa Selz as its president. Under his leadership, ICAN promotes the conspiracy theory that government officials have colluded with the pharmaceutical industry to cover up grievous harms from vaccines. Bigtree hosts a regular stream webcast, in which he frequently repeats anti-vaccination messages. The webcast is promoted by ICAN and often features Kennedy. In New York state in 2019, Bigtree was a keynote speaker at several anti-vaccination events targeting the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn and in Rockland County, in the midst of a measles epidemic fueled by low vaccination rates. He gave an anti-vaccine speech as headline speaker at a natural health product conference in Toronto in 2018; but, a repeat performance was canceled in 2019 after The Globe and Mail started asking questions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bigtree used the webcast to propagate a number of conspiracy theories, such as the one postulating that the virus responsible was made in a laboratory by the pharmaceutical industry. Going against the advice of health authorities, he recommended to his audience not to wear mask, to refuse the vaccine when it would be developed and to actually make efforts to infect themselves with the virus. In July 2020, YouTube closed his account and channel for violation of their community standards against pandemic misinformation.
