The protest on Friday in Sacramento urging California’s governor to reopen the state resembled the rallies that have appeared elsewhere in the country, with crowds flocking to the State Capitol, pressing leaders to undo restrictions on businesses and daily life…but, the organizers were not militia members, restaurant owners or prominent conservative operatives. They were some of the loudest antivaccination activists in the country…

“One of the things that we’re finding is that the rhetoric is pretty similar between the anti-vaxxers and those demanding to reopen,” said Dr. Rupali J. Limaye, who studies behavior around vaccines at Johns Hopkins University. “What we hear a lot of is ‘individual self management’ — this idea that they should be in control of making decisions, that they can decide what science is correct and incorrect, and that they know what’s best for their child.”…

“There is a tremendous amount of cross-pollinization of ideas as these factions get to know each other,” said Devin Burghart, who runs the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights…For example, an adherent of QAnon, a group of conspiracy theorists, was among the first to spread the canard that Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft, was behind the creation and spreading of the virus as a means to grab control over the global health system. People opposing mandatory vaccinations quickly picked up on that theme, and Mr. Gates has become a new boogeyman of the far right.

RTFA. Please. The loonies are drawn to each other like spawning grunion. The numbers impress the average politician who ain’t about to spend time on sophisticated analysis or conscientious solutions. It will take informed citizens – as usual – to hold Congressional noses to the grindstone.