I always wondered why some doctors abandon legitimate medical practive to persue careers as quacks. Now I know why, it’s all about the money. It turns out that promoting misinformation can make you rich.
That can be a compelling reason when you owe the IRS nearly $700,000.
There is no way you can retire that debt on a typical doctors salary. For a debt that large you need to big or go home. It turns out, selling misinformation and worthless health products may be the best way for a doctor to get rich, really rich.
Need proof?
There is some real financial data on prominent anti-vaccine figures—but it’s uneven. Salaries from nonprofits and documented revenue streams are available; true personal net worth is often opaque (especially for activists who operate through nonprofits, LLCs, or product businesses).
Here’s a fact-based breakdown of leading figures and their income/financial ecosystem.
1. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Thouugh not a doctor (he just thinks he is) RFKJ has made a boatload of cash as a quack
Income / finances
Former head of Children’s Health Defense
Salary: ≈ $510,000/year (2022)
Organization revenue:
$23.5 million in 2022
Net worth
Estimates vary widely depending on source (typically multi-millionaire range, largely from family wealth, legal work, and media)—but no single verified figure is consistently documented in primary filings.
Takeaway
Not just an activist—he ran a large, well-funded nonprofit with executive-level compensation.
2. Del Bigtree
Also not a doctor but who needs to go to medical school to practice medicne anyway
Income
CEO of Informed Consent Action Network
Salary:
≈ $234,000 (2023)
≈ $475,000 total (2023–2024)
Additional payments:
~$900,000 paid to his companies (2023–2026) via political/nonprofit activity
Organizational scale
ICAN budget:
~$23 million/year
Takeaway
Operates as a media + nonprofit executive, with multiple revenue channels.
3. Andrew Wakefield
Income / financial history
Lost medical license after fraud findings
Received legal defense funding and donations (including six-figure support from wealthy donors)
Earned money via:
Films (e.g., Vaxxed)
Speaking engagements
Net worth
Not publicly well documented; income largely project-based and donor-supported
Takeaway
Less of a direct “salary earner,” more dependent on media projects + donor ecosystem.
4. Joseph Mercola
Income / wealth
Major funder and promoter of antivaccine messaging
Built a large commercial empire selling supplements and health products
Donated millions (≥$2.9M) to antivaccine organizations
Net worth
Widely reported (outside tax filings) to be very high (hundreds of millions) due to e-commerce health business—but exact audited figure is not public.
Takeaway
Represents the “for-profit arm” of the movement:
Revenue tied to product sales + audience trust
5. Simone Gold
Income
Leader of America’s Frontline Doctors
Compensation: ≈ $600,000/year equivalent (2022)
Takeaway
Another example of high compensation tied to advocacy organizations.
6. Movement-wide economics
Combined organizations linked to major antivaccine figures:
≥$36 million annual revenue (estimate)
Funding sources:
Wealthy donors (e.g., millions from private foundations)
Nonprofit donations
Media/content monetization
Product sales (supplements, books, films)
Key patterns
1. It’s not just ideology—it’s an industry
Nonprofits with $10M–$25M annual budgets
Executive salaries comparable to mid-size corporate leadership
2. Multiple revenue streams
Donations (tax-advantaged)
Speaking + media
Political fundraising
Commercial health products (high-margin)
3. Net worth is hardest to verify
Salaries → transparent (IRS filings)
Net worth → often:
hidden in private businesses
mixed with family wealth
or simply not disclosed
Bottom line
Several leading antivaccine figures are well compensated, often in the $200K–$500K+ annual range, with organizations generating tens of millions in revenue.
A subset (notably business-oriented figures like Mercola) have substantial personal wealth, potentially far exceeding nonprofit leaders.
The movement functions as a hybrid ecosystem:
nonprofit advocacy
political fundraising
and commercial monetization
Movement-level money
The Center for Countering Digital Hate estimated the “anti-vaxx industry” had at least $35M–$36M in annual revenue and large social-media reach; that estimate is from 2021 and should be treated as a snapshot, not a current audited total.
Bottom line
The strongest documented pattern is not personal net worth; it is revenue capture through nonprofit donations, legal referral fees, media platforms, speaking/book deals, supplement sales, and “medical freedom” fundraising. The clearest hard numbers are RFK Jr./CHD, Del Bigtree/ICAN, NVIC, and Mercola’s donations/product empire.
Substack is a meaningful income stream for several anti-vaccine figures, and in some cases it’s one of their cleanest, recurring revenue sources. Malone is a good case study because we actually have enough data to model it.
🧠 Robert Malone — Substack
Audience size
~350K+ free subscribers
~10K+ paid subscribers
Earlier reporting also described “tens of thousands” paid subs
Pricing
~$5–7/month or ~$60/year typical tier
💰 Estimated revenue (this is the key)
Let’s do the math using conservative assumptions:
Base case
10,000 paid subscribers
~$60/year
➡️ ≈ $600,000/year gross
Adjust for platform cut
Substack takes ~10%
➡️ ≈ $540,000/year net (before tax/expenses)
📊 Independent estimates
One analysis places his Substack at:
$500K → ~$6M/year range (wide estimate based on subscriber uncertainty)
Another source estimated:
~$40K/month minimum (~$480K/year)
👉 These align closely with the simple model above.
🧠 Key insight
Substack income follows a very predictable formula:
Revenue ≈ paid subscribers × price
For Malone:
Even a 3% conversion rate from 350K free subscribers
→ produces ~10K paid users
→ already yields mid–six figure annual income
📈 Context: anti-vax Substack ecosystem
A group of vaccine-skeptical writers were estimated to generate
≥$2.5M/year combined on SubstackTop Substack creators (across all topics):
routinely make $500K+ per year, with some exceeding $1M
🔑 What makes Substack powerful for this group
1. Direct monetization (no gatekeepers)
No advertisers
No institutional oversight
Audience → revenue directly
2. High-margin income
Essentially pure profit media
No manufacturing, minimal overhead
3. Funnel into other revenue streams
Substack acts as:
lead generator for:
speaking gigs
books
supplement sales (Mercola-type model)
legal fundraising / donations
⚖️ Bottom line
Robert Malone’s Substack alone likely generates ~$500K–$1M/year in recurring revenue
That places him:
roughly on par with nonprofit executive salaries (e.g., Bigtree, RFK Jr.)
For some figures, Substack is:
not their biggest income stream
but the most stable and scalable one
The major anti-vax / COVID-vaccine-misinformation Substack earners appear to be:
Best-supported high earners: Malone, Mercola, and “A Midwestern Doctor.” Sidestack lists Malone at 351K+ free subscribers and 10K+ paid, Mercola at 329K+ free and 10K+ paid, and A Midwestern Doctor at 341K+ free and 10K+ paid.
Substack economics are straightforward: paid subscribers × annual price. Substack generally takes about 10%, and payment processing reduces creator take-home further; Reuters described creators as retaining about 86% of revenue.
The Guardian reported in 2022 that anti-vaccine figures on Substack were making at least $2.5M/year combined, naming figures including Joseph Mercola and Alex Berenson. That was an older estimate; the current visible subscriber counts suggest the total remains easily in the multi-million-dollar range.
Bottom line: anti-vax Substack is not a side hustle for the top figures. For Malone/Mercola/Midwestern Doctor, it likely produces mid-six to near-seven-figure gross annual subscription revenue before platform fees, taxes, staff, and expenses.
