Prominent Massachusetts anti-vaxxer sues prominent New York anti-vaxxer; only one can lose

Shiva Ayyadurai, who is making yet another bid for a Senate seat this year, is suing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose nephew is running for that same Senate seat.

At issue is who is the biggest, most libeling liar.

Ayyadurai's suit, filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston, focuses on a blog post Kennedy wrote last month on his anti-vaxxer group's Web site, in which Kennedy called out Ayyadurai as a lying liar who lies about everything from his involvement with Big Pharma to his claims that he invented e-mail as a 14 year old.

All lies, Ayyadurai counters: He has nothing to do with Big Pharma, he did so invent e-mail, he did not run Hillary and Bill Clinton's e-mail system and he knows more about "natural medicine" than Robert Kennedy ever could. Kennedy, he concludes, is attacking him only to help Joe Kennedy III - who still needs to defeat incumbent Ed Markey before he might, possibly face Ayyadurai, who himself would first have to fend off attorney Kevin O'Connor in the Republican primary to get on the November ballot.

Ayyadurai charges that Kennedy's blog post has had "devastating results:"

Since the statements were published on April 28, 2020, Dr. Ayyadurai has lost thousands of followers on social media, been subjected to virulent attacks by Mr. Kennedy’s supporters, and suffered loss of business, donations for his campaign, and political support.

When Kennedy refused to apologize, Ayyadurai writes in his complaint, he had no choice but to sue:

Because of Mr. Kennedy’s defamatory statements, Dr. Ayyadurai estimates that the damages exceed $95 million, which he seeks to recoup through this action. Dr. Ayyadurai plans to use all of the proceeds from this lawsuit to create ten integrative health and wellness centers in economically-depressed neighborhoods across Massachusetts to educate residents on the importance of boosting the immune system to advance health and well-being.

In addition to the money, Ayyadurai is seeking a public apology and removal of the blog post.