Displaying items by tag: antivaccination

‘Sovereign citizen defence’ uses obsolete ancient law to challenge Covid regulations. They distribute fake legal documents to teachers, parents, and health workers outside schools and hospitals, accusing the Government of ‘vaccine genocide’. ‘Sovereign citizens' and ‘freemen on the land’ wrongly believe they possess legal power to bring politicians, civil servants and scientists before ‘common law courts’, claiming Covid restrictions and vaccinations are illegal. Now a newly-formed group, ‘Alpha Men Assemble’ (AMA), combines anti-vaccine and sovereign citizen beliefs. It trains members in ‘direct action’ in breaking through police lines, marching formations and sparring. They post training sessions online for UK members. Believing they are immune from government rules, they have violently confronted police in Australia and the US. UK’s AMA only started in December, but numbers swelled to 7,000 after a recent training session for recruits.

Covid jab appointments at mass vaccination centres are being block-booked by people who have no intention of getting inoculated. Wembley Stadium, which is being used to roll out thousands of shots before Christmas, is one of the sites where they have been employing this tactic. On 19 December staff said that patients had not arrived for their bookings and the centre was ‘really quiet’. The site had hoped to inoculate 10,000 people, but only 2,500 had been administered by mid-afternoon. Anti-vaxxers have employed similar tactics at other sites around the country. However, a spokesman said, ‘Any suspected disruption has been offset by the number of walk-ins, including thousands of local residents, many of whom have made a big step in coming forwards to start their vaccination journey, as well as very high numbers of boosters.’

There have been anti-Covid vaccine protests outside 420 schools up and down the UK. The Association of School and College Leaders said it is not a fringe concern even though most protests stem from just two groups on the messaging app Telegram. One organiser has allegedly visited every secondary school in Hartlepool, and another group is coordinating multiple daily school visits from Kent to Cheshire. Protesters left Gateshead students distressed after showing them pictures of what appeared to be dead children. They target teachers with sham legal documents, and hand children leaflets with QR codes leading to extremist and conspiracy content. Some protesters think it is wrong to vaccinate children, or say the whole pandemic is a hoax. Sir Keir Starmer said it was sickening that protesters were spreading ‘dangerous misinformation’ to children, and wants exclusion zones set up around school gates.