(CNN) — The rollout of covid-19 vaccines for schoolchildren in the UK has opened a new front in the war of disinformation: anti-vaccine activists are now taking their protests to school doors.
Anti-vaccination groups have tried to stoke the fears of parents and children by falsely claiming that vaccines are untested and dangerous.
Last week, a small group of protesters protested outside the St. Thomas More Catholic School in the town of Blaydon, near Newcastle, in the northeast of England, as children walked through the school gates.
In a letter posted on the school’s website, Principal Jonathan Parkinson said several students were “deeply upset by the way they were treated and the images shown to them” and that police had been informed of the concerns of the school.
“We would like to reiterate that the role of the school in this is to house the vaccination team; we have not expressed an opinion on whether students should be vaccinated or not, as this is a decision for families to make,” he said. “Our priority continues to be the well-being of our students and we are doing everything we can to support those who are upset.”
David Phillips, principal of the Chilwell School in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, in central England, told the AP news agency last month that he had contacted the police after his school received “threatening and abusive messages. “from anti-vaccination activists.
Students have been handed misinformation brochures and posters have been put up accusing the school of “treating children like experimental animals,” the AP reported.
Vaccines also went to Lytham St Annes Secondary School in Lancashire, North West England, on September 30, according to reports from the local media.
Vaccination opened across the UK for healthy adolescents aged 12-15 at the end of last month, and each will be offered a single dose of the Pfizer / BioNtech vaccine. Many will be offered the vaccine through a vaccination program at their school, and it will be voluntary.
Parental consent will be sought, but some older adolescents may be vaccinated against their parents’ wishes if they are considered mature enough to give informed consent, the said government.
Anti-vaccine group Outreach Worldwide has posted calls on Instagram for their followers to promote their “informed consent campaign” outside of named schools at specific times. It is unclear how many people have responded.
A more general post on his Instagram page reads: “Stand up for the kids. On vaccination day, go to your local school, peacefully disrupt.” Others show photos of posters with messages including “Moms Against Vaccinating Children” and “These Vaccines Are Hurting Our Teens.”
A cell phone video posted on the page shows an activist approaching children in school uniforms, asking if they have been vaccinated and offering them brochures, and telling a woman that “vaccines are not for pregnant women.” The UK government says pregnant women should be vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect against potentially serious illnesses later in pregnancy, as do US health officials, who strongly recommend it for the safety of mother and baby.
Another campaign group, called Lawyers for Freedom, has posted on Twitter that it will “send a legal letter” anonymously on behalf of parents to their child’s school if it promotes the covid-19 vaccination program, warning the principal in question of “Legal risks of this policy and responsibilities of the school.”
Speaking in the House of Commons last month, Skills Minister Alex Burghart told lawmakers that protests against vaccines seen outside of schools were “totally unacceptable.”
“The level of bullying in schools and teachers is abominable,” he said. “I make it absolutely clear to any principal or teacher who is watching this that, contrary to some of the things they have been told, the legal responsibility does not lie with the schools, but with the health service and those who provide the vaccines.”
Union: Anti-vaccination campaign is ‘extremely counterproductive’
Coronavirus infection rates remain high in the UK, with 40,701 positive tests reported on Thursday, although a successful deployment of the vaccine means the rate of covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths is significantly lower than at its peak.
The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show a sharp increase in positive tests for covid-19 in young people aged 11 to 16 years, since schools were operational again in early September.
Union leaders have warned of disruption to education posed by continued covid-19-related absences.
“We are hearing from schools where 10% or more students are absent and where staff are also out of work due to the virus,” Geoff Barton, secretary general of the Association of School and College Leaders, said in a statement Tuesday. “Teaching and learning is very difficult in these circumstances and it is clear that the educational disruption of the last 18 months is far from over.”
The numbers emphasize the importance of the vaccination program for youth ages 12 to 15, Barton said. “The anti-vaccination campaign that is being carried out is extremely counterproductive and we urge parents and students who have any concerns as a result of this campaign to seek official and reliable sources of information.”
UK Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi warned on Thursday that young people could be required to wear masks again in the classroom if the COVID-19 situation worsens significantly.
“Attendance has increased, the last set of figures I looked at was around 90%, which will obviously fluctuate depending on infection rates. But my priority is protecting education, keeping those schools open,” Zahawi told Sky News. The government’s plan “contains many contingencies, including masks,” he added.
In announcing the decision last month to extend vaccines to young people aged 12 to 15, the government said it hoped the measure would protect children from contracting COVID-19, reduce transmission in schools and limit the interruption of their education.
England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty stressed that implementation was an “offer” rather than a requirement, saying that the assessed benefits and risks of vaccination for 12-15 year olds should be communicated “fairly. and suitable “for both young people and parents.
“Children, young people and their parents must be supported in the decisions they make, without stigmatizing people for accepting or not accepting vaccination. This is really critical,” he said.
‘Very cowardly people’
Vaccine disinformation efforts targeting young people and their parents are not isolated to the UK.
There were angry scenes in Beverley Hills last week, when protesters against the vaccination mandate clashed with parents and children in a “take your child to school” event.
At the end of August, two posters associating covid-19 vaccination with collaboration during World War II were discovered taped to a historical information panel near a school in the town of Crocq, in the department of Creuse, in central France.
“We must not let our children die. Heroes yesterday, collaborators today. You put our children in the hands of the Fourth Reich,” said the text, according to the rFrench public farewell France Bleu.
Crocq mayor Jean-Luc Pierron told CNN that who put up the posters was under investigation.
“I just felt like I was dealing with very cowardly people, putting up those posters, that’s all,” he said of the incident.
In the northern Italian city of Forli, anti-vaccines who spray-painted graffiti outside local schools in recent days also established a link between measures taken to limit the spread of COVID-19 and Nazism.
Photographs posted on the Facebook page of the local center-left Democratic Party branch on October 1 reveal that the graffiti reads: “Vaccines kill. Save children. No masks, they are harmful” and “No to vaccines. Not to the Nazi pass. “
The latter is a reference to the “Green Pass” introduced in Italy, which obliges all public and private sector workers to present proof of vaccination, negative test or recent recovery from infection. The pass is also required to go out to eat or visit entertainment venues, sports venues and cultural sites.
“These episodes are increasingly showing how the opposition to vaccines is shaping up to be a true anarchist current, increasingly dedicated to violence and illegality,” the Democratic Party branch said in a post accompanying the images.
“What is more serious is that these decidedly violent writings were made in front of the schools, attended by those children who are exploited too often in anti-vaccine protests.”
The party described the action as “shameful” because it upsets those who “must protect the most, children and young people, trying to generate fear and insecurity in families.”
Local Democratic Party leader Daniele Valbonesi posted on Facebook the next day that the party’s initial post had been “subjected to a massive and indiscriminate bombardment of social profiles attributable to the anti-vaccine galaxy,” adding that “more have been blocked. of 1,300 messages. “
“Once again, we reject the unacceptable association that anti-vaccines create between themselves and the victims of Nazi-fascism,” he said. “These people continue to show that they know neither the history nor the meaning of freedom.”
CNN’s Nicola Ruotolo, Livia Borghese, and Meredith Ruleman contributed to this report.
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