\u201cI think we deserve to be vaccinated because we\u2019re out here trying to get degrees, trying to go to school, trying to live our lives,\u201d said Izzy, 17, watching a small anti-vaccination protest in her hometown of Plymouth in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the pouring rain, the protesters \u2013 mostly people over 40 \u2013 blasted \u201cEye of the Tiger\u201d and other Eighties hits from a speaker, holding bright yellow placards reading \u201cteens dying of Covid is rare\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Refusing the leaflets they offered her, 17-year-old Izzy told the Citizens that she worries about \u201cpeople like these guys\u201d influencing the media enough that people her age won\u2019t get the Covid vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI just think it\u2019s really unfair. There are less people dying of Covid at our age, but some of my friends have been horrendously ill \u2013 a few of them have had to go into hospital. We\u2019ve been put through hell the last few years with education and things like that,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As 12 to 17-year-olds are to be offered the vaccine from 4 October, UK anti-vaccination networks are gearing up to respond with increasingly extreme actions, the Citizens can reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From cartoon leaflets spreading disinformation and sending out emails containing fake NHS vaccine advice, to storming schools and discussing ways to fake a Covid test so their child can avoid both the vaccine and quarantine, these groups are on a mission to \u201csave the children.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ideologies of the vast network of anti-vaccination groups congregating on messaging app Telegram vary from followers of former Pfizer scientist Michael Yeadon, to people whose views come straight from the QAnon conspiracy network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The earliest use of Save the Children as a campaign slogan comes directly from QAnon, an antisemitic conspiracy theory which posits that an \u201celite cabal\u201d of celebrities are trafficking children in order to harvest their blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inspired by disinformation and conspiracies, including the QAnon-fuelled idea of a global elite who run the world\u2019s governments, anti-vaccination groups are using increasingly violent language as they organise online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month, an anti-vaccine organiser posted a photo of himself in police riot gear, writing \u201cLet\u2019s see how f****** brave they are when we come at them like this then\u201d and \u201cI will die for the children\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In August, a Bristol tattooist and leader of the 37,000-person strong Telegram group \u201cWe the People Worldwide\u201d released a video threatening NHS and council workers. \u201cIf you\u2019re sticking this jab in our children then God help you … we\u2019re coming for every f****** one of you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a September protest outside buildings in central London such as News UK, Ash Bennett, 37, marched through the streets with a megaphone preaching about vaccine deaths and adverse reactions. \u201cWe must stand up as a nation and say enough is enough. Jabbed, unjabbed, it doesn\u2019t matter. Protect the children at all costs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout the protest \u2013 which had a heavy police presence \u2013 Mr Bennett taunted officers, walking alongside them showing a photo on his phone of a baby born with a deformity, shouting \u201cthat\u2019s what they\u2019re doing to kids now, because the mother had the injection. Look, look! That\u2019s what you\u2019re protecting!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, data available shows that if a pregnant woman has the Covid vaccine she is not at an increased risk of having adverse pregnancy outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Izzy, these actions in the name of saving children like her are frustrating and not representative of her views. But for other more vaccine hesitant adolescents, anti-vaccination material may have more of an impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A study published this week into vaccine hesitancy among schoolchildren in the UK found that 50.1 per cent would opt-in to take a vaccination, 37.0 per cent were undecided, and 12.9 per cent would opt-out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The survey of nearly 28,000 students found that vaccine hesitant students were more likely to come from deprived socioeconomic contexts, smoke or vape, spend longer on social media, and feel that they did not belong in their school community \u2013 but had lower levels of anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen stuff on social media for and against the vaccine,\u201d said Luke, a 13-year-old from Bristol, who says he has seen people \u201cdoing conspiracy theories\u201d online, as well as people making fun of anti-vaxxers. \u201cEveryone has their own opinion about it, but if it\u2019s just one person filming their own videos it\u2019s not too convincing compared to thousands of people in the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But not all are so trusting of the UK government, and not without reason. 15-year-old Fatima from southeast London is hesitant about getting the vaccine despite both her parents having it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked whether she would get the jab as part of the government roll-out in schools, she told the Citizens she wants to do her own research first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not trying to say anything bad about the government, it\u2019s just that to me it seems like they\u2019re making very bad decisions lately,\u201d explained Fatima. \u201cWith Covid, when things start to get good, they allow everything to open again and then Covid cases rise again, and it\u2019s just kind of going in a pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conspiracy theories are often only able to take root because real government wrongdoing has eroded public trust. The revelations that senior ministers had handed lucrative personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts to friends, combined with past pharmaceutical industry failings such as Thalidomide causing birth-defects are two of many real-life examples cited by anti-vaccine groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matt and Sadie Single, (a couple from Brighton aged 49 and 42 respectively) who are key players in many of the anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests, told the Citizens the movement is \u201cneither right nor left\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ex-British National Party (BNP) member Matt describes himself as \u201ccompletely removed from all politics\u201d because it aims to \u201ccreate division\u201d. His wife has similar views, leading them to remove their children from mainstream education in order to homeschool them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Sadie, a qualified teacher, this was partly influenced by her desire to spend more time with her children who she now teaches. For Matt, the decision came after his twin boys were playing football and a teacher told them not to pick up their ball because \u201cit might have Covid on it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Describing this as part of the \u201ctoxified\u201d environment that is mainstream schooling, he added that nurses going into schools to \u201cinject children with a toxin\u201d was the final straw. The Singles\u2019 four children are central in much of their decision-making and often accompany them to protests; Matt describes them as \u201cseasoned campaigners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While there is legitimate concern about what impact the UK\u2019s increasingly extreme anti-vaccination networks could have on adults and children alike, most teenagers just want to get on with being teenagers. Luke, who struggled with doing school work in the pandemic and experienced Long Covid symptoms for nearly a year, told the Citizens that \u201cI think the sooner everyone gets the vaccine, the sooner it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fatima also struggled during lockdown and is enjoying being back with her friends, but because she\u2019s \u201cheard many complaints from people who say they aren\u2019t sure about it and they don\u2019t know what\u2019s in it\u201d on the news and on Instagram, she won\u2019t get the vaccine until she feels better informed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI think we deserve to be vaccinated because we\u2019re out here trying to get degrees, trying to go to school, trying to live our lives,\u201d said Izzy, 17, watching a small anti-vaccination protest in her hometown of Plymouth in September. In the pouring rain, the protesters \u2013 mostly people over 40 \u2013 blasted \u201cEye of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[48,35,45,71],"ctzn_campaign_type":[],"ctzn_theme":[186],"ctzn_investigation_type":[101],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n