Anti-Vaxxers: The Growing Menace

 

Back in the early days of the pandemic, and after the commencement of the vaccination campaign, we saw the beginning, in this country and others, of the "anti-vaxxer" movement, led at that time in the UK by Piers Corbyn, Jeremy's brother, seen above. 

At that time, I could not take the anti-vaxxers seriously. Their outlandish beliefs, I thought, would lead to them being disregarded as harmless nutcases and they would become marginalised, noisy, but ineffectual. Events since have led to my revising that opinion. Their beliefs remain outlandish, they remain nutcases (in my opinion) , but they are by no means harmless. In fact, they have become one of the three ugly sister groupings in our society that are ready and willing to use political violence: Fascists, Jihadis and now the militant anti-Vaxxers. Not all of the latter group engage in violence, of course, but neither do all Fascists or Jihadis. But there is a growing trend towards violence among the anti-Vaxxers and, as we will see, there is a significant overlap of membership with the extreme Right. Worryingly, the anti-Lockdown marches have attracted large numbers, some of whom have shown a readiness to attack the police.

It was at one of these rallies that an ex-nurse, Kate Shemirani, issued a threat to all NHS staff. As The Guardian says:

" In a widely circulated public speech, she compared medical staff to Nazi war criminals, referred explicitly to their executions and demanded that people gather the names of doctors and nurses in the UK."

This has led to well-founded fears that her words could lead to further attacks, verbal or otherwise , on NHS staff. I have seen TV reports of doctors coming off A&E shifts being abused by anti-Vaxxer demonstrators. The Guardian again says:

“Some nursing staff have been subjected to abhorrent behaviour throughout this pandemic,” said Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing."

This would be bad enough, but there is an abundance of evidence of anti-Vaxxer outrages. According to their barmy beliefs, 5G mobile phone masts are linked to Covid-19 and are legitimate targets for attack. 77 masts have been attacked and one engineer seriously assaulted. These outrages stopped after lockdown protests began, but there is reason to think they could start again. However, one of the most despicable of anti-Vaxxer activities has been the holding of demonstrations outside schools. The BBC reports:

"Almost eight in 10 schools said they had been targeted by anti-vaccine protesters in a recent survey by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) union."

Early last month, protesters (if that's the right word) picketed a school in Gateshead where children were due to be vaccinated. The Headteacher of St Thomas More School reported that pupils arriving were shown pictures of dead children who had allegedly passed away because of vaccination. Sir Keith Starmer condemned the event, while Pritti Patel said:

"It is completely unacceptable for children, teachers, or parents to be intimidated and harassed outside their school by protesters peddling misinformation and dangerous lies about the life-saving vaccine programme."

And this type of action is more widespread that it would appear. News.co.uk says:

"Anti-vaxxine protest group Outreach Worldwide has shared footage of its protesters approaching schools and students in uniform. In one video, a woman encourages students to delay getting the vaccine as it is “still in clinical trials and is causing quite a lot of problems for young people”.

I mentioned above that anti-Vaxxers have been an unpleasant presence outside some hospitals - at least in the South East. One extreme example of this happened last month when a bunch of anti-Vaxxers turned up at Colchester Hospital waving false legal papers quoting the 'Nuremberg Code' at hard-pressed medical staff and accusing them of participating in made-up Covid 'plandemic' crimes. It is ironic that these conspiracy "theorists" quote the Nuremberg Code, set up after WW2 to prevent the repetition of medical experiments on human beings practised in the Nazi concentration camps, as we will see later. But we need to remind ourselves that anti-vaxxer activity is not exclusive to Britain.

In the United States, anti-vaxxer propaganda, especially on social media, has been blamed for the most recent surge in Covid cases. As Mother Jones online newsletter says:

"Yes, COVID-19 is surging again, this time fueled by the highly infectious and deadly Delta variant, which is ravaging the country—especially in places with low vaccination rates such as Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. As of August, about half of the country remains unvaccinated."

Nor have the anti-Vaxxers been slow in using lethal violence. Last month, a Maryland man, Jeffrey Allen Burnham, shot dead his brother and sister-in-law, both pharmacists, because they were "killing people with the Covid shot". 

In Italy, the 9th of this month saw an anti-Vaxxer demonstration in Rome turn violent, with (hello!) neo-Fascists prominent among the rioters. Reuters reported:

"One group of protesters tried to break through police lines to reach Prime Minister Mario Draghi's city"centre office, while a separate group tried to smash their way into the headquarters of Italy's main CGIL trade union". 

This is an appropriate time to return to the Anti-Vax movement here in the UK. As in Italy, the extreme right has been involved with the Anti-Vax, anti-lockdown movement from the very beginning. That involvement, according to Searchlight magazine, is becoming closer and deeper. One manifestation of this is the increasing violence against the police on demonstrations, as seen in the photo above. One such incident, on September 3rd, saw four London police officers injured. In August, anti-Vaxxers occupied the foyer of Channel 4 and ITN news headquarters. The broadcaster, Jon Snow, was the target of abuse on that occasion; like the Nazis, anti-vaxxers believe in attacking the press.

Searchlight, which has an outstanding record for exposing the machinations of the far right, says that Fascists are organising anti-vaxxer groups to renew attacks on 5G masts. Besides this, they are encouraging all eligible activists to apply for firearms licences. Anyone failing to see the danger in this should think back to Thomas Mair, who owned legally-held firearms which he used to murder Jo Cox, M.P. One anti-vaxxer group, Veterans 4 Freedom (V4F), was investigated by the Daily Mail back in August.  This group of disgruntled ex-servicemen were planning to attack vaccination centres, sabotage vaccine supplies and target staff. Ominously, they were talking of stockpiling weapons. Weapon of choice for this group is the crossbow, which is legal to purchase, although some veterans are talking of converting pistols to rifles and, if eligible, obtaining firearms certificates. Since the Mail article appeared, this group has disbanded, although some members have regrouped, forming the Global Veterans' Alliance. 

It's not for me to even begin to speculate what drives the anti-vax movement worldwide, still less in Britain. That is the province of social psychologists. I can, however, point to some political indicators. As Searchlight says:

"We have yet to come across a single Remain voter within the network of anti-lockdown groups". 

It comes as no surprise. Nor do we see many (any?) black or Asian faces on the anti-lockdown marches. The anti-vax, anti-lockdown movement should be seen as what I strongly believe it to be: a menagerie of bigots, fantasists and conspiracy theorists, ripe for exploitation by the extreme right.