This is the situation of anti-vaccines in the world: their wrong reasons, increasingly radical and violent

The anti-vaccine movement has found fuel to strengthen itself in the coronavirus pandemic, with crazy hypotheses that have been intoned in the voices of different far-right leaders and obtained a world showcase on social networks. And what seemed to be the implausible anecdote of a few, we now observe that they are organized in countries on all continents, each day more radical, more violent.

Its protests are massive, its fierce leaders acclaim for the freedom to choose to be or not to be vaccinated, its darker followers have ties to fascism and in some remote regions – such as the Amazon – its ideology came even before COVID vaccines. -19. This is how the dangerous situation of anti-vaccines goes in the world.

They ask for “freedom” in New Zealand

The most recent anti-vaccine demonstration occurred in New Zealand, on Thursday when around 3,000 people gathered in the capital to protest against vaccination on the same day that the authorities confirmed the arrival of the omicron variant.

The fundamentalist pastor Brian Tamaki was the convenor of the march, he toured the streets of downtown to the Parliament criticizing the obligation to get vaccinated in jobs where there is contact with the public because they threaten their freedom.

“Do not touch my freedoms or my rights” it could be read on a banner of the demonstration, in which no one was wearing a mask and was attended by a group of bikers.

Health authorities have reported that 90% of the population has already been vaccinated.

Anti-vaccine radicals in Germany

If New Zealand has the label of the most recent protest on this note, Germany has the worrying label of being the country where the anti-vaccine protest has been radicalized. With absurd postulates, the protesters have initiated criminal actions and the local police have already begun to intervene.

The first intimidation alert started on social media. A group called “Corona-Virus-Information” launched the message “Initiative of private addresses” on Telegram, threatening to post online personal information of local representatives, politicians and other personalities that promote vaccination against the virus. COVID-19.

Michael Kretschmer, minister-president of Saxony, belonging to the conservative CDU party and favorable to vaccination, received death threats on a Telegram channel, which forced the intervention of the local police.

The audio messages called to oppose, “with arms if necessary”, to the measures in force, targeting political leaders and in particular Kretschmer.

From the operation in Dresden and Heidenau, the police seized weapons and crossbows, although they did not specify whether any arrests were made.

Antivacun knife

In Poland, violence does not come exclusively from ordinary people, but rather has the backing of far-right politicians, in this case the Konfederacja party.

The members of this group posed before a banner with the inscription “Vaccine makes us free”, a reference to the infamous Nazi inscription “Arbeit macht frei”, during a demonstration “against health segregation.”

The presence of MPs from Konfederacja at Tuesday’s demonstration sparked a heated debate this Wednesday in parliament, in which the opposition demanded their exclusion from the venue shouting “No to fascism!”

Konfederacja MPs are routinely excluded from parliamentary debates for their refusal to wear masks.

Massive protests in Austria

Austria is the country of mass concentrations, in the first 10 days of December there were two demonstrations that had more than 40 thousand people in each of them, all to the unison cry of a supposed freedom violated by the mandatory vaccination.

“A shame for our country”, “I am not a neo-Nazi or a ‘hooligan’, I fight for freedom and against vaccines”, “No to the fascism of vaccines”, it was read on banners carried by protesters.

The demonstrations increased after the government announced that a massive vaccination from February of next year to Austrians over 14 years old and, although it is not mandatory, the refusal to be vaccinated will have legal consequences, with an initial fine of $ 680 that can amount to about $ 4,000 in case of default.

Raids in Italy

Recently, the Italian police carried out a wave of raids against anti-vaccine groups for urging violence against politicians and doctors in favor of the health passport on social media.

The raids were carried out in 16 cities across the country against 17 ultra-radical leaders of the “Basta Dittatura” (“Down with the dictatorship”) movement, active on Telegram, which “incites hatred and the commission of serious crimes,” according to the police. local.

The accused “They participated in discussion groups, systematically calling for the use of weapons and the commission of serious illegal actions against the highest institutional officials, including Prime Minister Mario Draghi”said the police.

The anti-vaccine group, which has a swastika as its symbol, planned “hangings”, “firing squads”, “shots in the legs” and “more marches on Rome”, alluding to the fascist march of 1922 that led to the arrival to the power of the dictator Benito Mussolini.

Bolsonaro, the main anti-vaccine

The main promoter of fake news regarding vaccines against COVID-19 It has been the president of Brazil himself, Jair Bolsonaro, who is a known denier, and his statements, false, reached the communities of the Amazon, even before the vaccine.

Bolsonaro, who has persistently denied the seriousness of the pandemic, which has already left more than 217,000 dead in Brazil, came to question in December the possible collateral effects of vaccines: “If you turn into an alligator, it’s your problem “he declared.

The first vaccinated against COVID-19 In Amazonas state, Vanda Witoto received many calls from relatives: “They wanted to know if I had become an alligator”, tells AFP.

“There are those who want to be vaccinated and others who (…) refuse to do so because they believe that it is not safe, repeating what President Bolsonaro himself says”, says Joao Voia, a xokleng indigenous person from Santa Catarina (sur).

Chief Raoni Metuktire, emblematic defender of the Amazon, last week asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Bolsonaro for “crimes against humanity”, for “persecuting” indigenous people, destroying their habitat and ignoring their rights.

What do the anti-vaccines think?

In all countries, you can see anti-vaccine movements, small or large, with timid demonstrations or massive protests, always with a far-right (or far-left) politician as a sounding board or a feverish religious, using similar slogans, crazy claims that spread in networks social. But what do they demand? What do they say? What do the anti-vaccines think? Here are some examples:

• Deniers and anti-vaccines now turn to graphene (a material composed of the grouping of carbon atoms) to ensure that it is found in vaccines and is responsible for the “magnetism” that the body experiences after inoculation.
• The video “Plandemic”, seen millions of times on YouTube and other platforms since May, ensures that the vaccine against COVID-19 it has “killed millions of people”, using substances such as phenoxyethanol or potassium chloride in large quantities. These claims are presented without any scientific support.
• Some conspiracy theories claim that the vaccines contain exactly the same as the lethal injections of those sentenced to death, and others reappear modified, with a reference to the COVID-19.
• One of the classics is the theory against Bill Gates, where he has long been accused (before the coronavirus) of wanting to forcibly vaccinate to inject electronic chips into people. Again this idea took hold with success among the anti-vaccines.
• The vaccine causes other diseases or ills, at the discretion of whoever writes the lie: sterility, Alzheimer’s, impotence, etc.
• The anti-vaccines and deniers of the world assure that their freedoms have been restricted, first with the confinements, now with the vaccination that, although it is not mandatory, it is a requirement to carry out various activities.
• The main objection against the vaccine is that it was done too quickly, that it is experimental and not enough time has passed to check if it is safe, despite the support of the world’s scientific community.