Covid anti-vaxxers scare UK schoolchildren

Warped protesters show pupils pictures of dead children they claim were killed by vaccine

British children aged between 12 and 15 have been eligible for vaccination since September 13. PA

Pupils in a UK school were left distressed on Tuesday after anti-vaccination protesters showed them pictures of what appeared to be dead children.

The demonstrators assembled outside Saint Thomas More Catholic School in Blaydon, Gateshead, to try to disrupt the school's vaccine programme, where children aged between 12 and 15 were being inoculated.

UK medical officer Prof Chris Whitty last month said children in this age group were driving Covid infections in Britain.

Head teacher Jonathan Parkinson said the anti-vaxxers had been falsely telling his pupils that the dead children in the images had been killed by a coronavirus vaccine.

"We had six or seven protesters," Mr Parkinson told the BBC. "There were two groups, one handing out leaflets and regaling us with their views through a loud hailer.

"There was also another group showing our younger children what appeared to be pictures of dead and disfigured children, which they claimed was because of the vaccine, which upset quite a few of the children.

"They stopped when we realised what they were doing and asked them to leave. We were left with a number of quite upset children."

The protesters' actions were condemned by Alice Wiseman, Gateshead Council's director of public health.

"It is fine for people to have different view but giving out these sorts of messages outside schools is not the right place," Ms Wiseman told the BBC.

"It is quite concerning, the misinformation being given out around the vaccine."