Anti-vaccination protesters gathered in Watford to share their concerns about Covid-19 vaccines.

A line of protesters holding yellow signs were spotted on Watford ring road on Saturday (September 11).

The Awareness Foundation, a movement which claims to highlight "truths that are hidden from plain sight", encouraged protesters across England to participate in a ‘Hold the Line’ protest in their local area.

In Watford, large signs were held to attract drivers going past the ring road and to push their anti-vaccination agenda.

Striking messages such as "can we trust the media?" and claims stating “these vaccines are harming our teens” were shown, alongside misused statistics implying the number of deaths from Covid vaccinations.

One poster encouraged passing drivers to honk their horns if they were "concerned" about the Covid vaccination programme.

Officially, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency reports 524 suspected adverse reactions in the UK from Pfizer/BioNTech in which the patient later died.

There were also 1,064 reports for AstraZeneca, 16 for Moderna and 28 where the brand of vaccine was unspecified.

However, the agency states that the majority of these reports were in elderly people or people with an underlying illness.

A message from the MHRA says: “Usage of the vaccines has increased over the course of the campaigns and as such, so has reporting of fatal events with a temporal association with vaccination however, this does not indicate a link between vaccination and the fatalities reported.

“Review of individual reports and patterns of reporting does not suggest the vaccines played a role in these deaths.”

 

The number of Covid-19 vaccines in the UK (Photo: PA)

The number of Covid-19 vaccines in the UK (Photo: PA)

 

As of September 1 for the UK, 111,317 claims of suspected adverse reactions after a vaccine have been made through the Government’s Yellow Card scheme.

Claims can be made by anyone voluntarily, but do not necessarily mean the vaccine caused the reaction or event.

A message from the MHRA says: “Any member of the public or health professional can submit suspected side effects through the Yellow Card scheme. The nature of Yellow Card reporting means that reported events are not always proven side effects. Some events may have happened anyway, regardless of vaccination.”

 

A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine (Photo: PA)

A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine (Photo: PA)

The protest in Watford was used as an opportunity to voice concerns about the vaccination rollout being extended to teenagers.

Today, coronavirus vaccines for healthy children aged 12 to 15 were approved by the UK’s four chief medical officers (CMOs).

The CMOs were asked to assess the societal benefit of vaccinating younger children, including the impact the pandemic has had on education.

The green light means more than three million children will be eligible for one jab.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) did not recommend mass vaccination of 12 to 15-year-olds.

JCVI experts said that Covid-19 presents a very low risk for healthy children so vaccination would only offer a marginal benefit.

They said the benefit to health was too small to support a universal vaccination programme, but suggested that the Government may wish to take further advice on the issue, including the educational impacts.

Jim McManus, Hertfordshire's director of public health, said: “Despite the huge amount of misinformation circulating both on and offline about vaccinations and Covid-19, the fact remains vaccination – if you are eligible – remains the best way of keeping yourself and others safe.”

He added vaccines have saved thousands of lives and prevented many people getting seriously ill, with recent studies confirming they provide better immunity than is gained by infection.

“We understand that some people will be anxious about them,” he added. “But if you are worried, please visit https://covid.healthierfuture.org.uk to get the most up to date information, answers to some of the most common questions and to find out where you can get a jab locally.  

“Covid-19 has not gone away and we can still do things that will keep us and other people safe.”