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Irish and international members of the European Parliament have been inundated with thousands of emails organized by anti-vaccination and anti-blockade activists in an attempt to stop the introduction of vaccine certificates intended to facilitate the resumption of travel in the European Union.
The proposed pan-European digital certificates would show whether people have been vaccinated, tested negative, or recovered from Covid-19.
Many of the emails are copies of a model text shared online by a network of activists that casts doubt on the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines and describes the certificate as “the same as imposing travel documents on Jews for part of the Nazis. “
MEPs and their staff described the emails as highly unusual due to their volume, their focus on a procedural vote that would generally not attract much interest, and their basis on misinformation about vaccines and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is extremely unusual to receive between 2 and 3,000 emails overnight and for a day and a half. I think you really have to ask questions about the algorithms and so forth behind them and the ability to generate them, ”said Frances Fitzgerald of Fine Gael, who sits on a disinformation committee in parliament.
The template letter to MEPs and a list of their email addresses began to go viral on Facebook in Ireland after they were posted by lawyer Tracey O’Mahony and shared by Professor Dolores Cahill, a former member of the Party of the Irish Freedom, who gave speeches at an anti-blockade event in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day.
This followed a similar call to send an email to all EU MEPs and the exchange of a different letter template by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccination group in the United States founded in 2015 by Robert F. Kennedy jnr. , nephew of the late US President John F. Kennedy and a notorious anti-vaccination activist.
The group expanded into Europe last summer when Kennedy was among the speakers at a mass rally of anti-lockdown protesters and conspiracy theorists in Berlin, and now campaigns on EU issues in English, German, French and Italian. MEPs across the EU described their inboxes as being flooded with similar emails to a point that disrupted their ability to work.
‘Violation of rights’
“Some of the emails are genuine, others obviously come from a centralized distribution system. There is quite a strong lobby coming from outside the European Union itself, ”said Billy Kelleher of Fianna Fáil.
“It has a strong anti-vax element. . . Some people think that it is a violation of fundamental rights in terms of transportation and travel, others think that vaccination has not been successful and that everything is part of a conspiratorial agenda, “he added. “Some of them are quite threatening. They make strange and gruesome comparisons between the Jewish people and Germany in the 1930s having to wear the star, it really is bordering on ugly.
MEPs vote Thursday on whether to speed up the procedure to allow earlier discussions on a proposal for pan-European digital certificates that would show whether people have been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from Covid-19.
There is pressure to set up the digital system in time for summer, particularly from a group of tourism-dependent states led by Greece, which it hopes can help facilitate international travel by allowing some people to bypass quarantine requirements or tests.
In Israel, a vaccine certificate system has been introduced to allow people who have been hit exclusive access to gyms, hotels, theaters and concerts. But the idea is controversial in Europe and several member states oppose it as discriminatory, so the EU’s proposed version of the scheme would also allow people to prove they have tested negative or have antibodies, as they have recovered from it. Covid-19, as an alternative. to vaccination.
It will be up to member states to decide whether to allow such people to bypass requirements such as quarantine or proof obligations for travelers, and the idea of using the certificates domestically is controversial.
MEPs have said that it is not possible to reply to all the emails they have received, but Mr Kelleher said he was replying to anyone who contacted him from his constituency in Southern Ireland, telling them that the certificate should only be used for ‘international travel purposes ”.
“I fully respect your freedom to choose not to be vaccinated and ultimately your freedom to choose quarantine upon arrival in a country if local rules require it,” says your response.
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