Schools in England inadvertently distributing Covid vaccine hoax message | schools

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Several schools in England have inadvertently distributed a hoax message about Covid vaccinations to children which the Department of Health and Social Care has condemned as ‘serious’ misinformation.

Schools in East Anglia, Bedfordshire and elsewhere across England have been tricked into sending an official-looking form bearing the NHS logo claiming to be a ‘consent checklist’ before their child received a Covid vaccination.

A school leader said the form arrived on Monday morning as an attachment to an email purporting to be from the NHS, with a request that it be sent to parents. It is not known where the email originated from.

The emails were sent from the Childhood Vaccines Team using an email address ending in @nhs-vaccines.uk. The domain associated with the address was subsequently suspended after complaints were made to the web host.

A DHSC spokesperson said: “Vaccine misinformation is dangerous and costing lives. We continue to do everything we can, working with local authorities and the NHS, to counter the spread of falsehoods through public information that is based on science and facts.”

Schools that submitted the hoax form quickly fell back on the email after alerting parents and staff.

Redburn High School and Community College in Bedfordshire has apologized to parents for any confusion after falling for the fake letter.

“This is not from the NHS and is believed to be from a group that wants to disrupt the vaccination programme,” the parents were told in a letter from the principal.

Brian Conway, chief executive of the multi-academic St John’s Baptist Foundation in Norwich, said the model looked “very compelling”, after it was sent to parents at one of the fund’s schools.

“It’s so appalling that you have people who are going to send things to schools that are hoaxes and try to get a message across under false pretenses,” Conway told the Eastern Daily Press.

Dr Jonathan Leach, NHS England’s medical director for Covid vaccinations, went on social media to assure parents that the form was fake.

Just to confirm this is not a legitimate NHS form.

– Dr. Jonathan Leach (@jonathanleach13) September 27, 2021

Julie McCulloch of the Association of School and College Leaders said: “The circulation of fake consent forms is highly unhelpful and can only lead to confusion.

“Everyone in the school system is already working under tremendous pressure on multiple fronts. One of these pressures is the fact that a large number of students have contracted Covid and are absent from school – which is the very thing the vaccination program is designed to address.”

Senior medical officials in the UK have recommended that children 12 years of age or older should be given one dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Children in England have already started receiving the vaccine through the NHS school-age immunization teams.

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