‘Anti-vaxxers have crossed a line that they should never have crossed’

The president of the Canarian Society of Pediatrics, Luis Ortigosa, has spoken out about today’s events at a school in San Isidro in the south of Tenerife, stating that "measures must be taken, we have come this far", and urged the judicial authorities to "Investigate, arrest, and prosecute those who carry out or instigate this type of threat or action."

“Today the anti-vaccine movements have crossed a line that they should never have crossed. Telephoning a school in the south of Tenerife where paediatric vaccination against Covid-19 was being carried out in a mobile vaccination unit, is very low and very serious.”

In the phone call, the person said that a bomb had been planted in the school to prevent children from being vaccinated against Covid, according to the school itself.

“It is one thing to give an opinion, and in the case of the anti-vaxxers these arguments are usually based on hoaxes and false information without any content based on scientific evidence, but another and more serious thing is to threaten the health professionals in charge of vaccination, as they did a couple of weeks ago, and several teachers as they did a few days ago by sending them threatening letters, but the last straw is threatening to blow up a school full of children.”

“This is the point where it must stop, we must not let it continue. The health authorities, the civil authorities and the State, Autonomous and Local security forces, as well as the judicial authorities, must now take action on this matter, they must investigate, arrest and prosecute those who carry out or instigate this type of threat or action.”

The paediatrician, and member of the Canary Islands vaccine technical group, insisted that "measures must be taken, we have come this far, one thing is to give your opinion freely, as an anti-vaxxer you can express what you want, and another is to threaten health professionals, teachers, and children. It is a really serious issue,” he concluded.

A police investigation is already underway into today’s incident in San Isidro.