'The pandemic is a SCAM': Aussie rugby wife behind anti-vaxx workshops BLASTS 'dehumanizing & degrading' row over compulsory jabs

The angry anti-vaccination activist wife of a rugby ace has lashed out at the compulsory flu shots being given to players in Australia, citing "corruption" and claiming that many players feel their human rights are being violated.

Star second-row Bryce Cartwright has sparked a furious row over the regulations set out by the National Rugby League (NRL), which has announced strict vaccination measures for all players in order for the competition to resume on May 28.

The Gold Coast former World All Star is on a collision course with NRL chief medic Paul Bloomfield and Prime Minister Scott Morrison for refusing to take a mandatory flu shot, with the Australian leader insisting a "no jab, no play" policy should be enforced.

After Cartwright's wife defended his position on social media, outspoken anti-vaccination figurehead Taylor Winterstein – whose husband is former NRL regular Frank Winterstein – issued a fierce attack on the "corruption and coercion" of the league's decision.

"The truth is, there are more than just a handful of us," said Winterstein, who has joined the likes of footballer Dejan Lovren in sharing an image of Bill Gates holding a syringe as part of allegations that the Microsoft boss wants to use a vaccine to create population control.

"There is a strong core group...who proudly stand for medical freedom and informed consent.

"These NRL players who know how to make informed choices are put in a position where they may have to come out publicly to protect their basic human rights and not be forced into vaccinations every year in order to play or get paid.

"When you see how mainstream media constantly slander, dehumanize and degrade the only two 'footy wags' they know of so far who choose not to vaccinate – myself and Shanelle Cartwright – I understand why other NRL families want to be left alone."

Last year, Winterstein compared Samoa to Nazi Germany when she learned that officials had made a vaccine compulsory following a measles outbreak that killed 25 people.

She subsequently canceled part of her tour of her $200 workshops, 'Making Informed Choices', after the country's Ministry of Health leader called them a "public health threat" and warned that a rampant virus risked wiping out the Samoan population.

Her husband, who now plays for French side Toulouse, backed tennis star Novak Djokovic's cautionary words against a vaccine, calling the world number one "aligned and authentic."

"I've got some names in mind and hope they join the party soon," added the Samoa international, hinting that more sports stars could be ready to echo Djokovic's views.

The second-row also claimed that employers were bribing staff with beer to avoid installing a phone app designed to track infections. "It’s lamestream media shaming you with 'labels,'" he wrote. "[They] guilt trip you into giving away the last few freedoms that you actually have right now."

Winterstein suggested that at least two other Gold Coast players had refused to have the shot, calling the Cartwright family "a picture of health" and a "clear example" of "taking back control of their own family's health."

She won support from Cartwright, who wrote "love you" in reply, and said that a conditional waiver offered to players by the NRL was a further indication that the vaccine was unnecessary, adding: “My family stand with the Cartwright family and will continue to support every other family in the NRL who simply want the freedom to choose."

As well as endorsing a post likening the use of household cleaning products in family homes to allowing children to smoke cigarettes, Winterstein has consistently dismissed the scale of a disease that has infected a confirmed count of almost 7,000 people in Australia.

She claimed the country's government had removed information about an existing flu vaccine from its website "in case you realized how much of a scam this 'pandemic' is."

"They tried to make us all believe that if we stayed home it would help healthcare workers, lighten their workload and make it easier for them as they deal with the surges of Covid-19 patients rushing through their doors," she said in an earlier post.

"The reality is that healthcare workers are losing their jobs. Hospitals are not overrun and many wards are completely empty.

"The Covid-19 numbers are still ridiculously low. [Hospitals] in Australia are not at capacity and never were.

"This is about extreme government control, manipulating the masses to live in fear, using this [pandemic] to justify fast-tracked vaccines and vaccine mandates.

"We now know from the data that Covid-19 is shaping up to be similar to a typical influenza season. Yet we are still out here pretending this [pandemic] is a serious global health threat."

Despite statistical evidence that people with no underlying health conditions have died from the disease, Winterstein feels that populations are well placed to combat Covid-19 by allowing it to spread without healthcare interventions.

"Let the people who trust in their innate immune system and believe in real natural herd immunity out already," she urged.

Among the players to have already taken the flu shot, South Sydney Rabbitohs captain Adam Reynolds said he had been vaccinated "three or four weeks ago" on the advice of the club's doctor.

"It was doctor's advice and there are experts out there with positives about it so I leave all that in their hands," he explained.

"I'm not in that area of expertise where I can judge whether they should get it or not.

"I just go by what our doctor says – he's the expert in that area."

The Australian Department of Health describes immunization as "a simple, safe and effective way of protecting people against harmful diseases before they come into contact with them."

It says that vaccines must pass strict safety testing before approval that can take up to 10 years, and points out that a paper claiming a link between the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine and autism had been "completely discredited."

Teams of scientists around the world are urgently working to discover a safe and effective vaccine for Covid-19, which is thought to have caused at least 3.6 million infections worldwide so far.