Anti-vax WAG Taylor Winterstein claims there is a ‘strong core’ of anti-vaxxing families in the NRL

Anti-vax WAG Taylor Winterstein — the wife of former Manly Sea Eagles and Penrith Panthers NRL player Frank Winterstein — claims there is a “strong core of families” in the NRL who are anti-vaxxers that Australians would be “seriously surprised” about.

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Anti-vax WAG Taylor Winterstein has said that there is a “strong core of families” in the NRL who are also anti-vaxxers that Australians would be “seriously surprised” about.

The controversial wife of former Penrith Panthers player Frank Winterstein reacted to the news that Gold Coast Titan player Bryce Cartwright was the first player to refuse to be vaccinated, saying that there were at least two other players from the Gold Coast Titans who refused the vaccine before Cartwright.

Winterstein is close friends with Cartwright’s wife Shanelle, who has also been vocal about anti-vaccination. 

“We have players in the NRL right now who have vaccine-injured children,” Winterstein wrote in a post.

“Now the media are trying to target the Cartwright family, claiming that Bryce Cartwright was the first in NRL to decline the flu vaccine — which is not true.

“There were at least two other players from the Gold Coast Titans who declined the flu vaccine before Bryce — however Bryce was the first player to have his medical records leaked to the media.”

Royal Australian College of GPs president Dr Harry Nespolon responded by “imploring” people to listen to medical experts and not the wives and girlfriends of sports stars when it came to medical advice.

“I certainly hope that there isn’t a ‘strong core’ of families in the NRL or any other line of work who are anti-vaxxers,” he said.

“These sorts of public comments are very dangerous because some of the people making these false claims about vaccinations have large social media followings, especially amongst young people.

“I wish they didn’t, but unfortunately they do, and we need to get through to them that their ‘advice’ is unsafe and untrue.

“Vaccines are one of the great success stories of modern medicine so we can’t let these celebrity anti-vaxxers erode public trust and harm our communities with these untruths.”

Winterstein also reposted an old caption of hers from February 2019 claiming that the NRL had a strong anti-vax contingent.

“The truth is, there are more than just a handful of us,” she wrote this morning.

“There is a strong core group of families — current, former and retired NRL players, from all different NRL clubs, who proudly stand for MEDICAL FREEDOM and INFORMED CONSENT.”

Winterstein has been slammed for her coronavirus misinformation including wild claims healthcare workers are lying about being overworked, the pandemic is a planned “scam” and Donald Trump’s suggestion to inject bleach is akin to injecting a vaccine.

Winterstein, the wife of former Manly Sea Eagles and Penrith Panthers NRL player Frank Winterstein, rose to infamy last year when she proudly declared she had not vaccinated her children and charged $200 a head for people to attend her workshops to be “informed” about the lifesaving jabs.

Anti-vax WAG Taylor Winterstein video stills from a rant about lockdown. Source: Instagram

CLAIR HARVEY: TAYLOR WINTERSTEIN, PLEASE SHUT UP

The couple now live in France since Frank was squeezed out of his Manly contract and released from his Penrith contract after one season with the team at the end of 2019.

The then 32-year-old was not offered another Australian contract and signed a two-year deal with the Toulouse Super League team.

Taylor has continued to target Australians with her scientifically unsupported posts, which have now become centralised around coronavirus.

“Keep watching my page cause you can rest assured, I am collecting all the crucial info I need to help break this #coronavirus SCAMdemic down for you and post what is needed to FREE ourselves mentally from this system designed to divide, distract and disempower us all!” Taylor wrote in one of her many rants.

Taylor Winterstein said Donald Trump’s suggestion to inject bleach is akin to injecting a vaccine.

Taylor and Frank a proud that they have not vaccinated their two young children. Source Instagram

“When the RECOVERY RATE for patients “diagnosed” with COVID-19 around the world is 4 x TIMES HIGHER than the death rate … you know this is a SCAM.”

Another of Taylor’s claims was that healthcare workers’ hard work was a lie.

“Healthcare workers who are losing shifts or their jobs because there is no work to do,” she wrote.

“And we all kept waiting for “next week” … cause “next week” it would get worse and “next week” we will see an increase in numbers … but “next week” NEVER came.”

Dr Nespolon strongly refuted this insulting claim.

“Trust me, there is plenty of work for the nation’s healthcare workers,” he said.

Winterstein says the pandemic was a “planned scam”. Source: Instagram

“We are working hard to do all we can to keep you healthy and save lives at risk from COVID-19. That is our job and we are proud to do it every day. But it makes our work a lot harder than it needs to be when celebrities with high profiles and many social media followers encourage people to ignore expert medical advice and claim that we don’t have enough on our plates.

The Winterstein family. Source Instagram

“The best sources of information on COVID-19 include the RACGP website and the official health.gov.au website. Don’t get your health advice from celebrities on social media, full stop.”

More than once, Taylor failed to acknowledge that the government restrictions on social distancing and quarantine was the reason numbers were kept under control.

“THE PROJECTIONS WERE WRONG. THE THEORETICAL MODELLING WAS WRONG – not just in Australia but around the world,” she wrote.

Taylor even made the claim that Trump’s suggestion to inject bleach, which would kill a human almost instantly, was the same as getting a vaccination.

“Anyone outraged by this clearly has NOT read a vaccine package insert,” she wrote. “Do you understand exactly what ingredients you’ve already been injected with if you chose to vaccinate?”

Originally published as Anti-vax WAG Taylor Winterstein claims there is a ‘strong core’ of anti-vaxxing families in the NRL