A report about the anti-vax movement from early March 2022 from the Combined Threat Assessment Group, housed in the New Zealand security intelligence service, says that there is a “realistic possibility” a violent protest or terroristic act could be carried out by extremist elements tied to the mostly peaceful opposition to the Covid-19 vaccine.
This is in contrast to an earlier report from the same group who predicted any acts of violence would likely be an isolated instance rather than an act of terrorism. But by as early as November 2021, they saw change in the increasingly violent rhetoric among the anti-vax groups.
“We assess the most likely scenario for a terrorist attack in New Zealand remains a lone actor attack, using a basic capability. “Basic capability” is security service-speak for attacks by methods available to the general population, such as driving a vehicle into a crowd or using a knife.”
These reports have been made available to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and several cabinet ministers.
Some of their threat insight reports included overseas incidents that alarmed them. This included one in which a Canadian man allegedly drove his car at a police officer trying to arrest him for threatening to kill politicians. The second involved Tennessee’s Virginia Christine Lewis Brown, who drove a vehicle through a vaccination vent, hitting several people.
The threat assessment reports highlighted the idea that ideologically motivated violence can occur with little or no warning.
“It said anti-vax rhetoric resonated most closely with the “politically motivated extremist community” such as the QAnon conspiracy and the Sovereign Citizens movement that believes individuals can choose which laws to obey. Such rhetoric “continues to manifest across all violent extremist ideologies” with Covid conspiracy theories popular on pro-Islamic State social media.”
The material for the above-mentioned article comes from an article that is paywalled entitled: “Intel reports say anti-vax terrorism “real possibility.”