![Reading Festival has laid out its Look Out For The Planet pledge ahead of its return next week, bringing measures set to promote sustainability. Picture: Luke Dyson [LukeDyson.com]](https://wokingham.today/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Img1871502-360x180.jpg)
A GROUP campaigning against the coronavirus vaccine programme made their voices heard on Monday by organising a protest outside a branch of Costa Coffee.
They were concerned that the café chain would follow its Irish counterpart by requiring people to display ‘vaccine passports’ indicating that they had both jabs.
This is not current UK policy and earlier today a spokesperson for Costa Coffee said the company is complying with the law in the Republic of Ireland, and customers do not need to be vaccinated or show proof of immunity to buy a drink in any of the UK branches.
However, this is not enough for the Wokingham-area protestors, who lined up on Reading Road with a large banner, written on a roll of wallpaper, that read: “No vax passports – medical coercion is against the Nuremberg code”.
There were also banners labelled “No medical coercion”, “No vaccination passports” and “Medical coercion breaks Nuremberg code”.
The demonstration was promoted on social media this morning,
One of the participants, who declined to be named, said that their stance had pitted families against each other and caused friction, but he felt he had to stand up and make his voice heard.
“What we do now has consequences in the future,” he said. “What they’re doing is 100% wrong. They want to injure children. They want to (vaccinate) my grandson. Over my dead body.”
He said that it usually takes five to seven years to develop a vaccine, but the covid vaccines were fast-tracked within months.
“What does that tell you? It’s an experiment. The investigation into this vaccine ends at the end of 2023, so why would you want to play Russian routlette? I don’t. Give me a proper vaccine and maybe I will think about it.
“The vaccine has been proven to have adverse reactions rather than protecting you.”
The organiser of the protest, who also declined to be named, said it had been the first time that the group had met, although he had attended rallies in London and said that these had not been reported on in the media, “unlike the Extinction Rebellion thing in London today which is pretty empty even though the media’s been publicising like mad”.
READ MORE: Covid-19 vaccine bus comes to Woodley for four days – starting tomorrow
Of the government drive to get the country vaccinated, he said: “The media are so pro this agenda.”
“Vaccine passports are just coercion and it is against the Nuremberg Code to coerce people into taking medication.
“There have been officially 1,500 deaths in this country from the vaccines and that’s just what has been reported.”
He also had concerns about lockdowns “killing the economy to cure an illness”.
“You don’t want … the economy plunged into billions of pounds of debt for nothing,” he added.
“We’re not here (protesting) because it’s easy. The easiest thing to do would be to stay at home. I put the word around and people I’ve never met before have come along, we saw this as an impromptu thing.”
And he was pleased that some people had beeped their car horns as they drove past the demonstration. “We’ve had loads of beeps without even asking for it”.
