There were signs that said "Defeat the mandates" and "No vaccines." They chanted to protect their kids.
A majority of the crowd was made up of parents. They said they were there for their children as they protested in the Bay Area suburb.
Most had never been to a political event. They despaired after seeing their children isolated and depressed during the coronaviruses epidemic. They found other concerned parents on Facebook. They shared information about the reopening of schools and the efficacy of vaccines and masks. There were more issues to worry about soon.
One protester said she wished she had woken up to the cause sooner. I can't think of a bigger issue. I don't know how I'll vote.
Parents who joined the anti-vaccine and anti-mask cause during the Pandemic are now narrowing their political beliefs to a single-minded obsession over those issues. Even as Covid-19 restrictions and mandates were loosened, their thinking hardened and they became skeptical of all vaccines.
Polls show that a majority of Americans don't like vaccine mandates for children. The intensity with which some parents have embraced these views is not visible. They used to describe themselves as Republicans or Democrats, but now they say they are independents who will vote based on vaccine policies.
The change injects an unpredictable element into the election. After the Covid vaccine and mask mandates ended, many parents became convinced that unless they act, new mandates will be passed after the elections.
Some people organize rallies and disrupt local school board meetings to support their beliefs. Some people are raising money for anti-mask and anti-vaccine candidates.
27 parents who called themselves anti-vaccine and anti-mask voters described similar paths to their new views. They said they were worried about their children during the Pandemic Quarantines. They wanted to reopen schools. They blamed lawmakers for disrupting their children's lives.
Many congregated in groups that advocated for in-person education. Anti-mask and anti-vaccine messaging were some of the issues that those groups latched onto. When schools reopened, some parents left the online groups, but others continued to use private anti-vaccine channels on messaging applications.
Some began questioning the effectiveness of vaccines for diseases where they have been shown to work. Activists who oppose all vaccines joined online parent groups and posted false information on their websites.
Many people, including young parents, have come to this cause in the last year. The movement has been given a huge gift by it.
There is a lot of activity on Facebook According to a review by The New York Times, more than 200 Facebook groups aimed at reopening schools or opposing closings have been created in states like Texas, Florida and Ohio. Some states with tens of thousands of members include New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
The anti-vaccine movement has made parents feel like they are part of their community and support specific candidates or policies, according to Renée DiResta, a research manager at the internet observatory.
Republican and Democratic strategists thought they were losing voters to candidates who were willing to take positions on vaccines and masks.
Dan Pfeiffer is a Democratic political adviser to former President Barack Obama.
Nathan Leamer, who worked at the Federal Communications Commission during the Trump administration and is now vice president of public affairs at Targeted Victory, said Republican candidates were better positioned to attract these voters. He pointed to last year's surprise win in Virginia of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, after he gained the support of young parents by using their frustration over school closings to his advantage.
The parents were a wild card in November. He said that we don't know what these voters are going to do.
Natalya Murakhver used to consider herself a Democrat. Sam James is a Democrat who is concerned about climate change. She believed in social justice causes.
It was before the outbreak of the swine flu. When the coronaviruses swept in in 2020, Ms. Murakhver's two daughters climbed the walls of their Manhattan apartment, crying that they missed their friends.
Mr. James said that his children developed social anxiety after their preschool closed. Ms. Levy said her son stopped speaking when he stopped watching TV.
There were programs for children that were shut down.
They were told to stop complaining when they posted about their fears on social media. They were called "selfish" and "whiny" by others. They were Alienated and sought other like minded parents.
There is a community on Facebook. Parents started new groups on the social network that were pushing for schools to reopen. According to a review by The Times, there are 62 Facebook groups dedicated to reopening or keeping elementary schools open in California. In Ohio, there were 21 such groups. The size ranged from under 100 to more than 150,000.
The company that owns Facebook declined to comment.
Ms. Murakhver was active in a group called "Keep NYC Schools Open" which petitioned the city to open schools and keep them open. She became a group administrator last year. The group doubled in size to 2500 members.
She said that they had the same cause. We couldn't stand by and watch our kids suffer.
Mr. James was pushing for the reopening of Chicago schools. Ms. Levy talked about how to force the federal government to mandate that all schools open.
Ms Levy said she found her people. She said she found common ground with Republicans who understood that having a child trapped at home and out of school was worse than the disease.
The start of an online journey took some parents from more mainstream views of reopening schools to a single issue position.
Kim, who has two children, said she was a long time Republican. After her children had to stay home in the Pandemic, she helped create a Facebook group for parents to talk about reopening schools full time.
She said that children were learning both online and in person at the time. When Covid surged, schools were shut down.
The group splintered by mid- 2021. She said that some parents were satisfied with the safety measures and hybrid learning. Some people were angry that they hadn't returned to a normal lifestyle.
She counted herself in the latter group. She went to protest against mask requirements at public schools. She met people who were against vaccines. She invited people to join her group because they were fighting for the same thing. We wanted to get back to normal.
The focus of her group was to stand against masks in schools. Content decrying every vaccine began to appear in the Facebook group.
The effects of masks and vaccines on our kids started to come to light.
The Pfizer-bioNTech and Moderna coronaviruses vaccine shots are considered safe for young children by scientific advisers to the CDC. She became convinced that they were incorrect. She wanted to meet more parents with the same beliefs.
Statistics about the Covid vaccine were posted by activists. The vaccine adverse event reporting system is maintained by the C.D.C. and the Food and Drug Administration. The database can't prove that a vaccine caused a problem, according to the C.D.C.
The parents pointed to VAERS figures that they said showed thousands of vaccine-related deaths.
One parent said it was dangerous. This hasn't been tested and it's not NECESSARY.
A post titled "If you want to really know what is going on, read this" is linked to an article that said vaccines could leave children sterile. The article was posted to a group called Children's Health Defense, which supports an organization founded and chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Some parents became against vaccine mandates of any kind due to that. Parents have a right to decide what vaccines their kids take.
"For the first time, I began to question whether all the vaccines I had given my kids made sense," she said.
She joined anti-vaccine Facebook groups that were supported by activists. Parents argued that the authorities had no right to tell them what to do with their children's corpses. Activists urged parents to join them on Telegram and posted links to other social media sites.
A link leads to a Telegram channel run by an anti-vaccine activist in California. Ms. Aguilar runs a survivalist organization called Mamalitia, which she describes on her website as a "self-proclaimed mom militia." She has a large following on her Telegram and TikTok channels.
She questioned the effectiveness of masking and posted conspiracy theories about the origin of the coronaviruses. Her message is now focused on political activism for the upcoming elections.
In June, Ms. Aguilar encouraged her Telegram followers to vote for Carlos Villapudua, a democrat running for California State Assembly who voted against a bill that would have let children aged 12 and older get vaccine without their parents' consent.
She didn't respond to a request for comment. We need to support Americans who love their country.
By the end of last year, the talk among parent groups on Facebook, Telegram andInstagram had shifted from vaccine dangers to taking action in the elections.
The person she voted for in November would be determined by her opposition to vaccines. She was disappointed in the governor of California who promoted the coronaviruses vaccine.
She said she would vote based on a candidate's position on mandates on all children's vaccines.
Keep NYC Schools Open is no longer on Facebook. Ms. Murakhaver is still friends with the activists she met through the group. She doesn't want a mandate that would force other parents to inoculate their kids.
She said she wouldn't vote for a Democratic Party candidate unless they fought to keep our kids in school and let parents make decisions about masks and vaccines.
Many parents are concerned that the Covid-19 vaccine mandates will be passed after the elections.
The bills could come back if we don't vote.
A group of people gathered outside the office of a state senator to oppose vaccine mandates.
The other was Jessica Barsotti, a mother of two who was at her first rally. Ms Barsotti said she would vote for candidates who were against vaccine mandates because elected officials let her family down during the Pandemic.
If that's the case, so be it. She said if it is independents, okay. I don't look at their party affiliation but how they fall on this issue. I have changed as a person and as a voter.
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