Our history, evolution and plans for the future

Safer to Wait was formed in May 2021, in response to the UK government’s decision to roll out the Covid-19 vaccine to under-18s.  

The people behind Safer to Wait (and now Informing Consent) are a small group of concerned parents, teachers and lawyers. Liaising with a number of medical doctors, our goal in 2021 was to create a campaign of informed consent.  

We began with a leaflet, distributed throughout the UK, simply outlining our concerns about the administration of a novel medical product to children (who were at no statistical risk from the virus). 

Over time, our campaign expanded to include a website, videos, podcasts, interviews and presentations. Find out more on our Covid-19 page.  

After launching the website in late 2021, we also challenged the decisions to extend the rollout to younger age groups and pregnant women.

Like many medics, serious questions about the safety and efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine prompted us to investigate other pharmaceuticals, including more established vaccines.

As our work evolved, and as we embarked on broader issues, we began to question whether our name (Safer to Wait) still reflected our aims and content.  

Safer to Wait implied a reactive response to impending danger which, in 2021, reflected our sense of urgency. We were encouraging parents to wait for long-term data on what was essentially a new, experimental product.  

Now, in 2026, we know that many parents want to be more proactive in the health choices they make for their children. We have therefore chosen a name which reflects stronger agency by parents in their decision-making.  

We want to help ensure that all those decisions are underpinned by a strong evidence base. Informed consent is at the heart of medical decisions, and parents are right to demand facts before giving consent.   

The standard childhood vaccines are different from the novel Covid-19 vaccine, in that there is a lot of data already available. We welcome more research – but we also encourage parents to review what is already published.  

There is an immense amount of information out there. It can be hard to know where to start or who to trust. Our goal is to curate the evidence and present the facts, in an accessible format. What you do with that information, and the next steps you take, are up to you. 

Your child: your choice.  

One of our Safer to Wait advisers, Dr Liz Evans, has a special interest in medical ethics as the CEO and Founder of the UK Medical Freedom Alliance, who have campaigned on medical ethics issues since October 2020. 

An ethical approach to medicine has to have at its foundation informed consent. As Liz says, each of us has “(a) fundamental legal and ethical right to fully informed consent”. 

“Patient autonomy (or, in the case of children, parent autonomy) … means you must give your consent prior to any medical treatment or intervention. For consent to be valid, you should … be given information about the test and treatment options available (including doing nothing), with full disclosure of all potential risks and claimed benefits of the intervention.  There should be no pressure or coercion applied and your decision must be respected and honoured by the healthcare professionals involved.” Dr Liz Evans, UKMFA. 

Informing Consent will look in detail at each vaccine on the UK childhood vaccine schedule. 

From NHS recommendations and patient information leaflets, to trial data and potential risks, we plan to cover essential information that every parent should be aware of.  

In the meantime, our Calling the Shots pages are great place to start.