Michael Yeadon is a British anti-vaccine activist[1][2][3] and retired pharmacologist who attracted media attention in 2020 and 2021 for making false or unfounded claims about the COVID-19 pandemic and the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.[4][2] The Times has described him as "a hero of Covid conspiracy theorists"[5] and "a key figure in the antivax movement".[6]

Yeadon has been interviewed by The Exposé, a website known for publishing COVID-19 misinformation.[37] In an interview with American political strategist Steve Bannon, Yeadon falsely asserted that children were "50 times more likely to be killed by the COVID vaccines than the virus itself", citing a high number of events following COVID-19 vaccination reported on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database.[25][38][4] The US Centers for Disease Control, which operates the database, cautions that such reports are not verified and do not prove that vaccines caused any given adverse event.[25][38]