Taylor Winterstein

Her relationship with this prominent NRL star has allowed her to gain a substantial following as a social media influencer. She states there is a "strong core group" of anti-vaxxers in the NRL, but during the 2020 NRL season the Gold Coast Bulletin reported this wasn't the case as "most of the anti-vax players said they weren't really anti-vax but were still getting around to it".

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic Winterstein said the outbreak was a "planned scam", adding that the government was using the outbreak as a pretext to force vaccinations on adults, saying "they’re already socially programming us to accept mass vaccination for when the time comes". She also believes that receiving the flu vaccine increases the risk of contracting coronavirus by 36 per cent, a coronavirus conspiracy theory that has been proven to be false.

Winterstein brands her website and internet influence business as the "Tay's Way Movement". As of December 2019, she had over 22,000 Instagram followers. Winterstein claims: "I know for a FACT there are MANY high profile, 'influencers' on social media among the sport and wellness industry, who do not vaccinate their children but won’t publicly share their beliefs."

Online, Winterstein offers opinions on nutrition, medicine, home births, and the alleged dangers of 5G radiation and of vaccinating children. In one of her online programs ("An Hour of Power with Tay"), she asks her followers to "explore different options on how to build your child’s immune system naturally". In March 2019, Instagram placed restrictions on her account and her social media accounts were restricted by Facebook in a crackdown to prevent dangerous and misinformed anti-vaccination messages. Winterstein's online group of followers have a history of online abuse toward journalists who report unfavourably on her.

In 2019, The Australian newspaper suggested that Winterstein is getting traction with her health messages "because she’s a WAG - the wife of an NRL player". Her current business 'Tay's Way Moment' was established in 2017, prior to this Winterstein operated a business called 'Taylor'd Tans'.

Samoan health officials and the World Health Organisation (WHO) blame unqualified figures such as Winterstein and the anti-vaccination movement for a decline in immunisation rates, which in turn caused the 2019 measles epidemic to be more severe and deadly. Winterstein blamed the Samoan government for the epidemic as she claims it did not distribute Vitamin A tablets to those who contracted the illness.

At the time Samoa had one of the lowest vaccination rates in the world. In the midst of the vaccination crisis in June 2019, just months before the measles outbreak, Winterstein met with fellow anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy Jr. in Samoa. Winterstein hails Kennedy as a hero, and of him has said: "I am deeply honored to have been in the presence of a man I believe is, can and will change the course of history". US vaccine specialist and paediatrician Peter Hotez criticised the anti-vax movement targeting the small country saying: "We’re going to see them continue this predatory behaviour, identifying communities, island nations even whole countries in order to drive down vaccination coverage so it's a very serious threat now to global public health."

Nikki Turner, director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre at the University of Auckland accused the anti-vaccine movement of ramping up their activity in Samoa when the vaccination rates had dropped, particularly on social media. She said: "Anti-vaxxers arrive in big numbers when there’s concerns and lack of trust and the core of the problem that is happening in Samoa is lack of trust, lack of trust in vaccines in health service delivery."

Australian Medical Association New South Wales president Kean-Seng Lim criticised Winterstein's planned anti-vax workshop tour to Samoa saying: "To go to a third world country, to spread this in third world countries, is just irresponsible". "When you have a country which is full of small villages, it’s actually hard to get out there and vaccinate people, and if you have someone who is making it even harder still, that makes it harder", he said.

A measles outbreak was declared on 16 October and led to the Samoan government declaring a state of emergency on 15 November 2019 and to the introduction of an emergency mandatory vaccination strategy. Under the emergency measures children and adults were obliged to vaccinate, while kindergartens, schools and the university were closed, and unvaccinated pregnant women were barred from attending work. With assistance from overseas, the government began a mass vaccination campaign. To assist in the mass vaccination measures, Samoa’s prime minister decreed that citizens "tie a red cloth or red flag in front of their houses and near the road to indicate that family members have not been vaccinated".

After the outbreak, the anti-vax activists doubled-down on social media, and the Samoan government met resistance from anti-vaxxers to its emergency strategy, notably from Winterstein. Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccinologist at the University of Auckland, condemned those anti-vaxxers involved saying: "In a sense it’s a pro-death movement", adding that "We’ve got children dying and people are actively trying to stop people becoming vaccinated, and that vaccination is what’s going to prevent more deaths."

Winterstein also presented at the 2019 Canberra Vaccination Conference, an anti-vaccination event, alongside other renowned anti-vaxxers such as Judy Wilyman and Michael O'Neill from IMOP, an Australian anti-vax/anti-flouride political party.

In 2019, Winterstein had planned tours of Samoa, New Zealand and Australia, but the Samoan and New Zealand legs of the tour were cancelled with Winterstein blaming "organised groups ... working hard to sabotage" her. An online petition was organised to stop Winterstein's tour of New Zealand.

Winterstein used her website to sell Alfa PXP Royale (PXP), a ground-up purple rice grown in Thailand. The website for the company that produces PXP, Enzacta, claims a number of health benefits for their product, including that it can help with pain, migraines, autism, improve eyesight and wrinkles. Other unsubstantiated medical claims have been made regarding PXP, including that it neutralises free radicals, incorrectly claimed to be the root of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, stroke and diabetes. Melbourne surgeon John Cunningham said PXP was essentially ground-up rice that might as well come from a kitchen pantry, saying: "I don’t think giving people like that false hope and making money from it is acceptable."

In March 2019, Winterstein announced that she was no longer selling PXP so as to focus on her workshops. Following a report on Winterstein by Australian television program A Current Affair, the product was removed from sale from her website.

In 2018, Winterstein was selected as the "Australian face" and ambassador of the second tour of the anti-vaccination film Vaxxed. British anti-vaccination campaigner Polly Tommey, one of the producers of the film, announced Winterstein and her twin sister Stevie Nupier will be the "glamorous, young, intelligent women to take on and lead the people of Australia". Winterstein said: "I’ve dedicated years into my own vaccine research, meeting with politicians, connecting with practitioners and listening to parents".

Winterstein was born in Samoa, and her hometown is Campbelltown, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. She is perhaps best known for being the partner of Australian rugby league player Frank Winterstein, who she married in 2013. The couple have two children and in late 2019 the family moved to Toulouse, France for a two year period.