Thousands of people descend on Washington, DC for an anti-vaccine mandate
protest (CSU) — Thousands of anti-vaccine protestors converged in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, primarily sans masks, with some wearing far-right and pro-Trump paraphernalia and others drawing comparisons between the vaccine and the Holocaust.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, as of late Sunday afternoon, no arrests or police reports had been filed as a result of the throngs gathering around the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. However, some locals were concerned that the crowd would devolve into chaos, recalling the recent anniversary of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack, which was preceded by a rally of pro-Trump supporters protesting the 2020 election certification, according to WUSA.
Rally organizers estimated that 20,000 people would come, but The Washington Post reported that just a few thousand had attended by Sunday afternoon.
According to the Post, many of the participants were dressed in right-wing, pro-Trump attire. Others reportedly called at them to remove their masks.
On social media, signs and graphics were displayed criticizing government health officials and prominent public figures who had advocated for vaccines. A bus with photographs of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, President Joe Biden’s main medical advisor Anthony Fauci, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates painted on the side with the phrase “WANTED” scrawled over their faces was seen in a video uploaded on Twitter.
Some placards seemed to promote violence against others, with one declaring, “Shoot those who attempt to abduct and vaccinate your child.” Several signs during anti-vaccination demonstrations referenced biblical passages and Christian figures.
Videos from the event show a lady wearing a giant yellow star, which Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe used to identify themselves, while other photographs show posters reading “I am not a lab rat” and “Stop the vaccination Holocaust.”
The protest comes as the majority of the United States is suffering a fresh surge of COVID-19 infections, spurred by the highly transmissible omicron form. According to CDC statistics, the United States has more than 716,000 new COVID-19 cases every seven days.
The current seven-day average for COVID-19-related mortality in the United States has already eclipsed the high in average deaths recorded during the delta variant spike, but it is lower than the peak in deaths experienced prior to the widespread availability of vaccinations.
This week, D.C. enacted new legislation requiring a variety of firms to certify that customers aged 12 and above have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 immunization. This restriction applied to restaurants, bars, gyms, entertainment venues, and nightclubs alike.
A number of anti-vaccine campaigners spoke at the Lincoln Memorial, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been barred from using various social media sites, including Instagram, for promoting false vaccination claims.
Anti-vaccine scientist Robert Malone told the audience that whether it “made sense” that vaccinations protected the “elderly and frail” was “irrelevant,” and he promoted the false claim that vaccinations do not work against the virus.
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