Anti-vaxx rally - latest: Outrage at RFK Jr Holocaust comments at vaccine mandate opponents gathering in DC
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Your support makes all the difference.Covid-19 vaccine mandate opponents gathered today for a march in Washington, DC in an event organisers called “Defeat the Mandates: An American Homecoming”.
Among those marching are firefighters, teachers, first responders, and other groups, who congregated on the National Mall from 10.30am local time. At 11.30am they began walking from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.
Speeches included remarks from anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr, controversial doctor Robert Malone, and TV producer Del Bigtree, CEO of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network.
Mr Kennedy’s comparison of vaccines to the Holocaust caused outrage online with the Auschwitz Memorial labelling such exploitative language as “a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decay”. Mr Bigtree’s rhetoric promising a Nuremberg trial for medical professionals and the press received a similar backlash from a survivor of The Capitol Gazette attack.
The event was billed as a gathering of those who oppose vaccine mandates, vaccines for children, and other pandemic requirements and restrictions, but most of the speakers are prominently against the vaccine itself.
A permit filed with the National Park Service states that the march could attract as many as 20,000 people, but numbers were much lower than anticipated.
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‘Wanted’ posters for public health officials seen on bus
A Twitter user has posted a photograph of a bus emblazoned with “Wanted” posters of public health officials, Bill Gates, Jacob Rothschild, and others.
Crowd grows as program kicks off
Speeches have begun, but reports from the ground suggest the crowd size is yet to reach the expected tens of thousands. One estimate puts it at approximately 3,000 people, though this may still grow further.
The unvaccinated, unmasked crowd was just encouraged to hug each other by the current speaker.
Speakers cite MLK
Several speakers have now cited Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
JP Levy and Kevin Jenkins, have both referred to MLK, comparing this event and the anti-mandate movement to the civil rights movement.
“(MLK) sacrificed himself for us; are you ready to sacrifice yourself for your children?” said Jenkins.
Big cheers for anti-vaxx doctors
At least three anti-vax doctor speakers have referred to current Covid policies as “crimes against humanity”, to chants of “lock them up”.
“They are killing us with censorship and propaganda,” says one speaker, saying the public is being starved of information about cheap alternative Covid-19 treatments that are nothing to do with big pharma.
He does not expand on what these alleged treatments are.
Another speaker rails against not letting other people (medical professionals) decide on treatments for you and your children.
The next speaker then argues that doctors need to be allowed to be doctors.
Mixed crowd but largest right-leaning protest in a year
While the crowd is a mix, the majority are right-leaning judging by the banners and flags. This would be the largest such rally since the 6 January 2021 Trump event at the Ellipse.
Vaccine mandates called ‘segregation'
Justin Moyer of The Washington Post spoke with two organic farmers who came to speak out against the “segregation” of mandates. They believe they do not need injections and their bodies can regenerate.
Dr Robert Malone claims vaccines may ‘damage children’
Robert Malone, the anti-vaccine doctor who shot to fame on Joe Rogan’s podcast, spoke from the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial by invoking Martin Luther King Jr’s famous speech, saying that today’s antivaxx marchers are “standing on the shoulders of giants”.
“Honest words, spoken from the heart, can change the world,” he said.
“I come to you with an open heart, as a physician committed to healing, bringing three simple words...integrity, dignity, community.”
The controversial doctor, pausing to cough several times, claimed that the vaccines against Covid-19 are not working and are not keeping people safe. He then went on to say that “these genetic vaccines may damage your children”.
His central theme revolved around the sentiment that “if there is risk, there must be choice”.
“The truth is like a lion. It doesn’t need defending. Just let it loose and it will defend itself.”
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