Protests have erupted in several developed countries in the last couple of weeks after their respective governments demanded lockdowns and vaccine passport mandates in the face of the so-called delta variant of COVID spreading all over the world.
In London's Trafalgar Square in the U.K., thousands gathered to protest the new lockdown rules and COVID vaccination regulations. It was attended by several anti-vaccine proponents such as Kate Shemirani.
The Independent reported that the "Worldwide Rally for Freedom" in England was attended by speakers David Icke, Gillian McKeith and Piers Corbyn, as well as commentator Katie Hopkins. Shemirani, who was booted out of hte Nursing and Midwifery Council for spreading alleged COVID misinformation, compared NHS workers to Nazis who were convicted during the Nuremberg trials of mass murder of prisoners.
She declared, "At the Nuremberg trial the doctors and nurses stood trial, and they hung."
According to Breitbart, thousands came out to protest the vaccine passport mandate, including some people who had in fact already gotten the COVID vaccine. A man who admitted to having had one dose of the COVID vaccine declared, "I will not show my papers when the state asks for them because it has no right to do so."
A woman who protested against the Prime Minister's vaccine passport mandate on public venues argued, "You can't strip us out of society, we are all humans here." Another woman lamented the "fascistic" vaccine passport, saying that "I thought we won the Second World War but the Nazis still seem to be in power."
A Twitter user named Vanessa Gray posted a video of the said protest on Twitter:
London pic.twitter.com/O9nUTZCRut
"” Vanessa Gray (@VanessaGray158) July 24, 2021
Meanwhile in France, over 100,000 protesters gathered two Saturdays ago to decry the government's latest campaign to get more people vaccinated against COVID. Florian Philippot, a right-wing politician, called on the public to gather and protest the government's decision to implement a vaccine passport mandate for all health care workers and to require a "health pass" for public spaces such as restaurants, the Associated Press reported.
Australia is also facing a fresh wave of COVID cases in the face of the delta variant. But anti-lockdown protesters took to the streets to defy stay at home orders and chant "Freedom, freedom" in Melbourne's city central business district, Bloomberg reported.
More than 50 people were charged with offenses in Sydney, where more than 3,500 people had gathered to protest. The Australian government threatened longer and stricter lockdown measures in response.
Back in the U.K., over 40 conservative Members of the Parliament have also campaigned against mandatory vaccine passports, signing a declaration from the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch to declare that they oppose the vaccine passport mandate.
After London's protest, Tory MP Tom Tugendhat took to social media to argue that "Vaccine passports risk a social credit system of control. If we need a vaccine for events like a party conference or a nightclub-why not to travel by a train, or go to a university lecture or a shop? What other choices will result in denial of service?"
Earlier, Christian leaders in the U.K. signed a letter sent to the prime minister, saying vaccine passports will enable the government to violate citizens' right to privacy, leading to the creation of a "surveillance state."
"This scheme has the potential to bring about the end of liberal democracy as we know it and to create a surveillance state in which the government uses technology to control certain aspects of citizens' lives," the leaders wrote.
