Damian Dovarganes/AP
For practically an hour Saturday, about 50 vaccination opponents and right-wing supporters of former President Donald Trump delayed COVID-19 vaccinations after they protested on the entrance to Dodger Stadium, the positioning of a mass vaccination marketing campaign.
Holding indicators that stated issues corresponding to “COVID=Rip-off,” “Do not be a lab rat” and “Inform Invoice Gates to go vaccinate himself,” the protesters brought on the Los Angeles Fireplace Division to shut the stadium entrance as a precaution. Individuals in a whole lot of vehicles, ready in line for hours, needed to wait even longer.
The positioning was shut down round 2 p.m. Saturday as a number of Los Angeles Police Division officers arrived on the scene. No arrests had been made, and by 3 p.m., the positioning was reopened. “We is not going to be deterred or threatened,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Twitter.
Everybody who had been scheduled to obtain a vaccine nonetheless bought their dose, officers stated. However the episode highlights the persevering with mistrust of vaccines by a considerable portion of the general public and the unwillingness of some Individuals to simply accept the fact of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed practically 440,000 Individuals.
“Why are we letting pregnant ladies develop into lab rats in actual time?” a person in a high hat shouted right into a megaphone. Well being officers say the vaccine is secure for pregnant ladies.
Close by, protesters held indicators like “Take off your masks & scent the bulls***” and “CNN is mendacity to you.” The person within the high hat added: “Hydroxychloroquine works!”
It is laborious to inform from an remoted protest simply how widespread the idea in a few of these conspiracy theories is. However in response to a December NPR/Ipsos ballot, the quantity could also be vital. As an illustration, the ballot confirmed that about 40% of the American public believes the coronavirus was created in a lab in China and that 17% consider the false QAnon conspiracy idea that politics and the media are managed by “a bunch of Devil-worshipping elites who run a baby intercourse ring.” (And 37% stated they do not know whether or not that one is true or not.)
Lots of the Dodger Stadium protesters had been additionally far-right supporters of Trump, however they took pains to cover that connection. “Please chorus from carrying Trump/MAGA apparel as we would like our assertion to resonate with the sheeple,” learn a social media put up from a protest organizer earlier than the occasion, the Los Angeles Occasions reported.
We’re on the mass vaccination website at Dodger Stadium to get my mother the vaccine. The anti–vax protestors have approached the doorway to the positioning. The LAPD have now closed the gate. We have now been sitting right here for about half an hour. No one is transferring. pic.twitter.com/GrJPA5wrqx
— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) January 30, 2021
Greater than 3.3 million Californians have been contaminated with the coronavirus, and greater than 40,000 there have died — together with one other 464 on Saturday.
And Los Angeles well being officers have warned that variants of the coronavirus are spreading there. The county’s Division of Public Well being confirmed it had discovered a second case of the extra contagious variant, B.1.1.7, which first emerged in the UK. Different variants are “already spreading within the county,” the division stated.
Los Angeles County has additionally recorded 4 extra circumstances of MIS-C, which stands for “multisystem inflammatory syndrome in kids.” That is a complication of COVID-19 that causes severe uncomfortable side effects within the younger, together with persistent fever and infected physique components.