Anti-VAX protests violate our rights. Science not Lies

When a small group of anti-VAX protesters that included rightists, Proud Boys, QAnon conspiracists and other reactionaries shut down the Dodger Stadium vaccination site, it was a violation of our rights.  This is not a question of free speech.

They called their “scamdemic protest-march” an exercise of their right to free speech on social media posts. And organizers of the “scamdemic protest-march” advised participants to “refrain from wearing Trump hats…as “we want our message to resonate with the sheepies. And “share information against everything COVID, vaccine, PCR test, lockdowns, masks, Fauci, Gates, Newsom, China, Digital tracking, and etc.  Protesters carried signs reading, “Save your soul, turn back now; recall Gov. Newsom, take off your mask.”

I would ask any anti-vaxxer if humanity should never have developed and taken the vaccines for polio, measles, rubella and mumps, and vaccines to protect against HIV, MERS, herpes, shingles, ebola, yellow fever, dengue fever or even the flu?  Millions would have died in this country and around the world and it would be like being back in the medieval times with plagues killing us off, stunting the development of humanity, science, arts and culture.

These same reactionary and anti-science folks have previously invaded stores and harassed shoppers who wore masks.

Opposition to these protesters was tweeted by Gov. Newsom: 

“CA is working around the clock to provide life-saving vaccines to those on the frontlines of this pandemic. We will not be deterred or threatened. Dodger Stadium is back up and running.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who has gotten the first dose of the vaccine and has publicly encouraged others to do so said in a released statement, “There are people who don’t believe in vaccines. Hopefully that doesn’t dissuade the majority of the population from getting this lifesaving vaccination.”

Councilmember Joe Buscaino has not yet replied to RLn’s request for comment. 

At a time when we still face widespread infection and more than 17,000 deaths in L.A. County alone, with Latino residents dying at eight times the rate they once did — from 3½ daily deaths per 100,000 in early November to 28 deaths a day now for every 100,000. We should all maintain physical distancing, where masks, and press state and federal administration for more rapid production and distribution of the vaccine. There is absolutely no reason why a couple of big pharmaceutical companies (Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson) should have a monopoly on producing and distributing the vaccine while billions of doses are needed. There are facilities around the world that can help with production. Cuba is producing 100 million doses of the vaccines they have developed, vaccines proven to be effective  following human trial studies.  They have promised to give these vaccines to needy Caribbean and Latin American countries, while at the same time working with Iran to develop expanded production.

I and others should be proud to be part of the campaign to encourage people to take the vaccine. Our newspaper and online site has up-to-date information on the fight against the coronavirus, science articles on vaccines and how they work, and supports nurses in their fight for safety equipment and against hospital management pressures to reuse equipment and to force them to care for more patients than they feel is necessary.

All of us should support the demands by UTLA that teachers be vaccinated before students are brought back into the classroom. This is the only way to protect them.  Why can’t nurses which are supposed to exist at each school begin that process now?  The bottleneck of vaccine production and distribution must end.  The government’s failure to carry this out is resulting in tens of thousands of more deaths nationally

The National Nurses Union (NNU) and the California Nurses Association (CNA) have organized a protest caravan set for Feb. 6, 1p.m. Trade unionists of the ILWU and the SEIU are encouraged to participate. Assemble at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza – North Parking Lot (next to Sears), 3650 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.  Los Angeles, CA 90008   Sign up to attend:

act.medicare4all.org/event/caravan/2073