Thousands of protesters gathered in central London on Saturday to protest government COVID-19 mandates.
The London demonstration, part of a global movement against severe coronavirus restrictions known as the Worldwide Rally For Freedom, saw a large crowd forming in the city’s Trafalgar Square to protest mask mandates, business restrictions, and vaccine passports, among other government restrictions.
JUST IN ? Massive anti-vaccine passport protest in London pic.twitter.com/yi0t3hIAYI
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) July 24, 2021
Among the attendees were conspiracy theorist David Icke, media personality Katie Hopkins, and Piers Corbyn, whose brother is former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
THE COVID-19 VARIANTS HEALTH OFFICIALS ARE WATCHING
Speakers rallied the crowd with comparisons to the Holocaust, arguing the government’s restrictions were overly invasive.
“Get their names [of doctors and nurses]. Email them to me. With a group of lawyers, we are collecting all that. At the Nuremberg trials, the doctors and nurses stood trial, and they hung. If you are a doctor or a nurse, now is the time to get off that bus … and stand with us, the people,” Kate Shemirani, a former nurse who was removed from the Nursing and Midwifery Council in June 2021 for allegedly spreading misinformation about COVID-19, said at Saturday’s rally, referencing the military tribunals for prominent leaders in Nazi Germany known as the Nuremberg trials.
Many critics have invoked the Holocaust, in which millions of people were killed, to condemn COVID-19 lockdowns. In the United States, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene referenced the Holocaust when criticizing Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s mask rules for the House floor.
“You know, we can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany,” Greene said in May. “And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”
Greene later apologized for the remarks, saying in late June after visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “There is no comparison to the Holocaust, and there never should be, and that’s what I’m sorry for.”
Last Monday, most of the United Kingdom’s coronavirus restrictions were lifted in what some have termed “freedom day.”
Similar protests against COVID-19 restrictions have occurred all over the world. Thousands across France gathered to protest the enforcement of “COVID Passes,” which are now required to certify that an individual is vaccinated before he or she is allowed to enter a bar or restaurant or attend a large gathering, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Wednesday.
Dozens of anti-COVID restriction protesters were arrested during a demonstration in Sydney, Australia. Protesters reportedly broke through barriers and threw projectiles at police.
The Sydney anti-lockdown protest is a superspreader event in the making. If the sheer number of people wasn’t enough, everyone is also screaming at the top of their lungs (without masks) and potentially spreading droplets all over the damn place pic.twitter.com/WI2R5Ql4kE
— Zac Crellin (@zacrellin) July 24, 2021
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Though restrictions were eased in many countries as case numbers began to subside, the emergence of the highly transmissible delta variant has led to a rise in COVID-19 cases in nations throughout the world.
There have been more than 194 million cases of COVID-19 diagnosed worldwide, and more than 4 million deaths have been attributed to the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
