Anti-vaxx rally - latest: Outrage at RFK Jr Holocaust comments at vaccine mandate opponents gathering in DC
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
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.
Follow for the latest updates...
Bigtree threatens Fauci and journalists with Nuremberg trial
Del Bigtree threatens Fauci, Birx, Biden, and the press with a Nuremberg trial.
He singles out the press for acting as a “propaganda machine”.
Bigtree invokes God while railing against media
“Get back to your master, which is God.”
Members of Harris staff exposed to Covid
An update from the White House pool report:
A White House official says: “On Friday night during the drive from the airport in Los Angeles to the hotel in Los Angeles several members of the vice president’s staff were close contacts with a member of the advance team who has since tested positive for Covid.”
“No members of the media were close contacts with this individual and the vice president was not a close contact with this individual. The staff members will not travel with the vice president on Monday.”
The vice president’s trip is still going forward but those staff members who were close contacts are not going to travel with her.
Photojournalist slams Bigtree tirade against media
Photojournalist Paul Gillespie expresses his disgust at Del Bigtree’s tirade against the media.
He tweets: “Del Bigtree, I survived a murderous mass shooting in my newsroom. My head nearly taken off by a shotgun blast, missing by an inch. Five Capital Gazette family members were killed around me.
“Your thoughts/words are disgusting/inhuman. No one should have such hate in their heart.”
Outrage over RFK Holocaust comparisons
Vaccine scientist Professor Peter Hotez has hit out on Twitter at Robert Kennedy Jr’s “antivaccine disinformation, aggression, dog whistles” and extremist rhetoric, specifically for comparing vaccines to the Holocaust.
Professor Hotez’s tweet received a reply from the Auschwitz Memorial: “Exploiting of the tragedy of people who suffered, were humiliated, tortured and murdered by the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany — including children like Anne Frank — in a debate about vaccines and limitations during [a] global pandemic is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decay.”
Senator Ron Johnson hosting Covid panel tomorrow
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin will host a panel discussion tomorrow involving several of today’s speakers.
It is billed as “Covid-19: A Second Opinion” and Senator Johnson will act as moderator.
Four Pillars of Pandemic Response
- Dr. Peter McCullough
Pillar 1: Limit the spread
- Dr. Bret Weinstein
- Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
Pillar 2: Early at Home Treatment
- Dr. Ryan Cole
- Dr. Harvey Risch
- Dr. George Fareed
- Dr. Pierre Kory
- Dr. Richard Urso
Pillar 3: Hospital Treatment
- Dr. Paul Marik
- Dr. Aaron Kheriaty
Pillar 4: Vaccines
- Dr. Robert Malone
- Dr. David Wiseman
What next for the anti-vaccine/mandate movement?
Ben Collins of NBC News writes: “Most people are wildly underestimating how both large and rhetorically violent this anti-vaccine movement is.
“They are a gigantic, one-issue political movement that will eventually coalesce behind one candidate and make extreme demands before 2024.”
He adds: “Buckle up.”
Time’s Vera Bergengruen writes: “A lot of people dismissing the groups here today as a bunch of online conspiracy theorists are going to get a rude awakening. The larger anti-vaccine (/“anti mandates”) wing is a growing political movement bringing together many of the anti-government threads of the past decade.”
Auschwitz Memorial hits back at RFK Jr
The Auschwitz Memorial has called Robert F Kennedy Jr’s remarks comparing vaccines to the Holocaust “a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decay”.
Speaking at an anti-vaxx rally in Washington DC on Sunday, the nephew of former president John F Kennedy claimed that in the future “none of us can run and none of us can hide”.
“Bill Gates said his 65,000 satellites alone will be able to look at every square inch of the planet 24 hours a day. They’re putting in 5G to harvest our data and control our behaviour.”
He went on to compare vaccine passports to the Nazi regime.
Bevan Hurley reports.
Auschwitz Memorial hits back at RFK Jr’s anti-vax rant
Robert F Kennedy criticised for ‘exploiting of the tragedy’ of the Holocaust
Conservative see race as factor in Covid treatment as new target
Some conservatives are taking aim at policies that allow doctors to consider race as a risk factor when allocating scarce COVID-19 treatments, saying the protocols discriminate against white people.
The wave of infections brought on by the omicron variant and a shortage of treatments have focused attention on the policies.
Medical experts say the opposition is misleading. Health officials have long said there is a strong case for considering race as one of many risk factors in treatment decisions. And there is no evidence that race alone is being used to decide who gets medicine.
AP
New conservative target: Race as factor in COVID treatment
Some conservatives are taking aim at policies that allow doctors to consider race as a risk factor when allocating scarce COVID-19 treatments, saying the protocols discriminate against white people
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments