Protests ERUPT over COVID tyranny
From Canada, to Europe, to my own New Zealand, hundreds of thousands of people are protesting vaccine & mask mandates and lockdowns
People are fed up. For 2 years now, we have been controlled with an iron fist in fear of a disease that, yes, by all means is horrifying. But that does not warrant the unparalleled power that we have given our governments.
Here, I am mostly going to focus on the West. That is not because it is only the West who have seen authoritarian. China, Russia and tons of other Eastern nations have seen deeply controlling measures. I know. I am opposed to these. But the information from these countries isn’t particularly easily accessible, and there haven’t been protests in big ways over the last few weeks in those nations. I am going to focus on the supposedly free world that, over the last couple of weeks, has been far from free and it hasn’t looked like that will change any time soon. We will also take a look at should have been done, from the start of the pandemic.
So, let’s do just that.
Canada. Thousands of truckers (some estimates are as low as a few thousand, others get up to 50,000), have tried to block off the border to the United States and have cut off several domestic trade routes. They have differing beliefs, but the general feeling is that there should be an end to vaccine mandates. That is literally the most reasonable thing ever. The government should not have the right to force you to put medication in your own body. That isn’t some kind of crazy, far-right conspiracy-based belief. That’s just believing in medical freedom. Again, and I cannot stress this enough, I believe that there is overwhelming evidence that the vaccine prevents hospitalization and death. The benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the potential costs. Unless you doctor tells you otherwise, you should take it. But, if you don’t, fine. That’s your prerogative. I disagree with you, but, at the end of the day, that’s up to you.
Many people within the movement want to end all restrictions. Again, I do not have a major problem with this. Sweden took this approach, and have come out of this with similar, if not better, results than other countries in Europe. Belgium, a country of about 1 million more people, has 29,624 deaths because of this disease, while Sweden has 16,501. Belgium had lockdowns, Sweden didn’t. Belgium upended life for everyone. Sweden didn’t. You cannot tell me that not ending at least most of the COVID restrictions, things that either don’t work or have very serious costs that outweigh the benefits, is some kind of crazy idea.
This last part is where they lose me, and most other people. A small proportion of protesters, and I do emphasize that they are a small proportion of protesters, are completely opposed to the vaccine. This is not a good take. One French study of 22 million people found that the vaccine was 90% effective against both hospitalization and death. This shit works. Yes, there are some side effects that can cause some substantial harm to an extremely small proportion of people. That’s true. But there are significantly more people who have died because they refused or were unable to get the shots than who died because of it. Hundreds of thousands more globally. The shots work. The people at the protests who are anti-vax rather than anti-mandate are wrong.
Those are the three main problems that people in the protest have with the COVID response, and two of those are completely reasonable.
However, Canadian and American media have not taken these protests as reasonable in the slightest. Canada’s CBC, which is partly government-funded, claimed that Russian actors were behind the protests. Russia has enough on their hands in their own part of the world to create a protest that they don’t even agree with, as their authoritarian COVID measures are evidence of. This is an organic movement from Canadian truckers, not some kind of conspiracy involving Russia. Not everything is about fucking Russia. Not much is about Russia.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe called the protest a “cult.” CNN called it “a threat to democracy.” These people are so out of touch that they are desperate to smear an authentic movement.
Many protesters are also being arrested, which is a clear infringement on free speech, which is supposedly protected by the Canadian bill of rights. Truckers are now being arrested for honking their horns, including one 78 year old great grandfather who was “aggressively” detained. This is not right. All this guy did his honk his goddamn horn in his car. The police did more damage to him than he did to anyone.
Nearly 80 criminal investigations have been opened over this matter, and it is highly likely some people who never did anything violent will be locked up for some period of time for no good reason. All they did was protest restrictions.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused the truckers of “trying to blockade … our democracy.” My man, that’s fucking bullshit. Stopping people from protesting is a blockade to democracy, Justin.
These protests aren’t particularly unpopular. One poll said that 46% of Canadians sympathize with them, which one pollster summarized as meaning that a majority of people are sick of the restrictions and are opposed to vaccine mandates, but many don’t like their tactics. That seems pretty fair to me. 60% of young people, the most liberal age demographic, sympathize with the protests. These aren’t particularly unpopular, unlike what the liberal mainstream media is telling you.
These protests have led to big copy-cat ones in the United States, across Europe, Australia and in New Zealand. Because I live in one of those countries, I’m just gonna focus on my very own Aotearoa for the rest of this piece.
In our capital city, Wellington, thousands of people have protested outside parliament against vaccine mandates and other COVID restrictions. 122 people were arrested on Thursday in violent clashes with police.
One such video showed a naked woman at the protest being aggressively dragged by her hair, then beaten up on the ground and arrested, actions which the police superintendent described as “proportionately, fairly and professionally” handled. Bullshit.
After these clashes on Thursday, police seemed to take much more of a backseat tactic, focused on maintaining order and preventing clashes rather than on separating the crowd up in the subsequent days, which I am, of course, delighted about, because this emphasizes that the protest is permitted under free speech laws, which police didn’t seem to like so much on Thursday.
However, it is not all positive. Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard decided on Friday night to turn on the sprinklers to try and drive out the protesters. This only made them want to dig in and stay longer. Then, on Saturday night, Mallard turned on annoying music like the Macarena and Baby Shark, which are probably the two most torturous songs to listen to ever. This just makes them want to stay. This weekend there was a cyclone in New Zealand. Wellington saw floods. Protesters stayed there. I promise you that, if they didn’t feel like the government was trying to get them out, most of them would have gone home. I promise you.
I’m not going to whitewash the negatives from these protests. Students in nearby schools have reported abuse for wearing masks, which they are mandated to do. Regional cafe’s have been forced to shut because they don’t feel safe. Neither of these are good and/or acceptable, and I would have a go at the protesters who have made these people feel unsafe. However, I still support their right to protest and the faction that are purely anti-mandate.
More importantly than all of this is that the general public view about vaccine mandates and other restrictions have changed. People have become more and more opposed to them. I am one of these people who supported these measures until just a few months ago, and I am glad that more people are now agreeing with me.
So, some of you are probably wondering what I do support, because we obviously can’t do nothing about a virus that has killed millions. I am supporting simple measures. Testing everyone as they go into work or school seems like a basic measure. Giving people paid time off if they test positive or are a close contact is another no-brainer. Increasing ICU capacity and hospital beds generally, along with hiring thousands upon thousands of more Doctors and Nurses is another. Finally, yes, put care homes in lockdown. Let them out for a walk, let them see their families every couple of weeks, but keep them in lockdown as much as you can. These are just basic no-brainers.
In the United States, they also need universal healthcare. It is no wonder that they are the only Western nation that doesn’t guarantee their citizens healthcare and they have also by far the most deaths. One study has suggested that up to 40% of US COVID deaths would have been avoided with universal healthcare. Biden can do this under section 1881a of the Affordable Care Act. He should. Obviously.
All in all, I am delighted that people are more and more angry with the COVID restrictions that have taken away freedom that we in the West have been accustomed to for hundreds of years. As Sweden has proven, you can get OK results on this disease by taking these measures that do not impede too greatly on most of our lives.