Massive protests are occurring as civil rights are threatened. Digital vaccine passports entitle citizens to participate in society - no vaccine passport will condemn one to a second-class form of existence, or worse. When currency goes all-digital, we all become government serfs.
Can… will this happen here?
Is America still the “land of the free and the home of the brave”?
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Violent protests break out in Europe over vaccine mandates, lockdowns
Violent protests have broken out against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and lockdowns across Europe amid new tough rules to curb winter waves of the virus.
Demonstrators angry about the new measures gathered in Austria, Croatia, Italy, Northern Ireland, the French territory of Guadeloupe and the Netherlands to protest the moves.
In the Netherlands, a second night of riots broke out Saturday over a partial lockdown, one day after police opened fire on people protesting the rules in Rotterdam.
Protesters hurled fireworks at police and set fire to bicycles in The Hague, as cops used horses, dogs and batons to chase the crowds away, the BBC reported.
In Northern Ireland, several hundred people opposed to vaccine passports gathered outside City Hall in Belfast, where the Christmas market opened Saturday — and proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test was necessary to enter.
In Italy, 3,000 protesters showed up to Circus Maximus, an ancient chariot-racing ground in Rome, to protest against “Green Pass” vaccine certificates required at local workplaces, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, sports venues and gyms.
“People like us never give up,” read one banner in the red, white and green colors of the Italian flag.
Tens of thousands of people, including far-right groups, also joined protests in Austria on Saturday after the government announced a new national lockdown and plans to make the vaccine a requirement in February 2022.
Protesters chanted, “Resistance!” and blew whistles in the massive Heldenplatz square ahead of the lockdown, which will start Monday and last 10 days but could go up to 20.
Cops clash with anti-vaccine passport protesters across Europe as countries tighten rules to fight Omicron wave
Demonstrators took to the streets of Paris in response to President Emmanuel Macron’s vow to “p*** off” the unvaccinated.
In the French capital protesters retorted by adopting his slangy wording, chanting "We'll p*** you off".
Others carried signs saying "No to the vaccine pass", a reference to Macron's push to require proof of vaccination to enter venues such as cafes, bars and museums.
French TV images showed skirmishes between protesters and police at one site.
Protesters also rallied through the streets in Marseille, Nantes and Le Mans among other cities.
In Italy, there were protests against mandatory vaccinations for people over 50 and stricter rules for the unvaccinated.
Under the new regulations, they will not be able to do a variety of activities including using public transport and sitting at restaurants.
Germany saw police and demonstrators clash in the cities of Magdeburg and Schwerin.
The Austrian capital Vienna saw protests against the government's measures to curb Covid.
The Austrian government is pressing ahead with plans to implement plans to make vaccination compulsory, starting in February.
People in France already have to show either proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter restaurants and bars and use inter-regional trains. B
Earlier this month, police armed with batons and shields clashed with thousands of anti-lockdown protesters in the Netherlands.
Crowds gathered in Amsterdam's Museum Square to object against Covid-19 measures and vaccinations - despite a country-wide ban on group meet-ups.
The Covid revolts: Europe’s new wave of unrest
Europe’s new wave of unrest
What is remarkable about this wave is how quickly it has erupted into a culture war over vaccination. On 8 November, Austria’s new chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, announced a vaccine passport scheme of the kind already in operation in France and several other countries. Four days later he crossed a line which no other European leader had then dared cross: he announced a lockdown exclusively for the unvaccinated, to take effect from Monday 16 November. A week after that, the country was in full lockdown. Schallenberg then reached for a lever which had been rejected by his youthful predecessor, Sebastian Kurz, who was removed from office in October over bribery allegations: compulsoryt vaccination, enforced with the threat of €3,600 fines for refuseniks. Even Xi Jinping’s regime rejected compulsory Covid vaccination when several regional Chinese administrations flirted with the idea in the spring. Indonesia, Micronesia and Turkmenistan are the only countries, so far, to have introduced a Covid vaccine mandate for adults.
Schallenberg, a dull functionary whose chancellorship might otherwise have gone unnoticed by the outside world, has acquired instant notoriety, which surely he must have foreseen. Within hours, 35,000 people were out on the streets of Vienna, and copycat protests were being held around mainland Europe as their governments, too, discussed the idea. In Brussels, a crowd of 35,000 were repelled by water cannon, but not before they had damaged a police car and thrown objects at the windows of the European Commission.
Much has been made of the involvement in Austria of the right-wing Freedom party, which has been pushing against vaccination for months and whose leader, Herbert Kickl, would have been heading last weekend’s protests had he not tested positive for Covid and obediently put himself into quarantine. Yet to portray Austria’s — and Europe’s — anti-vaxxer movement as a right-wing phenomenon misses the point.
Europe’s anti-vaxxer movement has swept up libertarians on the right and Mother Earth-types on the left. While some have identified a link between vaccine hesitancy in the old East Germany and concentrations of voters for the right-wing AfD party, Germany has long been a hotbed of alternative medicine, with three-quarters of German doctors offering such treatments for people who favour them over drugs that have been proven in clinical trials. It should come as no surprise that a significant minority of Germans have rejected Covid vaccines, too. One thing, though, is for sure: enforcing vaccination by law will solidify support for minor parties which, like the AfD, draw their support from people who feel they have been pushed to the margins of society.
It suits many in government to write off vaccine refuseniks as idiots brainwashed by anti-vaxxers. Justifying his decision to fire unvaccinated care-home staff, the Health Secretary Sajid Javid suggested that they had been ‘listening to these ridiculous theories on the internet or on social media’. But do all people who have declined the vaccine really fit into this category? A University of Erfurt study revealed that 80 per cent of those refusing to be vaccinated said they had no fundamental objection to the vaccine; they just wanted time to weigh up the risks and benefits.
Given that their own government restricted the AstraZeneca vaccine to the over-sixties on the grounds of a rare blood-clotting disorder, it is hardly unreasonable that some Germans should feel wary of taking vaccines which have been developed far quicker than most. The Erfurt findings reinforce an Office for National Statistics (ONS) study which found that only 8 per cent of those who have declined the Covid jab in Britain did so because they had an objection to vaccines in general; most were simply worried about potential side effects. You can argue that they have made the wrong decision — that on the balance of risks they would be far better having the vaccine — but that doesn’t make them victims of anti-vaxxer propaganda.
The relatively high levels of infection over the summer and early autumn may turn out to be what defends us against the surge being witnessed on mainland Europe — as well as the public disorder that goes with it. We are indeed the odd one out in Europe, but not necessarily in a bad way.
According to The Guardian, as of September 2021, the following countries have some form of Covid passport:
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia are among the EU countries to have introduced some form of Covid pass.
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