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Anti-vaccine protesters in Georgia have halted several mobile COVID-19 vaccination campaigns and brought them to a complete shutdown, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Georgia’s Office of Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey told the newspaper on Monday that public health workers during vaccination campaigns “have been harassed, yelled at, threatened and humiliated by some of the members of the public they were trying to help “. At a press conference on Monday, Toomey said he also received hostile and harassing emails.
“It’s wrong. It’s absolutely wrong,” Toomey said, according to the Macon Telegraph. “These people give their lives to help others. We should thank them for trying to get life-saving vaccines in our state.”
The halted mobile vaccination event was scheduled to take place in northern Georgia, where a group of protesters showed up to harass public health professionals, according to the Journal-Constitution.
Nancy Nydam, spokesperson for Toomey, told the newspaper that “in addition to feeling threatened, the staff realized that no one would want to come to this place to be vaccinated under these circumstances, so they packed their bags and left “.
Toomey said the harassment “comes with someone’s territory in my position” but that “it shouldn’t happen to nurses who work to try to keep this state safe,” according to the Journal-Constitution.
The clashes in Georgia are the latest in a series of incidents in which anti-vaccine and anti-mask protesters have publicly harassed and berated health workers.
A group of parents in Tennessee earlier this month surrounded medical professionals outside a school board meeting after arguing for a mask mandate in local schools. And last week, anti-mask protesters disrupted Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont (R) back-to-school event, eventually following him to his vehicle.
The reports also come as Georgia faces a wave of COVID-19, with a 35% increase in reported cases in the past 14 days, according to the New York Times.
Govt. Brian kemp (R) issued an order last week deploying more than 100 National Guardsmen to state hospitals to support staff amid rising cases.
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