Protesters gathered in Ukiah on Saturday to advocate for ‘medical freedom’ and denounce COVID-19 vaccination warrants – Redheaded Blackbelt

Yesterday at the corner of Ukiah Airport Park Boulevard, some 40 residents of Mendocino County gathered to voice their concerns and grievances about the federal, state and local government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. .

Several themes emerged from the participants’ perspective: the concept of bodily autonomy, mistrust of government mandates, concerns about health and the effectiveness of the vaccine.

This rally comes just two days after President Joe Biden issued the broadest vaccine mandate to date, requiring more than 100 million Americans to be vaccinated against the virus.

Several participants in yesterday’s rally cited the warrants as a threat to their freedom to control their bodies. One participant even said that she and her children decided to get the vaccine themselves, but they supported efforts to leave it up to the individual to choose what was appropriate for their medical needs.

Mendocino County Public Health Officer Dr Andy Coren was mentioned both in conversation with attendees and on signage posted around the rally. Many questioned Dr Coren’s authority to establish local COVID-19 protocols, with one calling him an “at will” employee who could be fired but, as the participant said, “the board of monitoring continues to let him make all the decisions. “

The signs held by the participants included slogans such as: “Where there is risk there must be a choice”, “Stop pretending it is about health”, “We stand for love , peace, health, freedom ”and“ End the censorship of vaccine-related risks ”.

Many participants presented the COVID-19 pandemic protocols as an encroachment by an unspecified government, or as one called it the “globalists,” to erode individual freedoms and take control of the population.

Cheers and taunts could be heard from passing vehicles. Several occupants of the vehicle rolled down their windows to express their support for the protest. Conversely, there were several passers-by who looked down on the participants.

Locally, Mendocino County is finally seeing the end of the recent wave of COVID-19 associated with the Delta variant, Dr Coren said during Friday’s COVID-19 press conference. During this press conference, Dr Coren said that around 17,000 “eligible residents are not vaccinated”.

At Saturday’s rally, several participants described the citizens’ town hall on Saturday, September 4, 2021 which brought together PHO’s Dr Coren and local business owners to discuss the implications of a proposal to require restaurant workers and vaccine testing for customers as Mendocino County tried to control the recent increase.

Following the meeting with business owners, Dr Coren announced at Friday’s COVID-19 press conference that the recommendations that galvanized local business owners would remain as they are. Instead of requiring these local restaurants to institute mandatory vaccinations among staff and vaccine testing for customers, these protocols would be “strongly encouraged.”