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About 3,000 people gathered at the Michigan Capitol on Friday to protest governments and employers demanding the COVID-19 vaccine.
Dressed in American flags, Donald Trump flags and blue shirts, they held up signs saying: “my body, my choice”.
“2020: hero. 2021: victims, ”said another of frontline healthcare workers, many of whom must be vaccinated to continue working or to stop working.
“Imagine vaccines so safe you have to be threatened with taking them for a pandemic so deadly, you have to be tested to know you have it,” another panel said.
About 63.9% of Michiganders aged 16 and over are vaccinated. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spent $ 5 million on a taxpayer-fueled lottery that failed to raise the state’s rate the necessary nine percentage points to reach 70%.
Representatives from Stand Up Michigan, Let Them Play, Michigan Conservative Coalition and several other conservative groups participated. The event featured Republican Representatives Matt Maddock of Milford, Sue Allor of Wolverine, Daire Rendon of Lake City and Senator Tom Barrett of Charlotte.
The four have denounced what they call government overreaching to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“We took two years within two weeks to flatten the curve, and enough is enough,” said Maddock.
“[Vice President] Kamala [Harris] said she didn’t trust the Trump vaccine, ”Maddock said. “Are we supposed to trust them?”
The rally follows Michigan’s largest universities – Michigan State University Michigan and Grand Valley State – demanding that students and staff be vaccinated, catching criticism from Barrett.
“We have always protected informed consent with regard to medical procedures,” he said during a speech. “Consent means the ability to decide for yourself without coercion from others, regardless of what they tell you you should or shouldn’t do.”
Barrett blamed obesity, fear and anxiety for exacerbating the COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan.
“We are no longer afraid,” he said. “We’re going to embrace our freedoms; we’re going to live our lives.”
Although some groundbreaking COVID-19 infections do occur once vaccinated, the vaccine aims to reduce symptoms, hospitalizations and deaths so that hospitals are no longer overwhelmed with patients during the winter.
A recent UK study found that the COVID-19 vaccine significantly reduces the risk of infection and causes less severe symptoms compared to infected and unvaccinated people.
The state says nearly 20,000 people have died from COVID-19 as a sole or contributing factor, most of whom were aged 60 and over.
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