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France: Thousands protest against vaccination, COVID passes
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.miamiherald.com/news/article252856933.html
PARIS
Over 100,000 people protested across France on Saturday against the government’s latest measures to push people to get vaccinated and curb rising infections by the delta variant of the coronavirus.
In Paris, separate protest marches by the far-right and the far-left wound through different parts of the city. Demonstrations were also held in Strasbourg in the east, Lille in the north, Montpellier in the south and elsewhere.
Thousands of people answered calls to take to the streets by Florian Philippot, a fringe far-right politician and former right hand of Marine Le Pen, who announced earlier this month that he would run in the 2022 presidential election. Gathered a stone’s throw away from the Louvre Museum, protesters chanted “Macron, clear off!”, “Freedom," and banged metal spoons on saucepans.
SNIP
“I will never get vaccinated,” Bruno Auquier, a 53-year-old town councilor who lives on the outskirts of Paris. “People need to wake up,” he said, questioning the safety of the vaccine.
Auquier pledged to take his two children out of school if the coronavirus vaccine became mandatory. “These new measures are the last straw,” Auquier said.
The government warned of the continued spread of the delta variant, which authorities fear could again put pressure on hospitals if not enough people are vaccinated against the virus. The pandemic has cost France more than 111,000 lives and deeply damaged the economy.
During a visit to a pop-up vaccination center in the southwest, Prime Minister Jean Castex exhorted the French to stick together in order to overcome the crisis.
“There is only one solution: vaccination,” he said, stressing it “protects us, and will make us freer.”
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WOW. 😬
13 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
It has been 20 years since the gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield co-authored a now notorious and debunked medical paper that claimed to have found a link between autism and the use of a common children’s vaccine.
The paper, later retracted by The Lancet, helped lead to a drop-off in vaccination rates and an increase in outbreak diseases such as measles, not only in Britain and Europe, but in the US.
The doctor was subsequently found guilty by the British General Medical Council (GMC) of three-dozen charges, including dishonesty and abuse of children, and struck off the medical register.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/andrew-wakefield-anti-vaxxer-trump-us-mmr-autism-link-lancet-fake-a8331826.html%3famp
The paper, later retracted by The Lancet, helped lead to a drop-off in vaccination rates and an increase in outbreak diseases such as measles, not only in Britain and Europe, but in the US.
The doctor was subsequently found guilty by the British General Medical Council (GMC) of three-dozen charges, including dishonesty and abuse of children, and struck off the medical register.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/andrew-wakefield-anti-vaxxer-trump-us-mmr-autism-link-lancet-fake-a8331826.html%3famp
From smallpox to polio, vaccine rollouts have always had doubters. But they work in the end
A big difference with previous vaccines is that they didn't have multiple TV, radio, and social media channels inventing and broadcasting misinformation about them 24/7. That probably made a big difference when it came to getting people to accept the vaccines, though the antivaxxers and doubters never completely disappeared. Even fifty years ago the three big TV networks would not have perpetuated the antivaxxer BS, though they may have covered it objectively as a news story. These days it's hard to tell how long the vax resistance will continue without some kind of "misinformation intervention," maybe some adaptation of Truth In Advertising.
A big difference with previous vaccines is that they didn't have multiple TV, radio, and social media channels inventing and broadcasting misinformation about them 24/7. That probably made a big difference when it came to getting people to accept the vaccines, though the antivaxxers and doubters never completely disappeared. Even fifty years ago the three big TV networks would not have perpetuated the antivaxxer BS, though they may have covered it objectively as a news story. These days it's hard to tell how long the vax resistance will continue without some kind of "misinformation intervention," maybe some adaptation of Truth In Advertising.