‘Defeat The Mandates’ Rally Against Covid-19 Precautions Held During Omicron Surge

Well, so much for everyone in the U.S. rallying together against the common enemy: the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). On Sunday, protester assembled for the “Defeat the Mandate” rally in Washington, D.C., right in the middle of a Winter Covid-19 surge. But instead of rallying against the virus, they protested Covid-19 vaccination and face mask requirements. The protesters listened to a bunch of speeches, carried a bunch of signs, and marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. Meanwhile, the SARS-CoV-2 just keeps spreading, just keeps spreading, just keeps spreading throughout the U.S., leading to an average of over 2,100 Covid-19-related deaths a day over the past week.

If you were looking to the rally for some new revelations on how to stop the Covid-19 coronavirus, you probably would have left the grounds fairly disappointed. The various signs and lineup of speakers didn’t really provide any alternative solutions to prevent further deaths, hospitalizations, and long Covid cases or to assist the exhausted health care workforce. Although one protester did hold up a “Stop Karen” sign, which is bad news for either all people named Karen in the U.S. or perhaps one particular Karen who has done the protester wrong.

Other than addressing the Karen problem, the signs, the speeches, and the march didn’t seem to provide a whole lot of new things or information. Some on Twitter remarked that the rally seemed to recycle a lot of the talking points that have been perpetuated by various anonymous anti-vaccination social media accounts, politicians, TV/podcast personalities, and maybe a quarterback or two:

You’ve probably heard it all before. There were the “natural immunity” and the “Covid-19 is no big deal” arguments:

Aren’t these essentially variants of the “do nothing about the pandemic and let the virus just spread” argument? Do nothing certainly sounds like the easier things to do. But, oh wait, how about the 865,000 and counting Covid-19-related deaths that have been happening in the U.S. And the hospitalizations. And the long Covid.

Others were tossing out the standard “freedom” and “my body, my choice” arguments:

Again, “freedom” sounds great when your decisions don’t affect other people. You certainly have the freedom to run in circles not wearing any clothes, yelling, “sorry, not sorry,” and “let’s unpack this,” at the top of your lungs for four hours, as long as no one else is around. But doing so in a public setting would be a different story because others may not want to “unpack” what you are offering. Thus, the “freedom” argument has been a variant of the “I don’t care how my actions may affect other people” argument.

Then there was this sign that claimed, “mandates are racist”:

It’s not clear what specific experience the sign-holder may have had with racism and why the sign=holder feels that mandates in general are racist. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be an anti-vaccination or anti-mask rally without the requisite Nazi references, right:

Because why not compare public health measures designed to save lives with genocidal atrocities?

One thing that didn’t seem to make much of a appearance was science. For example, one of the speakers, Robert Malone, MD, made some statements that could prompt a bunch of “that’s not what science has said” response. The first of these statements was Malone asserting, “Regarding the genetic Covid vaccines, the science is settled. They’re not working. They are not completely safe.” 

All right, using the word “genetic” was a bit over the top. It may play into the conspiracy theory that the Covid-19 vaccines were somehow designed to alter your DNA. As I’ve covered for Forbes, there’s no evidence that these vaccines can change your DNA in any way. But the real WTS as in “where’s the science” was Malone claiming, “the science is settled. They’re not working.” Umm, when exactly did science settle on that? What about all those scientific studies that have shown the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccines? Where’s Malone’s evidence that the Covid-19 vaccines are not working?

The second of Malone’s WTS statements was, “Now we have Omicron. These vaccines were designed for the Wuhan strain, a different virus.” Umm, a different virus? Whoever said that the Omicron variant is a completely different virus? Sure the Omicron variant has a number of mutations compared to the initial version of the virus. But wouldn’t calling the Omicron variant “a different virus” be akin to calling your children “those different beings?” The Omicron variant still spreads in a similar fashion, looks like the spiky ball at the end of a BDSM mace (not that you would know anything about that) and can cause similar problems as previous versions of the virus. Plus, studies have shown that protection from the Covid-19 vaccines does offer some protection against the Omicron variant, albeit not as well as against the earlier variants of the SARS-CoV-2.

Moreover, Malone’s reference to the “Wuhan strain” went counter to what the World Health Organization (WHO) has been asking everyone to do since 2015: to not name new infectious diseases after people and places. As their 2015 technical document explained, doing so could bring unjustified stigma and backlash against certain racial, ethnic, or other demographic groups. And lo and behold that’s what happened during this current pandemic. In 2020, people and politicians started calling the SARS-CoV-2 the “China virus”, the “Wuhan virus”, and even the “kung-flu virus,” which may have further fueled hatred, racism, and attacks against people of Asian-descent, most of whom had nothing to do with the government of mainland China.

The third WTS statement from Malone was, “Whether [the Covid-19 vaccines] made sense for protecting our elderly and frail from the original virus is irrelevant. So let’s stop arguing about that.” Yes, let’s stop arguing that the Covid-19 vaccines only protect the elderly and the frail. Plenty of younger and relatively healthy people have either died or suffered other bad outcomes from Covid-19. Thus, the Covid-19 vaccines have helped protect a wide range of people across society.

Malone wasn’t the only featured speaker at the rally. Others included Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has had a history of making baseless claims about vaccines, and Lara Logan, who recently compared Anthony Fauci, MD to Nazi physician Josef Mengele. It wasn’t exactly a who’s who of scientists. It was more of a where where’s the science?

One what-the-heck moment consisted of protesters blaring “the song ‘I Would Do Anything For Love’ by artist Meat Loaf, who died last week after reportedly becoming seriously ill with Covid-19 and who was reportedly against Covid-19 vaccine mandates,” in the words of Mason Bissada reporting for Forbes.

Ultimately, many of the statements made at the rally really did not provide any solutions to the real problem at hand: the SARS-CoV-2. Sure, you can push against vaccination and face mask requirements just like a child may yell, “I can pee wherever I want,” then say, “urine all over the place is not so bad, right?” Yet, that won’t be helpful in a public health emergency where public health officials and health professionals have been struggling to better contain a virus that’s been hurting many, many people. Vaccination and face mask requirements have only arisen because not enough people are willing to put in the work to help control the SARS-CoV-2 and its consequences. While many healthcare professionals have been working to exhaustion, you still have people who don’t want the bother of wearing a freaking mask while in a indoor public space. If everyone had banded together in the first place to fight this virus, then requirements, mandates, or whatever you want to call them wouldn’t have been necessary in the first place.

That being said, it’s not clear how many people truly agreed with what was said at the “Defeat the Mandates” rally. While rally organizers indicated that they expected tens of thousands of participants, there been cases of premature exaggeration about crowds gathering in Washington, DC, before. Imran Ahmed, the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, felt that the attendance “wasn’t close to the 20K marcher they claimed”:

Anna Merlan, Senior Staff Writer at Vice, mentioned an “estimated several thousand people in attendance”:

She also wondered aloud (because that’s what you do on Twitter) whether the rally was more a market opportunity for some, an opportunity to sell “alternative treatments” for Covid-19. It can be very interesting how often people spreading anti-vaccination messages also happen to be selling alternative treatments as well.

The politicization of the pandemic response may have brought others with other business and political motivations to the rally. Prior to the rally, Ben Collins, a reporter for NBC News, noted that the rally was getting attention from online extremist forums:

Collins mentioned the Proud Boys and lo and behold, here’s what video journalist Sandi Bachom posted:

So, all in all, did this rally really provide any new information or solve any problems? The SARS-CoV-2 is still circulating. Who knows, maybe the rally could have even helped the virus circulate even more? The virus is still hurting people each day, and health care workers are getting more and more exhausted. This brings to mind what Bruce Willis said as John McClane in the movie Die Hard, “Now, you listen to me, jerk-off. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Quit being part of the [bleeping] problem and put the other guy back on?” Well, you’ve got to wonder who this Defeat the Mandates rally was ultimately for: humanity or the SARS-CoV-2?

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Forbes can be found here ***