Coronavirus: Powerful photos sum up US COVID-19 protests
A powerful photo taken at a US rally shows the struggle between healthcare workers and protesters amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Healthcare workers across the US are facing off with protesters who are demanding an end to the country’s coronavirus lockdown.
A powerful photo taken at a protest rally in Arizona on Tuesday shows a nurse staring down a protester wearing a veterans’ vest.
Wearing her light blue scrubs and a protection mask, the nurse stands with her arms folded in front of her as she is confronted by protesters pushing to reopen the economy – against health advice.
Behind her, a man holds up a sign that appears to be claiming vaccines are made out of “chicken embryo, formaldehyde, calf bovine serum and monkey kidneys”.
The photo is similar to an image that went viral earlier this week, showing a man in scrubs facing down a protester in a car.
The woman held a “Land of the Free” protest placard as she hung out of her car yelling in anger, before stopping at a crossing where two healthcare workers from a Denver hospital stood blocking the road.
This past week, thousands of Americans have rallied around the country to protest the COVID-19 social distancing measures. This is despite the fact that currently the US has had more than 820,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 45,000 deaths.
Hundreds of people – including politicians – gathered in the US state of Pennsylvania on Monday to protest the measures urging people to stay home.
The “Patriots Rally” demonstration in state capital Harrisburg follows similar protests – cheered on by US President Donald Trump – elsewhere in the United States, including in Michigan, California and Ohio.
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Protesters say government regulations intended to halt the spread of the highly contagious virus limits individual freedoms and harms the economy.
Trucks painted with slogans including “work not welfare” and “shelter in place isn’t freedom” paraded throughout Harrisburg, as Republican representatives from Congress rallied protesters marching at the steps of the Capitol building.
“Our new normal does not mean we will sacrifice our freedoms for the safety of our country,” said state politician Aaron Bernstine, in a speech punctuated by “USA” chants.
“Normal is not taking government handouts allowing us to pay our bills.”
In Michigan, protesters descended on the state capital in hundreds of cars honking horns, yelling slogans and angrily waving American flags, Trump flags and placards.
With patriotic songs blaring from car radios, they chanted “lock her up, lock her up” in a desperate plea against Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdown restrictions.
In Columbus, Ohio they got out of their cars and swarmed in a tightly packed throng on the statehouse in Capitol Square and pounded on doors demanding to see the governor.
Wearing Guy Fawkes masks, Make America Great Again hats and Stars and Stripes shirts, they pressed up against glass windows.
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With their faces contorted with rage and fear, they “resembled a zombie horde,” US media reported.
When a printed piece of paper from the governor was produced, one person used a rifle brought along to the protest to shoot at it.
Describing themselves as patriots and blaming the World Health Organisation for their nation being turned upside-down, they said they didn’t fear coronavirus.
Instead, they said it was the job lay-offs and virus-caused economic crash causing them to struggle to pay bills and rent or mortgages that was endangering their lives.
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The US Government recently began issuing one-time payments as high as $1200 to many residents with additional supplements for children, as the fast-spreading coronavirus has left a staggering 22 million people in the US out of work.
As he faces re-election later this year, Mr Trump has been anxious to reboot the nation’s economy and send Americans back to work, while state governors voice frustration that there is not yet enough virus testing to safely re-open businesses.
Though the protests at US statehouses have drummed up much media attention and online activity, they remain on the fringe. More than 80 per cent of Americans would approve of a national stay-at-home order, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.
The poll indicates that nearly 70 per cent of Republicans and 95 per cent of Democrats would back such a measure.
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Yet Monday’s Harrisburg protest highlighted the exasperation of many Americans stuck at home.
Accountant Tom Ryan travelled from Pittsburgh to Pennsylvania’s capital to protest, pro-Trump red caps in hand.
“You can’t shut everything down just because we have a health issue,” he told AFP. “We have to figure out how to balance things.”
More than 1200 people in Pennsylvania, home to 12.8 million, have died of COVID-19, with more than 33,000 confirmed infections.
– with AFP
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