By Jefferey Jaxen

In perhaps the greatest show of coordinated action, massive protests have erupted in multiple cities globally over the weekend. A reboot of authoritarian-like government restrictions are leading to unprecedented and unscientific edicts as several countries have announced, in near unison, limitations on unvaccinated citizens. Wholesale elimination of basic human rights – employment, gatherings, worship and even movement – are being erased for the unvaccinated and the people have had enough. 

AUSTRIA

Ground zero of the renewed government push, Austria took an unprecedented, world’s first step to lockdown the unvaccinated as cases surged in the country. That lockdown was quickly transitioned to also include the vaccinated this past Thursday as the its Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg also announced that Covid shots would become mandatory in Austria from Feb. 1. The runaway measures were greeted with some of the largest protests in the country’s history. 

ITALY

The New York Times reports, “Demonstrators gathered in Milan and Rome on Saturday evening to protest Italy’s coronavirus health pass on the 18th consecutive weekend of such rallies.” 

The protests stretched from early morning into the night.

The Italian government has shown its reliance on heavy police tactics against peaceful demonstrations recently in its largest port city of Trieste were dock workers were fired upon by high-powered water cannons during an extended three-day protest. 


FRANCE

On Thursday, leading up to the weekend’s record protests, Reuters reported that hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Austrian Embassy in Paris to demonstrate against Austria’s new restrictions as France weighted similar measures. 

In a simultaneous admission of vaccine failure and the uselessness of the country’s health pass, [vaccine passport] French PM Emmanuel Macron said in a televised address on November 9th that those 65 and older will need a booster shot from mid-December for vaccine passports to remain valid. French lawmakers also recently approved an extension on the use of the vaccine passport through July 2022. Critics claimed political motives were at play as the extension allows the restrictive pass to be in place through France’s presidential elections in May. France has entered into its 19th consecutive week of protests

LONDON

London’s summer of discontent, seeing hundreds of thousands pack Trafalgar Square, has spilled into the Autumn as thousands of protestors marched through Oxford street shouting ‘No Vax Passports!’.  

Mirroring France’s move, protestors also gathered in London outside the Austrian embassy over the weekend to send a clear signal that the reimposition of government-mandated lockdowns will not be welcome by the people there.  

NORTHERN IRELAND

Thousands also gathered outside Belfast City Hall to protest their country’s vaccine restrictions 

To the south in the Irish county of Waterford, which has both the highest vaccination rate and the highest COVID-19 incidence rate in Ireland, cases are surging despite 99.5% of adults over the age of 18 in being ‘double-jabbed.’

Irish MMA superstar Conor McGregor took to Twitter to blast his country’s Deputy PM Leo Varadkar who recently went on CNN to claim the 5% of the nation’s unvaccinated population “are causing the trouble.” McrGregor told his 9 million followers Varadkar was a ‘Poisonous individual!’ and ‘Buffoon.’ 

AUSTRALIA 

The world has watched Australia’s police enforcers unleashed the most heavy-handed, authoritarian thuggery of any country in the world (perhaps sans China) in the name of public health. Pepper spray, home invasions, baton beatings, COVID camps, and regular barrages of rubber bullets targeting peaceful protestors has shocked the world. 

Yet despite attempts to drive the public into submission, record protests have again erupted in the land down under this weekend in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.   

NEW YORK

In the U.S., New York City’s Central Park was the home of protests where thousands took to the streets chanting ‘We the People Will Not Comply.’ 

CROATIA

Protestors in Croatia took a different approach this weekend as they moved from Zagreb’s central square to the part of the city where the HRT public broadcaster is located after dissatisfaction with the way the HRT covered the protest. 

https://twitter.com/Kukicat7/status/1462102879834157057?s=20

NETHERLANDS

In Belgium, a darker page was turned as police, in the name of protecting people and public health, shot two protestors in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on Friday leading into this weekend. ‘Police open fire on anti-lockdown protestors in the Netherlands’ the NY Post reported. Replaying like a broken record of vaccine failure, despite a high percentage of the country being fully vaccinated, The Netherlands has seen a spike in coronavirus cases and reinstated a partial lockdown last week. The tragic events mark the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that police have opened fire on people protesting a government’s COVID restrictions. 

Jefferey Jaxen

Jefferey Jaxen is a health journalist and featured in his weekly segment, ’The Jaxen Report’, on The HighWire. As an investigative journalist, researcher, and compelling writer, Jefferey serves as Lead editor of The HighWire News and Opinion Team.

Other Headlines

Coronavirus

CDC Study: Pfizer Vaccine Linked to Higher COVID Risk in Children Under Five Without Prior Infection

A new CDC study found that children under 5 vaccinated with the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection are 159% more likely to be infected and 257% more likely to develop symptomatic COVID-19 symptoms than unvaccinated children who have not previously been infected with SARS-CoV-2. Nicolas Hulscher, MPH, an epidemiologist with the McCulloughContinue reading CDC Study: Pfizer Vaccine Linked to Higher COVID Risk in Children Under Five Without Prior Infection

More news about Coronavirus

Health & Nutrition

California Declares State of Emergency for Bird Flu Despite CDC’s Low Risk Assessment

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for H5N1, commonly called bird flu, “to streamline and expedite the state’s response.” The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced two more avian flu cases in dairy workers, which brings the total to 36 cases in the state since the spring of 2024. Earlier thisContinue reading California Declares State of Emergency for Bird Flu Despite CDC’s Low Risk Assessment

More news about Health & Nutrition

Vaccines

Experts Deemed Safety Testing Inadequate at 2019 WHO Vaccine Safety Summit

Leading vaccinologists and epidemiologists discussed concerns about insufficient safety testing for vaccines during a World Health Organization (WHO) Global Vaccine Safety Summit on December 3, 2019. This conference was held weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Wuhan, China, about three months before American lockdowns. The admissions of poor safety standards and calls forContinue reading Experts Deemed Safety Testing Inadequate at 2019 WHO Vaccine Safety Summit

More news about Vaccines

Science & Tech

Nearly Three-Quarters of Immunologist Peer Reviewers Receive Payments From Industry

Most peer reviewers receive research funds and other payments from the industry, according to new research published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The peer review process has long been considered necessary to ensure the study is trustworthy and replicable. The latest publication provides data on financial incentives for peer reviewers in theContinue reading Nearly Three-Quarters of Immunologist Peer Reviewers Receive Payments From Industry

More news about Science & Tech

Environment

Government Accountability Project Sues FEMA, Files EPA Complaint Over East Palestine Chemical Disaster

The Government Accountability Project (GAP) has filed a lawsuit against FEMA to demand the fulfillment of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about President Joe Biden’s executive order in September 2023 regarding the train derailment and chemical exposure in East Palestine, OH. The FOIA request was originally filed on January 31 and refiled onContinue reading Government Accountability Project Sues FEMA, Files EPA Complaint Over East Palestine Chemical Disaster

More news about Environment

Policy

Great Barrington Declaration Co-Author, Jay Bhattacharya, Named NIH Director by Trump

Jay Bhattacharya has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be the Director of the NIH for the new administration. Bhattacharya is a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine and is most famously known as one of the three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for an end to COVID-19 lockdowns exceptContinue reading Great Barrington Declaration Co-Author, Jay Bhattacharya, Named NIH Director by Trump

More news about Policy