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Demonstrators have briefly disrupted a coronavirus vaccination distribution centre at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, calling the jabs part of a conspiracy by elites to control the population.
Several dozen people carrying signs demanding the end of lockdowns and promoting anti-vaccination conspiracy theories gathered on Saturday at the entrance to the vaccination site, one of the largest in the United States, social media posts showed.
Officials shut the site down for nearly an hour, US media reported, citing fire department officials тАУ though the Los Angeles police department later insisted it was not closed and all the vaccines would be distributed.
The incident represents the latest challenge to the vaccine roll-out in the US, which has the highest number of cases and deaths in the world from COVID-19.
The Los Angeles Daily News spoke to protester Jairo Rodriguez, 26, who said most of the protesters were supporters of former president Donald Trump who deliberately chose not to wear pro-Trump attire or carry US flags in order to тАЬbetter communicate their anti-vaxxing messageтАЭ. He also said they did not wear masks.
On social media, protesters were shown holding signs reading тАЬCovid = scam,тАЭ тАЬ99.96 survival rate,тАЭ and тАЬTell Bill Gates to Vaccinate Himself.тАЭ The latter in reference to a conspiracy theory that vaccines were being used to implant microchips in the population in order to control them by a New World Order.
Others chanted тАЬThis is not a vaccine,тАЭ тАЬSheep led to their slaughterтАЭ and тАЬThis is a treatment. You are submitting to be a lab rat in real-timeтАЭ.
A post on social media described the demonstration as the тАЬSCAMDEMIC PROTEST/MARCH.тАЭ It advised participants to тАЬplease refrain from wearing Trump/MAGA attire as we want our statement to resonate with the sheeple. No flags but informational signs onlyтАЭ.
Health officials expect to vaccinate 12,000 people a day at the stadium, thought to be the largest vaccination site in the nation.
Ire and outrage
Videos and photos of the protests were widely shared on social media, drawing ire and outrage from some who highlighted the burgeoning death toll from coronavirus in the country.
More than 26 million people have been infected and 439,000 have died in the country since the start of the pandemic, a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University showed on Saturday.
President Joe Biden has pledged to have 100 million people vaccinated within his first 100 days тАУ but the rollout began slowly under Trump.
Los Angeles County, where COVID-19 cases have surged this winter, is currently only vaccinating front-line medical workers and people aged 65 and over.
Even among those groups, appointments are extremely difficult to obtain, with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots in limited supply.
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