Thousands of Americans mostly conservatives in states like Texas have been staging what they call anti-lockdown protests.
The protesters are demanding an end to current lockdown restrictions meant to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Local US media reported that at some of these protests marches, Americans defied social distancing rules and shook hands while other hugged.
Many of them also chanted the need to reopen the US economy outside the state Capitol building in Austin, Texas.
The protesters accused the media and officials of lying to them about the severity of the pandemic.
One protester told the New York Times that “I don’t fear a potential pathogen.
I think there’s potential pathogens around us all the time, and for the most part, we’re healthy.”
Some also held placards with various inscription meant to debunk the seriousness of the pandemic which has brought the world to a standstill.
Bill Gates hopes to reach 7bln people with potential Covid-19 vaccine
Some children held up their homemade sign reading: “Open our school: Education is a God-given right,” while others waved placards reading: “Shut down the shutdown.”
There was another placard at some of the protest marches that read “Texas will not take the mark of the beast,” referring to potential vaccine for the virus.
There are some Christians who believe taking in the vaccine could be signalling a biblical proclamation of the anti-Christ who gave people his mark referred to as the mark of the beast.
US president Donald Trump had cheered on some of the protesters in series of tweets.
Mr Trump said he believed some of the protests were warranted given the “too tough” restrictions imposed by a handful of governors.
“These are people expressing their views,” the president said at his daily White House briefing on Friday.
“They seem to be very responsible people to me. But they’ve been treated very rough.”
Mr Trump has refused to condemn the protesters, saying they were reacting to overly draconian measures from some governors.
“Yes, there are a lot of protests out there . . . I just think that some of the governor’s have gotten carried away.
We have a lot of people that don’t have to be told to do what they’re doing. They’ve been really doing everything we’ve asked them.”
They protesters refused to accept that they were being reckless, claiming shutting down of cities was just a kind of hysteria, despite the pandemic killing thousands of people around the world.
Source: Africafeeds.com
