Protestors called for doctors and nurses working on the Covid vaccine programme to be “hung”
NHS workers have hit back at yesterday’s anti-vaxxer protests in London, branding them “awful” and “vile”.
A crowd of Covid sceptics gathered in Trafalgar Square to protest against vaccination programmes and the way they have been implemented across the UK.
One of the more prominent speakers at yesterday’s gathering was Kate Shemirani, who was struck off as a nurse in June.
A notable anti-vaxxer and Covid sceptic, Shemirani asked for the names and email addresses of healthcare workers implementing the vaccination programme.
She rounded off her rambling, often incoherent speech by comparing NHS staff to Nazis.
“At the Nuremberg trials, the doctors and nurses stood trial and they hung.”
What do doctors think of the anti-vaxxer protests in London?
Speaking exclusively to JOE, an A&E doctor working in East London by the name of Russell revealed what went through his mind when he first heard these words.
“It was awful. Just vile. I almost couldn’t believe it when I saw it, I thought maybe it was someone’s idea of a poorly executed joke?”
When I got a place at medical school I didn’t envisage 8 years later there being a mob in Trafalgar Square cheering the idea of hanging doctors and nurses in the midst of a pandemic.
… it’s just all a bit… fucking awful isn’t it? Like just truly absolutely vile?
— Russell 🏳️🌈 (@Medic_Russell) July 24, 2021
Russell said he understands that people have concerns about Covid vaccine side-effects, but that “comparing the vaccine programme and healthcare professionals implementing it to Nazis and the Nuremberg Trials is disgusting”.
Such incendiary rhetoric can have potentially devastating consequences, the doctor added.
“One of my colleagues on Twitter was talking about the awful murder of Jo Cox and how this sort of hate speech can set off an individual to do something horrific.
“I truly hope I’m just being overly anxious, but to hear someone saying that doctors and nurses should be murdered for their role in the vaccine programme and then seeing a crowd cheering it was disturbing.”
Russell said the very concept of Freedom Day (lifting restrictions on July 19th) left him feeling “sick with dread”.
Another doctor, Samantha Batt-Rawden, said the scenes in London made her “want to cry”.
https://twitter.com/sbattrawden/status/1418984363304394762?s=20
The growing number of coronavirus cases and subsequent hospitalisations is all doctors and nurses are talking about, Russell stated.
“After going through two or three waves of this already, we’re exhausted and burned out and it’s so hard doing this all over again especially knowing how quickly the extra measures have been stripped away despite the evidence of cases growing.”
Also in attendance was TV nutritionist Gillian McKeith, who in recent years dropped the “Doctor” prefix before her name once it was discovered by Bad Science author Ben Goldacre that he could purchase the same qualification online for his cat.
