Europe rocked by riots and protests against vaccine mandates.

 

A protester in Austria. New York Post/AP.

Europe has been rocked by a new wave of protests and riots aimed against vaccine mandates. New York Post. Protests and riots have broken out in Austria, Croatia, Italy, Northern Ireland, The Netherlands and even the French territory of Guadeloupe. In The Netherlands, riots and protests continued even after police opened fire on protesters yesterday. The country, which is 70% vaccinated, imposed a lockdown for three weeks. In Italy, people are protesting against Italy's so called "green pass" vaccine mandate. Riots even broke out in Guadeloupe, a Caribbean colony of France. 

My Comment:

Europe seems to be doubling down on things that have been proven not to work against the Coronavirus pandemic. They are going back to lockdowns and vaccine mandates even though those things have not worked in the past to stop the pandemic. We know that the original lockdowns failed to stop the spread of the virus and if the vaccine was going to stop it, it would have done so by now.  And those actions have a cost. 

Though the governments actions in Europe remain shockingly popular, there are a lot of people that have had enough. And they are, in the great European tradition, they are rioting to show their displeasure. To be sure, not all of the protests are violent, not even most. But there are a lot of people that are destroying things and being violent. 

I have mixed feelings on that. On the one hand I hate civil disorder and rioting. I said back during the Black Lives Matter riots back in 2020 that even if I were to agree with the rioters goals (I absolutely did not) I did not approve of the violence and damage to property. I have a visceral disgust of rioting in general.

On the other hand, I think these European countries are totally out of control. They have no right to demand people stay in their houses and take a vaccine they may not want. It's tyranny and tyranny should be opposed by any means available. 

But I usually think riots are unproductive at best and counterproductive at worse. I know a lot of people share my disgust with civil disorder and violence and it will turn those people off even if they agree with the rioters goals. And the people that don't agree? It will just allow them to demonize their opponents and for once they will probably have a point. 

What else can be done though? These governments are totally out of control and what other option do these people have? The elections might change things but that's a long term solution to a short term problem. And that's about the only other way I see this nonsense ending. 

Of course, I do think that the virus will probably go away on its own eventually. As I have said for a long time the virus is weakening and with so many people with natural immunity now, there are fewer people to infect. I have been saying for awhile now, at least here in Wisconsin, it's hard to tell there is a pandemic at all.

Once the virus does go away I do think there should be a reckoning. This pandemic was mishandled in 2020 but things got so much worse in 2021. We lost so many freedoms and for what? The virus spread even further and the governments did nothing to stop it. They gambled everything on the vaccine, and though it wasn't totally useless, it did not stop the pandemic. They need to pay a price for that.