Stay-at-home orders that have been imposed in the United States did not stop protesters from going to the streets and ask for the states to reopen despite the threat of COVID-19 still continuing to haunt the country and claim lives at a very alarming rate.
On Sunday, hundreds of the protesters gathered outside the state capitol of Colorado in Denver demanding the government to end the shutdown. They are joined by demonstrators across different states in the US which includes Washington and Arizona in demanding their governors to lift the imposed lockdowns and open the businesses in the states which have been initially shut in order to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.
The said protesters defied the social distancing guidelines released by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization indicated that they support US President Donald Trump who earlier said that the governors were taking a step too far in imposing these measures.
Last week, in states including Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Kentucky several rallies which called for ease on the restrictions have also been held.
According to some of the protesters they would prefer to get infected with SARS-CoV-@, the virus which causes the coronavirus disease or COVID-19 than exchange it for their freedom. Some of their signs even read, "Freedom over the illusion of safety" and "Freedom is essential."
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Protesters earned the ire of critics and netizens.
The said protesters are now being dubbed as "COVIDiots", a term which has been widely used to describe people who break protocols set to protect the public from coronavirus for their selfish reasons.
One photo in the protests that caught the attention and sparked the outrage of netizens and critics was a woman in Wisconsin who help up a sign that said she wanted a haircut. The said photo received tons of negative comments which said that if she died of coronavirus, nobody would be minding what her hair looked like.
If you get infected with #Coronavirus & you die, I doubt you or anyone else will care what your hair looks like. This is a woman from today’s protest in WI. Just dumb. pic.twitter.com/H5Fa1I87wA — Khary Penebaker (@kharyp) April 19, 2020
People have also expressed their frustrations about the people who insist on freedom despite the fact that staying at home could be the only way that they stay safe and also not spread the disease to others. They said that these people continuing to defy orders are only prolonging the lockdowns instead of helping.
In addition, an ER doctor expressed his disappointment with a particular protester who held up a sign saying that COVID-19 was a lie but was wearing more personal protective equipment (PPE) than those who are facing the virus in the frontlines. And that these people were able to acquire these PPEs which was supposedly intended for the frontliners amidst a scarcity in protective equipment.
Moreover, another protester was called out for saying that facemasks were useless and were protesting about the usage being mandatory but was also using a bandana to cover her face.
At the moment, the US holds the highest number of cases in the world with more than 800,200 cases and 42,946 deaths.
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