Groups protesting against the coronavirus vaccine and lockdowns took to the streets of London, Brisol, Edinburgh and Brighton today as the Government continued to scale up its testing strategy.
Anti-lockdown protestors marched through Edinburgh city centre, gathered at London’s Hyde Park, brandished placards in Bristol and walked along the seafront in Brighton this afternoon.
It comes as an initial wave of 67 Tier 3 local authorities have received Government approval for testing schemes to help put them on a path towards relaxing local measures.
Starting at the Scottish Parliament, a group known as Scotland Against Lockdown were asking crowds of shoppers to listen to ‘real’ scientific evidence about the health of the general public during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, a man dressed as Father Christmas led a small group of protestors from Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park through central London. The group were covered in the word ‘truth’ and claimed the pandemic was a hoax.
They questioned why scientists who agree with them are shut out of the media and demanded an end to lockdown restrictions.
Protestors in Bristol marched through the city centre with a sign reading ‘the more we comply, the worst it will get’ as they asked others to stand up against ‘mandatory lockdowns, masks, vaccines, job losses and business closure’. Anti-lockdown protestors do not believe in the pandemic
The UK Freedom Alliance chanted ‘Brexit’ and ‘Freedom’ before the start of a March through London. They help placards reading ‘defending your civil liberties’ at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park. The group thinks the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax brought on by the Government to control people
Protestors with placards march from the Scottish Parliament to Bute House in Edinburgh, Scotland. The group, known as Saving Scotland, said it is ‘time to stand up together and fight for the freedom to choose’. One sign claimed the vaccine was ‘toxic’ on their placard
Supporters of campaign group Save Our Rights UK gathered at the Peace Statue by Hove Lawns in Brighton at 12pm this afternoon. A crowd of hundreds made its way west along the seafront before heading down Queen’s Road. A man in a Father Christmas outfit used a megaphone to speak to the crowd
In Bristol, demonstrators walked through Broadmead, Corn Street and other parts of the city centre, according to Angus Lancaster, a member of Covid-denying group Stand Up Bristol.
He told Bristol Live the march was against ‘lockdowns, tiers, restrictions, isolations, masks and vaccines’.
Supporters of campaign group Save Our Rights UK gathered at the Peace Statue by Hove Lawns in Brighton at 12pm this afternoon. A crowd of hundreds made its way west along the seafront before heading down Queen’s Road.
A man in a Father Christmas outfit used a megaphone to speak to the crowd. According to the Brighton Argus, he said: ‘We have woken up. We will no longer be complicit.’ As protestors walked along a busy shopping street they shouted ‘take off your mask’ at anyone they saw wearing a face covering.
Supporters carried signs that said ‘no more lockdowns’ and ‘all we want for Christmas is our freedom back’.
Led by a man dressed as Father Christmas, a small anti-lockdown protest started at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park with people carrying banners with the word truth on them. They question whether the whole covid pandemic is a hoax and believe the scientists who agree with them are shut out of the media
Police officers on bicycles followed the possession to ensure it remained peaceful as hundreds of people marched through the centre of Bristol to call for an end to lockdowns
A woman held a sign reading ‘I don’t blame anyone for wearing masks if I were going along with a plan to destroy freedom and millions of lives I’d hide my face too’ during the demonstration in Bristol
A close-up of a sign that read ‘I will not stop living to avoid dying. Unmask the truth’ during an anti-vaccine protest which started at College Green in Bristol
A woman held a sign that read ‘World doctors alliance. Scientific and medical whistle blowers’ as she joined the protest in Bristol earlier Saturday afternoon
A woman holds a sign displaying ‘COVID facts’ during an anti-vaccine protest which started at College Green in Bristol. Hundreds of people wrapped up against the winter chill to take to the streets
More than 20 police officers, with several force vans and bikes, followed the procession to ensure social distancing requirements were met.
A spokesman for Sussex Police said: ‘Protests are exempt under The Protection (Cornonavirus Restrictions) Regulations 2020 but only if certain criteria is met by the organiser.’
The criteria includes asking the organisers of protest to carry out a risk assessment and to mediate the risk of the spread of coronavirus.
Photographs showed hundreds of demonstrators defying social distancing measures to crowd together as they labelled the coronavirus pandemic a ‘hoax’.
Meanwhile, as part of the Government’s Covid winter plan, more than 1.6 million rapid turnaround lateral flow tests would be delivered for use this month, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the enhanced testing programmes follow a successful pilot in Liverpool and will be a ‘vital additional tool’ in finding asymptomatic cases.
Protesters with placards march from the Scottish Parliament to Bute House. Meanwhile, preliminary data released on Friday by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) suggested the rapid coronavirus tests rolled out in Liverpool missed around 51 per cent of all Covid-19 cases
A man walked with a placard reading ‘keep your toxic vaccines’ as protestors walked in the rain to complain about strict lockdowns and a vaccine they don’t trust
A man pumped his fist in the air as a gesture of defiance as protestors ignored social distancing rules to march in Edinburgh earlier this afternoon
A woman in Edinburgh smiled as she held a sign saying ‘freedom is for life not just for Christmas’, in reference to the relaxation of rules over the Christmas period to allow families to meet up
Another man pumped his fist in the air during a march in Edinburgh. Police officers surrounded the group to ensure no violence was allowed to break out
A child in Edinburgh held a sign reading ‘only the brainwashed haven’t checked the ingredients’. It comes after it was revealed disinformation has been spread online regarding the vaccination for coronavirus
A woman in Edinburgh. Meanwhile, a paper considered by Sage on November 26 said two days earlier the Liverpool Health Protection Board had decided to pause plans to use the Innova lateral flow test to allow care home visits because they were not accurate enough
Experts have previously suggested relying on rapid tests that give a result in minutes could mean a high proportion of cases are missed with false negative results.
Preliminary data released on Friday by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) suggested the rapid coronavirus tests rolled out in Liverpool missed around 51 per cent of all Covid-19 cases.
A paper considered by Sage on November 26 said two days earlier the Liverpool Health Protection Board had decided to pause plans to use the Innova lateral flow test to allow care home visits because they were not accurate enough.
The Government began sending the tests to England’s biggest care homes a week later.
Earlier this month, Dr Susan Hopkins, senior medical adviser to NHS Test and Trace, defended the use of the tests, saying they had helped find Covid-19 infections in people without symptoms that would otherwise have been missed, helping to break chains of transmission.
She said people with a negative test were not being told they did not have the disease.
Dr Hopkins also argued the test would help make planned visits to care homes safer by identifying people who could be carrying high levels of the virus unknowingly and stopping them passing it on.
An evaluation by Oxford University and Public Health England workers at Porton Down previously concluded the test has an overall sensitivity of 76.8 per cent – but it detects almost all cases among patients with a high viral load.