The cardboard posters hang by the dozen among the plane trees of Boulevard Georges Clemenceau, in Draguignan. On each of them, faces of deceased or disabled people, accompanied by the date of their last injection of the vaccine against Covid-19.
Often the time span between these two events is short, a few weeks at most.
“It can’t be a coincidence“, launches Martine, who joined the demonstration along the way. The twenty demonstrators present on the spot belong to the anti-health collective of the “white masks”. A national movement not linked to any political structure, being more than anything else an initiative of citizens.
A first in Draguignan
A first in the city of the dragon. “We have passed through several coastal towns, such as Saint-Raphaël, but never in Draguignan until now“, comments the collective.
Behind her stand, Thérèse (1), a teacher for 25 years, explains that she is not “antivax“, is “far-right, anti-Semitic or conspiratorial, as we are too often treated “, he wishes to add, also declaring: “we have all been vaccinated with BCG here (vaccine against tuberculosis which is no longer mandatory, ed)”, sweeping away colleagues who all nod in agreement.
Defiance focuses on messenger RNA vaccine
The distrust focuses more specifically on messenger RNA vaccine technology, as well as the social and economic hardships resulting from the health restrictions put in place in 2020 and 2021.
“We don’t want to convince anyone with this demonstration, we are just planting small seeds. Because you have to ask yourself questions“, concludes Thérèse, denouncing a suffering linked to the “lack of listening by politicians and the media “.
(1) The name has been changed.
