Refusing COVID-19 Vaccination, Thousands Of People Hold Protests In Athens

Illustration of protests in Greece. (Wikimedia Commons/Ggia)

JAKARTA - More than 5,000 anti-vaccine protesters, some of them waving Greek flags and wooden crosses, rallied in Athens on Wednesday local time, against Greece's coronavirus vaccination program.

Shouting "get your vaccine and get out of here!" and calling for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to resign, protesters gathered outside parliament under intense police surveillance.

Wednesday's protest was a massive public protest against COVID-19 vaccination efforts. A recent poll by Pulse for Skai TV revealed that most Greeks said they would get the vaccine, and the majority supported mandatory vaccination for some segments of the population.

About 41 percent of Greeks are fully vaccinated. On Monday, the government ordered mandatory vaccination of health workers and nursing home staff, following a sharp increase in new COVID-19 infections amid the vital tourism season.

"Everyone has the right to vote. We voted that the government didn't vote for us," said Faidon Vovolis, a cardiologist, who questions scientific research around face masks and vaccines and heads the so-called 'Free Again' movement.

Vovolis said he started the group in response to the government's "hard measures" to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Protests are common in Greece. In recent months, protests have been linked to issues ranging from new labor law to Israel's latest military campaign in Gaza.

For information, Greece, which currently has 11 million inhabitants, recorded an additional 2,935 cases of COVID-19 infection on Wednesday, as reported by Worldometers.

In total, the Land of the Gods recorded a total of 447,718 cases of COVID-19 infection with 12,789 deaths, while 411,564 patients were declared cured of infection.