Hundreds of people demonstrate in Lisbon against the mandatory use of a mask – Society



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Hundreds of people challenged this Saturday the measures imposed by the Government to alleviate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, with calls for “freedom” and “truth”, in a demonstration held in Rossio Square, in Lisbon.

The national mobilization, which brought together several groups, aimed to oppose several restrictive measures that they consider unconstitutional, including the use of mandatory masks on the street.

“It is not about being against the use of masks, it is being against measures that, in most cases, are completely irrational, because they are not effective,” said Gonçalo Martins, one of those responsible for organizing the demonstration. . Without masks and without social distancing, the protesters carried several posters, which said, among others, “Down with the dictatorship”, “Masks generate distrust”, “They promote health instead of fear” or “Fear is not the vaccine” , while the speeches were made on a stage set up for this purpose.

“The masks that are used are not effective in containing the virus. The virus is retained somewhere in the mask, but the mask has a side opening. The glasses are fogged, it means that water vapor is coming out on the mask. When the water vapor arrives, the virus will also come, ”said the 44-year-old environmental engineer and occupational health and safety technician.

Claiming that the fight against the pandemic is being treated “in a technically incoherent way and, perhaps, with little identification of the realities that each one is protecting with the use of the mask”, Gonçalo Martins also lamented the lack of reading of the language. in interpersonal communication, for not being able to see the mouth.

Asked about the possibility of a covid-19 outbreak among the members of the demonstration, the protester denied the risk of transmission. “Given the data that has been analyzed and is available, only a small percentage may eventually need hospital treatment and even a smaller one in intensive care units. The probability that someone here will contract the disease is very large. Low”, expressed .

In the published manifesto, the group “Inconvenient Truth” asks, in addition to the “optional use of masks”, the revision of the “guidelines for the school year” and the “excess of protectionism in homes and shelters”, as well as ” regularization of services in the National Health System ”and the“ revocation of the state of calamity ”, among other measures. On Friday, in a final global vote, the parliament approved a bill of the PSD that imposes the mandatory use of masks in the public spaces and imposes fines of between 100 and 500 euros for non-artists.

The PSD diploma, which was inspired by a government bill, although “disaggregated”, was voted in general, specialty and global final and, in the last vote, had votes against IL, abstentions from BE, PCP, Greens and Joacine Katar Moreira, with the favorable vote of the rest of the seats. The only deputy from Chega was not present at the vote.

The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 1.1 million deaths and more than 42.2 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP. In Portugal, 2,297 people died from 116,109 confirmed cases of infection, according to the latest bulletin from the Directorate General of Health. The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected at the end of December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in the center. from China. After Europe succeeded China as the center of the pandemic in February, the Americas are now the one with the most confirmed cases and the most deaths.



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