[ad_1]
More than 800 farmers with tractors had taken refuge in central Copenhagen and Aarhus, respectively, to protest against the decision to kill all the minks.
A decision that later turned out to lack legal backing.
Tractors clogged the city streets. But a bigger problem, according to two clinical microbiology experts, was that the protesters were very close to each other in the crowd.
Does not keep distance
– It is clear that people do not keep a distance of one meter, and very few have mouth guards, says Hans Jørn Kolmos, professor of clinical microbiology, on Danish TV2.
– It is true that they are outdoors. But people come from different parts of the country and everything contains all the ingredients for a super entertainment.
– There are probably mink breeders among them too, so it will be a really unfortunate cocktail of bad behavior.
There are not many mouth guards
Professor Niels Højby’s colleague from Rigshospitalet also considers the demonstration risky.
– I did not see many mouth guards, if I saw anything, he says.
– It is clearly a risky situation that we live here with so many gathered. It is quite possible that there are some who are carriers of the infection and infect others, even if they do not have symptoms.
It is not illegal to be many
In Denmark, there is currently a so-called parochial ban, which means that no more than ten people can gather in public for any purpose.
But the parochial ban does not apply to demonstrations, because the right to demonstrate is constitutionally protected in Denmark, as well as in Sweden.
As of Sunday, there was still no definitive and confirmed information on how many people participated in Saturday’s tractor demonstrations. But the images from Copenhagen and Aarhus show large crowds.
