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Protesters Rail Against Masks and Vaccine Mandates on Broadway, Witness Says

January 31, 2021 | 9:22 PM
in NEWS
93

A rally questioning masks, vaccines, and even the existence of the pandemic, took place on Sunday afternoon on the corner of 92nd Street and Broadway, according to a witness.

The people in the rally were shouting at passersby to take off their “face diapers,” (their name for masks) “so they can get more oxygen and think clearly,” according to Ben Orlove, who took the photos above and below. It appears there were about a dozen people there.

They referred to Covid-19 as a “so-called pandemic,” despite it now having killed more than 400,000 people in the U.S., he told us.

One sign referred to vaccine mandates. There is no vaccine mandate in New York or on the federal level. Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal did introduce a bill that would mandate vaccines for certain people if the state does not reach herd immunity. That bill is still in committee and the governor has made comments suggesting he is against mandates.

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Vincent
Vincent
4 years ago

It doesn’t get any dumber than this.

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jms
jms
4 years ago
Reply to  Vincent

Alas, it does! 🙁

“Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.”

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Frances Aronson
Frances Aronson
4 years ago

I don’t know who these people are, but they’re loud and they need to get lives.

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Upper West Sider
Upper West Sider
4 years ago

This is not the first time that this group has been at 92nd and Broadway, protesting masks and vaccines. I’ve seen them two or three times there this month. They are always unmasked, holding signs, talking loudly, usually on a weekend.

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Lenore
Lenore
4 years ago
Reply to  Upper West Sider

Yesterday (Sunday) I saw chalked messages on the sidewalk there, anti-vaccine, Hank Aaron died of covid [did they mean the vaccine?], etc. I had not noticed that before. Thanks for this report, I was really startled to see that!

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BMAC
BMAC
4 years ago

Four weekends in a row these dummies have been out there. Last week the ringleader went on an extended rant about the World Economic Forum’s zero population growth strategy. So they are clearly a reputable group.

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Jo Baldwin
Jo Baldwin
4 years ago
Reply to  BMAC

Reputable?

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BMAC
BMAC
4 years ago
Reply to  Jo Baldwin

“In case you couldn’t TELL, I was being SARCASTIC.” — Homer Simpson

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PF
PF
4 years ago

When and how did people become so stupid? This isn’t rocket science…it’s just SCIENCE.

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Leigh
Leigh
4 years ago

Wait until it’s you who loses a loved one… then it won’t seem like a “so-called pandemic.” Glad to live somewhere this didn’t draw more of a crowd, but still disappointed to see it all. Feeling endlessly baffled by how this line of thinking can continue is exhausting.

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D-Rex
D-Rex
4 years ago
Reply to  Leigh

Agreed. While I previously had little patience for the lazy and uniformed flouting of recommended precautions to protect others and themselves, having lost someone important to me to Covid makes such behavior all that much more objectionable.

Due to the foolishness of others and the resulting pervasive transmission, even those who are trying to be careful are being exposed during the necessary activities of everyday life. This makes me angry.

Cautious people still dying 11 months into this?! Our country has failed these people.

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Barzellai Lew
Barzellai Lew
4 years ago

Two Sundays in a row now with the noise from their megaphone drifting into my apartment. Walked past them today and they asked didn’t I want to breathe fresh air. Wanted to flip them off but refrained.

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woodcider
woodcider
4 years ago

Same collection of dopes as last time. I get being against vaccine mandates (which I probably would support for medical personnel), but anti-mask is simply pedantic. My mask doesn’t hurt anyone else. In their same vein, don’t tell me what to wear or not wear on MY face.

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Sarah
Sarah
4 years ago
Reply to  woodcider

The mere suggestion that any of us have a responsibility to take care of our fellow human-beings–which is what the sight of a mask on other people is–just drives these sociopaths nuts. I don’t know how we maintain a functioning society with these people.

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drosejr
drosejr
4 years ago

This is at least the third weekend they have protested in this corner, due to the fact that Linda Rosenthal lives in the building in the background of the photos. The number of flat-earthers protesting has been diminishing each week, however.

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jms
jms
4 years ago
Reply to  drosejr

Perhaps they’re dying off?

Your Linda Rosenthal explanation seems plausible. I was speculating that they mistook the pizzeria for Comet Ping Pong.

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StevenCinNYC
StevenCinNYC
4 years ago

Ugh. Even on the Upper West Side we have these Trump zealots trying to impose their alternate reality on us. These are the same virus spreaders who attend rallies and try to infect other people and overturn election results. It’s scary.

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sg
sg
4 years ago
Reply to  StevenCinNYC

Proud Trump Zealot here who used to live on the UWS. Watching NYC die a slow death due to its liberal policies. Cheers!

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Old Liberal
Old Liberal
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

In your dreams…

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Mark Moore
Mark Moore
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

Imagine being proud of that.

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Liz
Liz
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

So glad and grateful to The Lord you’re outta here!! NYC doesn’t need people like you!! NYC is alive and well and will thrive!! Instead of judging others look at the speck in your own eye!! Try to surround yourself with good people who love ALL of G-D’S creation and stop living a miserable life trying to make others miserable. You deserve happiness and I pray you will find it wherever you are✝️🙏🏾

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sg
sg
4 years ago
Reply to  Liz

Take a Valium Liz, you need to calm down.

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Irish
Irish
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

Thank god (and trump) you’re gone!

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PastramiBliss
PastramiBliss
4 years ago
Reply to  Irish

you worship Trump?

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Richard Lau
Richard Lau
4 years ago

It’s truly amazing that there are people who will not practice safety measures to protect themselves and others. It’s very selfish and violates the constutional right to health of every person in the community. I sincerely hope that they and their families will not become sick from the virus. Let’s hope the anti-mask wearers will see the light before they suffer a rude awakening.

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sg
sg
4 years ago
Reply to  Richard Lau

Masks don’t prevent the spread…it’s only a government power grab!

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SL
SL
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

If Masks worked, they would have worked by now dont you think?

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D-Rex
D-Rex
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

SG –

Masks are a pretty simple concept to reduce airborne transmission, not full proof, but effective. To not understand this, or actually rail against it, seems to point to some other issues.
Hope things get better for you.

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Paul
Paul
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

If masks are a government power grab, what about laws requiring you to wear something to cover your private parts?

Fascism, right?

When “they” interred Typhoid Mary because she refused to limit her activities were “they” acting right out of the Mussolini playbook?

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Adam
Adam
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

What power is grabbed by the government in regards to mask wearing?

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Jo Baldwin
Jo Baldwin
4 years ago
Reply to  Adam

And seat belts.

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uwsgrl
uwsgrl
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

I’d like to take your comment as sarcasm, but as you already have presented your self as pro-Trump, I’m afraid that you might actually stating fact. So I am curious, what exact power grab does asking people to cover their mouths and noses, so they don’t cough and spew germs everywhere, actually provide the government?

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Boris
Boris
4 years ago
Reply to  Richard Lau

Health is not a Constitutional right

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CathyS
CathyS
4 years ago
Reply to  Boris

Never heard of “promote the general welfare” in the Preamble to the Constitution?

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West 90th Street Jeff
West 90th Street Jeff
4 years ago

The presence of these demonstrators is reminiscent of those apocalyptic self-appointed prophets bearing a sign: Repent. The world will end tomorrow. I really wish there were more of an explanation of who these people are, where they come from and why they chose this neighborhood, of all places, to do their proselytizing.

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Steven Barall
Steven Barall
4 years ago

Someone must be paying these people. Maybe it’s a very angry landlord who has been trying to toss his elderly tenants out into the cold but has been stopped time and again by Assembly Member Rosenthal. Those angry landlords are very vindictive. There are New Yorkers who are anti-vaxxers but these people are doing this for money. Guaranteed.

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Dom
Dom
4 years ago
Reply to  Steven Barall

Guaranteed? (Sigh) Another half-baked conspiracy theory. Don’t you know we’re in an era where everyone complains and protests about everything? No, they’re not paid. They’re protesting just like every other twit in the city who thinks they have the most legitimate cause.

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Paige
Paige
4 years ago

Bless you all and keep up the fight for truth,
liberty and freedom 🇺🇸👊🏼

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A caring mask wearer
A caring mask wearer
4 years ago

It’s sad that these people seem to not be very informed and maybe can spend a little more time helping their fellow humans with anything they might be needed during these difficult times, instead of calling them names like toddlers.
Very sad indeed. So many of us work so hard to help one another.

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Julia
Julia
4 years ago
Reply to  A caring mask wearer

Maybe it would be good if WE didn’t call THEM names, either.

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Karen R.
Karen R.
4 years ago

Why did they decide to hold their rally in front of a pizza parlor?

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Bernard Rose
Bernard Rose
4 years ago

It just shows New Yorkers can be as stupid as everyone else.

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sg
sg
4 years ago
Reply to  Bernard Rose

Dumber…they voted for DeBlasio twice!

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Watto
Watto
4 years ago

Idiots all!!! This is nothing to joke about nor to appease their master Trump about. The virus is real – I was sick for a month – VERY sick. These jerks deserve what they may just get but shouldn’t be allowed to jeopardize others. Total MORONS!!!!!

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Zanarkand
Zanarkand
4 years ago

And yet every one of these protestors is likely standing there due to being given proper vaccines as a child…

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Bob Lamm
Bob Lamm
4 years ago

Horrible. Just horrible. There aren’t adequate words….

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sg
sg
4 years ago
Reply to  Bob Lamm

Sure there are…FREEDOM of SPEECH. You know the right you applauded when BLM/Antifa were rioting last year!

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uwsgrl
uwsgrl
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

a) Most people who claim freedom of speech actually haven’t read the first amendment, which states Congress can’t enact any laws against free speech and b) if you want to ignore that whole Congress part, freedom speech goes both ways. These people are free to state what they want, and we are free to claim they are idiots.

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sg
sg
4 years ago
Reply to  uwsgrl

Funny how only conservatives/conservative views are attacked by the MSM, de-platformed and fired when they exercise freedom of speech.

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Sarah
Sarah
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

Tell it to Colin Kapernick!

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uwsgrl
uwsgrl
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

a) again, freedom of speech does not mean what you think it means, and b) you again only choose to see one side of the coin. Unless you think Fox News, which qualifies as MSM, doesn’t attack the left, in which case you are too far down the rabbit hole for me to bother.

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Lindsay
Lindsay
4 years ago

Idiots.

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HELFRICH-YOOD, Ruth
HELFRICH-YOOD, Ruth
4 years ago

These protestors are welcome to their opinion, so once again, Freedom of Speech here reveals an example of Natural Selection in operation – Nature doesn’t like stupid, & those who refuse to make any effort to protect themselves (much less others) will ultimately be at higher risk of elimination from the gene pool of the future.

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Boris
Boris
4 years ago
Reply to  HELFRICH-YOOD, Ruth

This is not a Freedom of Speech issue…not even close.

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sg
sg
4 years ago
Reply to  Boris

So says King Boris

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Farnham
Farnham
4 years ago
Reply to  HELFRICH-YOOD, Ruth

Meantime..Keep away from them..They are “Spreaders” of a deadly virus called COVID-19

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JR
JR
4 years ago

We should let natural selection take its course on these people…they can be the 2021 Darwin award winners.

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Leon
Leon
4 years ago
Reply to  JR

Should they contract Covid, doctors should be allowed to refuse treatment to them. I think that is a fair reaction – doctors shouldn’t put themselves at risk for these idiots.

The scary part is that they think that they are in on some secret that the rest of society isn’t aware of.

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B. Kobrin
B. Kobrin
4 years ago

These people are ignorant fools!

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Sandra Lehmann
Sandra Lehmann
4 years ago

So whatever happened to ‘my body, my choice’?
Just asking……..

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Jen
Jen
4 years ago
Reply to  Sandra Lehmann

This saying is not applicable here. It is more “your body, my choice”

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Donna D
Donna D
4 years ago
Reply to  Sandra Lehmann

They HAVE a choice – there are no mandates – they DO NOT have to get vaccinated BUT we all have a social responsibility to help our fellow citizens by simply wearing a mask when out in public. It is very simple

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sg
sg
4 years ago
Reply to  Donna D

Nonsense…masks aren’t the panacea that is being perpetuated. If they were, why the current upticks. Social distancing, practicing good hygiene (washing hands, covering face when coughing/sneezing) and staying home if feeling ill are much more effective.

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jess
jess
4 years ago
Reply to  sg

You know, SG….if masks help even a little bit, that’s better than nothing. And they require very little effort. They are also a signal that you give a crap about your fellow man/woman. Btw – the whole world is wearing them. The US is so special that we should be exempt?

Curious – do you also object to drunk driving laws? They are mandated by the government to protect you and others, even though it’s not a foregone conclusion that if you drive drunk you’ll get into an accident. If one person staying off the road while driving drunk helps, why not enforce it. Same concept. Idiot.

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John Connor
John Connor
4 years ago

Things haven’t changed that much since H.L. Mencken’s time. Time of the Spanish Flu come to think of it.

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J. L. Rivers
J. L. Rivers
4 years ago

Proof that there’s nothing common about common sense.

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Rj
Rj
4 years ago

Should we refuse them medical care when they get the virus ? They will believe the virus when they can’t breath.These idiots are putting us all at risk.

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Farnham
Farnham
4 years ago

This is demonstrable insanity..

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good humor
good humor
4 years ago

more people have commented on this article than it appears attended the event.

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janbaran
janbaran
4 years ago

Oh please. Now we are covering the parade of crazies.. ?

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sjr
sjr
4 years ago

I was wondering where the Lyndon LaRouche lunatics had gone. Actually, I wasn’t. No one was.

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stephen smith
stephen smith
4 years ago

Even the UWS has morons and deniers….but where will they go when they develop Corona Virus symptoms? They’ll be the first to ru to a hospital….haven’t they esperienced a loss of a friend or relative to COVID?

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charles D hoffman
charles D hoffman
4 years ago

anti-vax idiocy cuts across racial, religious, political, and socio-economic lines

we live in a society where 1/3 of the pop thinks the sun is hiding at night

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Robin
Robin
4 years ago
Reply to  charles D hoffman

Thanks, Charles! That stat has made my day and put this in context. You’ve got to smile (under your mask, of course) shake your head and walk on. 😉

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Brenda
Brenda
4 years ago

A dozen people does not a rally make

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Lorraine Whitman Check
Lorraine Whitman Check
4 years ago

Utter madness. Where have these people been when our neighbors were dying? Where were they in April when ambulances shrieked day and night? Anti-science, alternate fact-believers. They drank the Kool-Aid. So sad

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G15
G15
4 years ago

A dozen wackos in a city of 8.4 million? I wouldn’t be too concerned. In fact, if the proportion was that low nationwide, we’d be much better off.

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arnie
arnie
4 years ago

It is important not to conflate the possibility of mandatory vaccinations, which would not be a good thing, with mask wearing ( necessary ) and the legitamacy and danger of COVID 19, which is real and incontrovertible.

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Newcavendish
Newcavendish
4 years ago

It’s really distressing that these kooks are on the loose even on the UWS. Wearing a mask is no more an affront to “freedom” than stopping for red lights. While there is not a vaccination mandate, there should be one, as with measles, etc. My family suffered horribly because of a measles case in our baby before she was of the normal vaccination age that resulted from knowing exposure to some person who had it (and wasn’t vaccinated). Overcoming the craziness in our country won’t be easy, but it’s clearly necessary.

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mary
mary
4 years ago

I hope this is the extent of the “violence” that is waiting in the wings. Curious to know if these “protesters” were local or from out of town. Difficult not to engage with these people, but there is no way to convince them of their dangerous idiocy.

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sg
sg
4 years ago
Reply to  mary

Hey Mart, did you confront the dangerous BLM/Antifa rioters over the summer? Or is it only dangerous when you don’t agree with it?

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Kari
Kari
4 years ago

Just a handful of loudmouths (possibly paid). They don’t warrant attention. As my son says, “don’t feed the trolls and they’ll go away”. I saw them yesterday, crossed the street and didn’t allow their idiocy to live in my head.

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Paul A
Paul A
4 years ago

No shortage of idiots, even on the UWS.

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mh
mh
4 years ago
Reply to  Paul A

Yes, but there’s no shortage of smart people on the UWS who recognize and reject idiocy when they see it. I try to focus on that, so I don’t go insane.

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your_neighbor
your_neighbor
4 years ago

They aren’t breaking windows, they aren’t looting stores – let them have their say and just agree to disagree and you’ll live longer.

Plenty of kooks of all viewpoints in NYC.

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Lenore
Lenore
4 years ago
Reply to  your_neighbor

Agree, just ignore them.

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Ian Alterman
Ian Alterman
4 years ago

“You can’t fix stupid.”

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Shirley Ariker
Shirley Ariker
4 years ago

Oy vey! Even in NYC, where we pride ourselves as having a respect for rationality.

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Mervyn Kaufman
Mervyn Kaufman
4 years ago

Constitutionally, each of us has a right to express our opinions and our feelings. But I don’t think that right extends to publicly expound untruths that are potentially health-threatening. Our former president abused the public forum—and got away with doing so. But I think the rest of us should have to abide by traditional rules of decency and truth-telling.

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Mark
Mark
4 years ago

These people have the same right to protest for what they believe just as much as the BLM contingent did throughout the entire summer. You may not agree with them, but it’s still their right to do so. Get over it.

You can’t just be for free speech and protests when it’s only the things you agree with. And as far as safety, no one gave a damn about the throngs of people over the summer who were outside at BLM protests not social distancing or wearing masks. A majority of you here happily cheered that on.

Get over yourselves and if you don’t like it, walk to the other side of the street.

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Will
Will
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark

One movement protested innocent deaths, the other encourages them. But yes, free speech.

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Oliver
Oliver
4 years ago

These people need to suffer the death of a loved one. Then they would forget their opinion that this pandemic is a hoax. Honestly, don’t they have common sense?

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Anne
Anne
4 years ago

A part of me wishes that those who think they know better than doctos and scientists (individuals clearly under the Dunnin-Kruger effect) and feel compelled to share propaganda, would first sign wavers rendering them ineligible for medical and scientific treatment.

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