About 100 South Bay residents gathered in front of City Hall to protest against recent mask and vaccine mandate policies in Torrance, Calif. on Sept. 11.
Rally organizers Kristy Mueller and Jennifer Viggiano, who has been living in the South Bay for more than two decades, said they chose to come out not only to protest against the “medical tyranny,” but to honor those who lost their lives twenty years ago. They claim that South Bay residents have been severely impacted and eventually provoked by the mandatory mask and vaccine mandate policies that are enforced by schools, government, and workplaces.
“We feel strongly that we need to stand up for our freedoms, they are slowly being eroded,” Mueller told The Epoch Times.
In August, the California Department of Public Health and the Los Angeles City Council have demanded all healthcare workers and its employees including policemen and firefighters be fully vaccinated by early October, except for those obtaining exemptions.
On Sept. 9, 2021, the largest public school system in California, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), voted to require all students 12 and older to be vaccinated by Jan. 10, 2022. These mandate policies have provoked a series of protests in Los Angeles County.
Nina Asai, who immigrated to Torrance from Japan a decade ago told The Epoch Times that if Torrance Unified School District implement the same vaccine mandate policy as LAUSD, she would consider sending her kids to private school or homeschooling.
Paul Viggiano, a local pastor, told The Epoch Times that he was constantly being asked to write religious exemption letters, adding that many people who go to church might be considering getting the vaccine but they definitely do not want to be required.
“They want to do their research; they want to talk to their doctors and their own parents … the jurisdiction in terms of health belongs to the family. It does not belong to the church, and it does not belong to the state,” Viggiano said.
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a safety monitoring program that helps to track any adverse event following any vaccination, including deaths.
Since December 2020, VAERS has received approximately 7439 cases of death and 1401 reports of myocarditis or pericarditis among people ages 30 and younger relating to the COVID-19 vaccine as of Sept. 1, 2021, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Frank Ravaglia, who claims to have never been to a rally or protest before, said that the medical mandate is a war that everyone needs to fight against, and emphasized that he believes in “self-choice” as a foundation for this country.
“We have a system that’s okay with drug addiction and abortion and all other kinds of life taking. But they are not okay with the situation that I want to do with my body, putting in a poisonous vaccine that hasn’t been regulated or mandated,” Ravaglia told The Epoch Times.
