Anti-vaccine protests blamed for COVID-19 outbreak in Italian city

The northern Italian city of Trieste, once the center of Italian anti-vaccine protests, has recently become a hotbed for a COVID-19 outbreak, which local officials have linked to protests against the vaccine.

In mid-October, protests against Italy’s Green Pass, the country’s version of a vaccine passport, broke out in Trieste after new rules were introduced mandating the passes for workers, Reuters reported. Under the new rules, in effect until the end of the year, workers face the possibility of being suspended without pay and having to pay a fine of 1,500 euros without a pass.

In light of the recent surge of coronavirus cases, police officials in Trieste have banned protests in the town square until the end of the year, according European media outlet Euractiv.

Locals in the area have spoken out against the protests. 

According to The New York Times, Massimiliano Fedriga, president of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region where Trieste is located, said of the situation in Trieste: “It is the moment to say with clarity: Enough idiocy.”

Leader of Trieste’s business association ConfCommercio Antonio Paoletti said, “We cannot allow a minority of a minority to block business activities and people’s livelihoods for weeks.”