During the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of truck drivers angry about public health restrictions vowed to protest and close all major highways in Australia next week.
On Tuesday, August 31, the plan to protest vaccine regulations and other restrictions by blocking highways in and out of Australia’s states was first detailed in a viral video featuring a man who claimed to be a truck driver on Monday. according to To the Australian Daily Mail.
The man urged Australians to stock up on groceries and other supplies before protesting against disrupting the supply chain. Since then, several other truck drivers have also produced their own videos, promising to participate in the effort to “close the country”.
“It started. The truck driver is doing this,” the truck driver said in the original video. “The truck driver will close this country. This means you need to go shopping now, buy something in the next week or two, and fill your refrigerator and freezer.”
Priori 1 / Getty
“The truck is coming and they are going to pull this country down,” he added. “We are going to do this together and overthrow this damned government.”
The driver continued to promote COVID-19 and anti-vaccination conspiracy theories in the video and mentioned the PhD. Anthony Fauci And falsely claimed Pfizer Vaccines are “poisons.”
At least some of the other truck drivers who vowed to participate in the protests appear to be anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists. The video shows that different drivers echo the claim that vaccines are “poisons.”
Drivers are upset about the new restrictions that will take effect at the end of the month, requiring truck drivers to be vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 before entering other states.
In several videos, the drivers swear bad words, vowing that they will refuse to comply with these restrictions and are willing to paralyze the country in order to force a policy reversal.
“I’m not taking your fucking poison, bastard,” truck driver Chris Serang said in a video. “So you can push it to your v***…then fucking right away.”
Woolworths, Australia’s largest supermarket chain, said it “understands the situation and monitors it closely.” It is not clear how many truck drivers plan to participate in the protests.
Some drivers may take steps to prevent the authorities from towing their trucks when they block the highway. A like-minded American truck driver shared a video suggesting that Australians modified the truck by removing the parts needed for the trailer.
There will be a separate strike in Australia on Friday that may involve up to 7,000 trucks. The strike planned due to a labor dispute between the transportation company The Toll Group and the driver is not directly related to COVID-19 restrictions.
Weekly newspaper Contacted the Australian Embassy in Washington for comments, but did not receive a timely response.
