Motorists queuing at one of the largest vaccination stations in the country were stopped briefly on Saturday afternoon when protesters arrived at Dodger Stadium, authorities said.
At around 1:50 p.m. Pacific time, authorities closed the entrance to the stadium, said David Ortiz, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. The closure lasted for about an hour before the entrance reopened while vaccinations continued at the stadium, Ortiz said. About 50 demonstrators were present at the entrance.
The Los Angeles Police and Fire Department did not comment on whether the protesters belonged to groups or what exactly they were demonstrating against.
However, photos posted on social media show people holding posters saying “99.96% survival rate” and “End the lockdown” and other paraphernalia that appear to condemn the existence of the pandemic and coronavirus vaccinations.
The vaccination site at Dodger Stadium opened on January 15th. Since then, those seeking to get vaccinated have faced a variety of waiting times, with the spot highlighting some of the logistical hurdles involved in vaccinating people in one of America’s largest cities. For the past week, an average of nearly 7,000 cases per day were reported in Los Angeles County, according to a New York Times database. The city of Los Angeles has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, as nearly 83 percent of the doses the city has received have been given.
