Activists demonstrate during Children’s Health Defense Worldwide Walkout Against Covid Mandates and Medical Freedom Rally at Palisades Park on Wednesday, November 3, 2021. Children’s Health Defense (CHD) joined organizations and individuals by kicking off worldwide “walk outs” of work by calling in sick or taking a personal day to gather in protest of the unprecedented loss of freedom that has occurred the world over since the COVID pandemic began. Parents will also pulled their children out of school for the day to protest the many restraints that have applied directly to children. “No government in history has ever surrendered power in the absence of a demand,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., CHD Board Chair and Lead Counsel. “We need to tell these governments and their friends in the technocracy, the Silicon Valley billionaire boys club, the mainstream media, and the pharmaceutical industry that we will no longer tolerate their trampling of citizens’ rights.” Many are now emboldened by reports of a recent "walk out" of Southwest employees resulting in over 2,000 flights cancelled, followed by a peaceful protest of the company’s planned COVID vaccine mandate by hundreds of current and former employees at Love Fields in Dallas. Just one day after the protest, management dropped plans to put unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave. Nurses, doctors, teachers, police officers, firefighters, sanitation workers and other employees all over the country facing mandates are being forced to choose between their livelihood and protecting their health. In states where the mandate deadlines have passed, many refused to comply and walked away from their careers. “Coercive mandates of shoddily tested medical products and segregationist passports violate international human rights law,” said CHD President and General Counsel Mary Holland. “We need brave citizens to peacefully refuse to comply with unlawful and unethical edicts that for the past year and a half have been allowed to trump individual rights and freedoms. Those days are over. There will be no business as usual until segregationist and coercive medical policies advanced by government authorities end once and for all.” Just days after New York City announced mandates for firefighters, police officers, sanitation workers and other city employees, a massive protest occurred with estimates of over 50,000 people attending. Sanitation workers are engaging in civil disobedience, by refusing to work, as trash is seen piling up in the streets of Manhattan and the boroughs. Meanwhile, the city of Chicago, facing similar mandates, had police officers protesting and ultimately forced into unpaid leave over similar mandates. All over the country, people are fighting back on the streets and in the courtrooms against these mandates. Announcement of the protest comes following Tuesday’s decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee’s (VRBPAC) decision to authorize Pfizer’s Emergency Use Authorization COVID vaccine for children ages five to eleven. The vote to approve authorization of this vaccine, despite overwhelming evidence that COVID does not pose a threat to young people, is causing even more unrest among those concerned with the safety of COVID vaccines in all age groups. From mid-December, 2020 through October 15, 2021, the U.S. government database, the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) received 818,044 reports of injury following COVID vaccination including 17,128 deaths. “This vote by VRBPAC to put young children at risk of serious injury and even death is one more reason that people need to stand up to tyranny, letting businesses and governments know that we will no longer comply with reckless decisions that threaten the health of our children,” said CHD Executive Director Laura Bono.