Anti-Vaccine Mandate Protesters Rally In Marin

SAN RAFAEL, CA — Tief Gibbs and her clique of around five gym buddies used to enjoy the camaraderie and added motivation they'd get working out together. Sometimes, they just liked to hang out.

But in the early weeks of the pandemic, it became clear to Gibbs that she and her friends had substantially different views on lockdowns and mask mandates.

Then the phone calls and text messages stopped.

“Suddenly, when everything closed and everything shut down, that group of friends isolated me and didn’t talk to me,” said the 49-year-old small business owner, who lives in Novato.

“I was no longer part of that group because I was against what was happening. I didn’t agree with the lockdowns, and I didn’t agree with the forced masking.”

Gibbs was among around 100 anti-vaccine mandate protesters who held a rally Sunday afternoon in San Rafael on Avenue of the Flags, near Marin's administrative offices.

The rally was held in solidarity with an anti-vaccine mandate protest in Washington, D.C., the same day. The Washington rally was attended by members of the neo-fascist Proud Boys, Salon reports.

Gibbs is part of the newly formed Marin Parents United, a group that opposes COVID-19 mandates and she said is readying a lawsuit against the county.

Gibbs said she’s been harassed over her refusal to wear a mask. California is under a mask mandate for most indoor public settings through Feb. 15.

“If I walk around without a mask, I’m targeted,” she said.

“I am targeted as somebody who is going to kill you, or who is stupid or doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The people who are in this ‘COVID cult' are focused on people like me who are choosing a different path in how to live.”

Officially, the purpose of the rally was to express opposition to the county’s vaccine requirements and COVID-19 protocols. But it was also the expression of frustration from a group that feels it’s been spit on by a community intolerant of opposing views on vaccines.

“We’re in the midst of some the worst tyranny I ever imagined,” Gibbs said.

Depending on one's view on the vaccines — and mainstream medical experts are virtually monolithic in their view that the vaccines are safe and effective in preventing severe illness and death — Marin’s anti-vaccine mandate activists are either the victims of political persecution or their own misguided views.

Gibbs’ experience typifies what life has been like for those in Marin who openly express opposition to coronavirus protocols, several protesters said.

Kim O’Brien, a retired Marin elementary school teacher who lives in Novato, said her unwillingness to get the shot cost her her livelihood.

She said she lost her job as a contractor with a local school district when her boss’s boss learned she wasn’t vaccinated.

O’Brien said she was not aware the county’s vaccine mandate applied to contractors until it was too late.

“It was a total shock,” she said.

O’Brien said she "absolutely" adhered to all COVID-19 protocols in her role as a contractor.

“I miss it,” she said, her voice cracking as she described what it was like to lose the connection with students she spent most of her adult life educating.

O’Brien said losing her job was especially disappointing because she’d put her life on the line for Marin students at a time when few others were willing to do so.

“I’m one of the people who they had a hard a time getting to work with children when this first happened because they were afraid,” she said.

“I worked for a year and then suddenly they decided I should have a shot and they threw me away like a piece of trash.”

Christine Ritchie, a 52-year-old licensed vocational nurse who lives in Sausalito, believes the ax is about to fall on her over her unwillingness to get a booster.

Ritchie, who works at a Marin nursing home, wasn’t opposed to vaccines until she developed side effects after she got her second shot.

She has since adopted beliefs about the pandemic that are not supported by mainstream science and which she acknowledged are viewed by others as conspiracy theories.

She has until Jan. 31 to get her third shot, and to hear her tell it, it’s not going to happen.

“That’s a f------ hard no,” she said emphatically.

Ritchie acknowledged having trepidations about participating in a movement in which support for former President Donald Trump is widespread. She said she voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, but her views on the president, among many other topics, have since shifted.

“I wasn’t an anti-vaxxer," she said, "but I am now.”

Ritchie’s views have led to disagreements with her boyfriend and her 22-year-old son, she said.

Suzie, a 71-year-old Marin small-business owner who asked that her last name not be published, said that in the early weeks of the pandemic, she was cursed at multiple times while carrying a sign in downtown San Rafael expressing opposition to lockdowns.

She believes the hostility she and other vaccine opponents have alleged reflects a callous disregard for the experience of those who don’t have the luxury of being able to work from home.

“They have theirs, and they’re sitting there getting mad at me because I’m trying to defend mine,” she said.

“They could work from home and Zoom away, but there were people out there that were trying to save their small business, and if you spoke out you would get that kind of reaction that I got.

“This is far-reaching, and it’s very personal to me.”

Suzanne Gooch, a Sausalito artist who attended Sunday’s rally, said she was vaccinated but isn’t sure if she’d have made the same decision today.

“I want medical freedom, I do not want that taken away,” Gooch said.

“If we truly live in a democracy, we really need to take a look at this because the minute we let this go, just imagine the repercussions,ust imagine the control we give up.

“Do we want to turn into China?”

The views expressed at Sunday’s rally represent a small minority in Marin, where more than 94 percent of eligible residents (5 years of age and older) are fully vaccinated.

Omar and Megan Ochoa, a Marin couple out for a walk at nearby Lagoon Park, weren’t aware of the protest held earlier in the day. Although they don’t share the views of the protesters, they expressed empathy for neighbors who allege mistreatment over political disputes.

Omar Ochoa said the couple have agreed to disagree with friends who don’t share their views about vaccinations.

“You don’t get to lash out at me because I have been vaccinated, and I don’t get to lash out at you because you haven’t,” he said.

Megan Ochoa said she’s been erring on the side of caution lately. The 32-year-old office manager at a Novato dance company and her husband live with her grandmother, who is going on 90.

“We believe people should have a choice and that’s important, but in this situation, you have to think of others. Look at the history, look at everything that’s happened.”

What's happened is that more than 872,000 Americans and 5.6 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide.

Omar Ochoa, a 35-year-old restaurant manager, acknowledged that he’s concerned about susceptibility to misinformation that anti-vaccine advocates promote.

“Their willingness to believe what works with their rhetoric more than the actual correctness of the data that they’re looking at” is troublesome, he said.

“If it says it’s black but it’s clearly red, they’ll still go with black.”

Vivienne, a 10-year-old Cotati girl visiting the Lagoon Park on Sunday with father, said the protest seemed “kind of stupid” to her.

“(COVID-19) isn’t something to mess around with,” Vivienne said.

“It’s kind of serious, so you shouldn’t take it lightly.”

Vivienne, who herself survived a bout with COVID-19 last year, is taking the pandemic seriously.

She and her friends from school wear masks even in outdoor settings, just in case.

“I have a lot of friends, and I want to keep going to school and I just don’t want to get COVID and give it to my friends or family or close relatives,” she said.

“We don’t want to get our parents sick, or our friends, so we all wear masks. I just don’t want to risk getting COVID again because that wouldn’t be helpful for me or my mom because she works at a medical facility, and she can’t miss work.”

Gibbs, the small-business owner from Novato, laments her gym friendships crumbling but said she's moved on.

"I'm sad, but I'm not brokenhearted," she said. "I didn't fall down in a clump of tears.

"I moved my focus to other people."

Now, she questions whether the relationships had much substance.

"Actually, they were exactly who I thought they were, that's why I wasn't surprised," Gibbs said.

"What it made me realize was that it was superficial. It was a superficial friendship."