Should demonstrations against COVID-19 measures have been allowed in 2020?

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At some point in time in 2020 in some countries, anti-COVID-19 protests were banned as part of bans on gatherings. Should they have been so banned or should they have been exempted from the bans?

Search terms: rights of assembly during COVID-19

Demonstrations against COVID-19 measures should have been allowed in 2020

Pro

• Argument for The right to demonstrate against government policies is an essential political freedom that must not be curbed even in the times of a pandemic.
• Argument for Since Black Lives Matter demonstrations were allowed (or de facto allowed), demonstrations against COVID-19 measures also ought to have been allowed, for consistency's sake.

Con

• Argument against Such demonstrations threaten to reduce the effectiveness of COVID-19 suppression or mitigations policies/measures, resulting in considerable otherwise avoidable loss of life.
  • Objection A protest can be organized in a way that maintains social distancing (minimum distance between protest participants), and thus, does not threaten to impair the effectiveness of the measures.
• Argument against Expanding on the above, as an alternative to physical protest, citizens should be able to create petitions online, where the chance of infection is zero.
  • Objection Online petitions are an inferior substitute as they do not afford the social benefits of a physical, in-person event or organization. They do not facilitate social transmission or social cohesion to nearly the same extent, for example the discussion of dissenting opinions, the further organization of activism, and so forth. Nor can these natural and essential social processes be easily replaced by online discussions, which are often strictly moderated or otherwise manipulated by people who have ulterior motives.

Further reading

• Protests against responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, wikipedia.org
• Demos against COVID-19 restrictions must be allowed by Marcel Fürstenau, dw.com
• Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Snapshot of Protests and Restrictions, reliefweb.int
• The Right to Protest During a Pandemic: Using Public Health Ethics to Bridge the Divide Between Public Health Goals and Human Rights, 2023, springer.com
• The Government response to covid-19: freedom of assembly and the right to protest, committees.parliament.uk
• COVID-19 and the Right to Protest – CrimeLine, crimeline.co.uk
• The Right to Protest During the Pandemic - National Coalition Against Censorship, ncac.org
• Coronavirus: Protests should be allowed during lockdown, say 60 MPs and peers - BBC News, 20 Mar 2021, bbc.com
• European court condemns Switzerland for COVID ban on demonstrations, 15 Mar 2022, euronews.com
• Is protesting during the pandemic an 'essential' right that should be protected?, theconversation.com