About five residents gathered in front of the Stafford County Courthouse to protest against losing civil rights due to actions taken during the coronavirus pandemic.

The protesters held up signs protesting such issues as vaccine mandates, questions about the safety of the vaccines provided by Pfizer. The protesters were met with a mix of both support and derision as commuters on Courthouse Road passed by.

The event coordinator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Potomac Local News that she was protesting in the name of the right to choose. She said that she had no problem if people decided to use the vaccine or not but that the choice should be respected by governments at all levels.

The coordinator also invoked the Nuremberg Code, which lists ethics and principles for human experimentation set in the aftermath of WWII. However, the code was never accepted as law by any nation or as official guidelines by any medical association.

The code does form part of the basis for the Code of Federal Regulations, specifically Title 45, part 46, which is used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in regards to the ethical treatment of human subjects.

The Stafford protest was part of a larger, worldwide protest led by the Children's Health Defense, a Georgia-based anti-vaccination activist group founded and chaired by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The stated goal of the rallies was to protest the loss of liberty, illegal mandates, and tyrannical government overreach.

Kennedy and the Children's Health Defense announced the rally in a press release that also stood by the actions of city employees in New York City and Chicago who protested announced mandates by those city governments.

Kennedy and his organization were recently listed as part of the Disinformation Dozen by the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Those on the list are deemed responsible for spreading 73 percent of vaccine disinformation on social media.