Health care workers stand against protesters opposing coronavirus lockdown in Colorado

Ben Kesslen
·1 min read

Health care workers in Colorado clashed with protesters who demonstrated on Sunday to demand an end to the state’s stay-at-home order.

Dramatic video of the Denver protest went viral when a nurse in full scrubs was captured standing in front of a woman protesting from her truck.

As the nurse silently blocked the truck from moving in a counter-protest, the woman wearing an American flag T-shirt and holding a sign that read “land of the free” shouted, “Go to China if you want communism.”

Image: A health care worker stands in the street to counter protest hundreds of others that are demanding the end to stay-at-home orders in Denver on April 19, 2020. (Alyson McClaran / Reuters)
Image: A health care worker stands in the street to counter protest hundreds of others that are demanding the end to stay-at-home orders in Denver on April 19, 2020. (Alyson McClaran / Reuters)
Image: A health care worker stands in the street while protesters demand stay-at-home orders be lifted outside of the State Capitol in Denver on April 19, 2020. (Alyson McClaran / Reuters)
Image: A health care worker stands in the street while protesters demand stay-at-home orders be lifted outside of the State Capitol in Denver on April 19, 2020. (Alyson McClaran / Reuters)

The health care worker was one of a few who tried to counteract the protest yesterday that hundreds attended in Colorado, where over 400 people have died from coronavirus.

Alexis, a Denver nurse who spoke to NBC’s affiliate in the city but did not provide her last name, said the demonstration on Sunday felt like “a slap in the face to medical workers” and was “backwards.”

“I don’t want to be stuck in my house either. I don’t think many people at all are enjoying this. That’s not the point,” she said.

Image: A protester against stay-at-home orders yells near a health care worker outside of the State Capitol in Denver on April 19, 2020. (Alyson McClaran / Reuters)
Image: A protester against stay-at-home orders yells near a health care worker outside of the State Capitol in Denver on April 19, 2020. (Alyson McClaran / Reuters)
Image: Health care workers stand in the street as a counter-protest to those demanding the stay-at-home order be lifted in Denver (Alyson McClaran / Reuters)
Image: Health care workers stand in the street as a counter-protest to those demanding the stay-at-home order be lifted in Denver (Alyson McClaran / Reuters)

The protest lasted about four hours at the state capitol, where demonstrators called Colorado Gov. Jared Polis a tyrant and demanded an end to the stay-at-home order, the Denver Post reported.

One participant, Mary Conley, told the Post that “death is a part of life...and it’s time to start living again.”

The protest was part of a wave of demonstrations against the lockdown orders across the country, encouraged by President Donald Trump’s “LIBERATE” tweets over the weekend.