A group opposed to COVID-19 vaccination mandates and mask mandates in schools urged Los Alamos National Laboratory workers to show up Tuesday to protest lab contractor Triad National Security’s decision to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for all employees.
The group, New Mexico Freedoms Alliance, urged Los Alamos employees to show up from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. local time Tuesday at the Ashley Pond Park about two miles from laboratory property to protest Triad’s vaccination mandate. The group distributed the details of the event to news media including the local Los Alamos Daily Post.
Triad is the nonprofit team formed to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory. The team includes Battelle Memorial Alliance, the University of California and Texas A&M University. The contractor made vaccinations mandatory in the final week of August, shortly after the Food and Drug administration granted full approval to one of the three COVID-19 vaccinations widely used in the U.S. since December.
By the time lab director Thomas Mason handed down the vaccine mandate, about 85% of Triad employees had already been vaccinated, the contractor said in a public announcement.
On its website, the New Mexico Freedoms Alliance does not disclose its organizational structure or identify members of its leadership. The group appeared to function as a database of social media-centered groups seeking to organize like-minded people to protest vaccine and mask mandates.
The group’s website asserts a copyright on behalf of unMasked LLC, which according to records maintained by New Mexico’s Secretary of State was organized on Feb. 24, 2021 as a “community membership social organization” by Christopher Hassel. The LLC’s principal place of business is in Santa Fe, New Mexico, about a mile-and-a-half from the New Mexico State Capitol at what appeared to be a private residence.
The alliance listed on its website solicited emails from people interested in “push[ing] back” against vaccine mandates at the two Department of Energy nuclear-weapons labs in New Mexico, Los Alamos and the Sandia National Laboratories. Each point of contact included only a first name and what appeared to be a private email address with the encrypted Proton Mail service: Mario for Sandia and David for Los Alamos.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended both vaccines and masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, which since the first confirmed case in the U.S. more than a year-and-a-half ago has killed more than half a million Americans and added a degree of danger and uncertainty to many indoor and congregational activities.
