A man was arrested after allegedly attacking workers and harassing patients at a coronavirus vaccination center in Orange County, California, NBC News has reported.
The Families Together of Orange County Community Health Center, where the incident took place last week, said that one of the workers was transported to hospital after suffering serious injuries, but issued a statement on Tuesday saying that “both members of the team are expected to make a full recovery within a few days.”
The Tustin Police Department told NBC News that, after responding to a call, it took Thomas Apollo, 43, of Poway, California, into custody and that the case has been forwarded to the Orange County District Attorney's Office for review.
Families Together Mobile Operations Manager Parsia Jahanbani told The Orange Country Register that the attacker had called clinic workers "murderers" and accused them of facilitating a conspiracy.
Jahanbani said the man had refused to wear a mask when he entered the clinic, saying: “I don’t need a mask, I don’t have the virus and you are the ones making people sick," before lunging at the mobile operations manager and another colleague.
The clinic said in its statement that "despite the violent nature of the assault, Families Together kept offering vaccines and boosters to patients that day and the team was fully back at work the following week," adding that “while this incident has shaken us, we will not be deterred from our mission to keep our community safe and healthy."
The statement stressed that "while Families Together believes that vaccines are important in the fight against the pandemic, we understand that the decision to get vaccinated is purely personal. However, we will not tolerate violence or harassment of any kind against our staff, patients or volunteers."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.