Branch Covidians Hold Solemn Candlelight Vigil After Fauci Invokes 5th Amendment on Everything
WASHINGTON — Dozens of masked adherents of the Branch Covidians gathered on the National Mall Tuesday evening for a candlelight vigil following Dr. Anthony Fauci’s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment during a Senate hearing earlier that day.
Participants, many wearing N95 respirators and holding battery-operated candles (open flames having been deemed an aerosol risk), stood in disciplined six-foot intervals as organizers led soft chants of “Trust the Science” and “Two Weeks to Flatten.” Several held laminated portraits of the former NIAID director framed in plexiglass.
“This is a day of mourning for evidence-based living,” said vigil coordinator Marjorie Kline, 54, of Bethesda, who has not entered a restaurant without a face covering since March 2020. “When the Science takes the Fifth, what hope remains for the rest of us?”
Fauci, appearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, declined to answer a series of questions regarding laboratory origin theories, gain-of-function research funding, and shifting public guidance on masks and school closures. He cited his constitutional right against self-incrimination approximately 17 times, according to the official transcript.
Branch Covidians, a loosely affiliated movement that emerged during the pandemic, maintain that pandemic-era protocols represented the highest form of civic virtue. Members continue to practice many of the original measures, including voluntary quarantine after domestic travel and the dual-masking of household pets.
At the vigil, volunteers distributed single-use communion wafers sealed in individual plastic pouches and offered free rapid antigen tests. A small table displayed copies of The Science in large-print format. No one removed their masks to speak, preferring instead to project statements through phone speakers held at arm’s length.
Local authorities reported no incidents. The National Park Service noted that the gathering remained orderly and fully compliant with the Mall’s residual capacity guidelines, last updated in 2022.
As the evening concluded, participants extinguished their LED candles in unison and dispersed quietly into the night, many already planning their next scheduled PCR test.
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