The Covidiot crowd showed up big time for this week’s San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting.
While they were yelling about ‘Medical Freedom’ and threatening supporters of mask/vax mandates during the public comment portion of the meeting, advocates for sane public health practices launched an effort to defeat the local politician most responsible for promoting faux science.
The day started with a gathering outside the County Administration building timed to make sure right wing TV news KUSI had footage of the rejectionists trying to sound reasonable. A representative from Reopen San Diego said they were just against mandatory rules about vaccinations or face masks.
The niceties ended once public testimony began before the Board of Supervisors.
A sampling of their thoughts (videos available at this Twitter account):
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5G technology is a threat to all biological entities
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“Measles, HIV, and Covid have not been scientifically proven to exist.”
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“Vaccine mandates are medical fascism”
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“A lot of people die every day. There is no emergency.”
Fact Check: COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in 2020, ... was 828.7 deaths per 100,000 population, an increase of 15.9% from 715.2 in 2019.
And then there was this…
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Coincidentally (or not), a local coalition of unions, Democrats, environmentalists and local residents gathered to announce a campaign to unseat Republican County Supervisor Jim Desmond in next year's November election.
Desmond has been the lead apologist for the local anti-mask/vaxxer movement.
Controversial statements by D5’s Supervisor were displayed on large posters at the event, including his false claim that ‘Children aren’t affected by COVID’ and his now infamous assertion that there had been only ‘six pure, solely coronavirus deaths’ even after 192 San Diegans had died of COVID.
County public health nurse Augustin Rucobo took to the podium to make the case against Desmond:
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“Instead of helping nurses and doctors stop the spread of COVID, Jim Desmond spread disinformation and distrust. While frontline workers stepped up to confront a dangerous virus, our very own County Supervisor put us in even more danger by denying science and mocking public health protections. The only thing more harmful to San Diego’s health than COVID is Jim Desmond remaining on the County Board of Supervisors.”
Sensing an opportunity, the local Democratic Party has made unseating Desmond a priority for 2022. District Five’s voters went for Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 11 points, and the party has overtaken the GOP in voter registrations.
Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, Chair of the San Diego County Democratic Party:
Crystal Irving, President of SEIU 221, the union representing County of San Diego employees, including public health workers and registered nurses, blasted Desmond’s record:
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“Republican Jim Desmond fought to overturn public health orders and stop frontline healthcare workers from getting hazard pay for their sacrifices during COVID. When we needed our County Supervisors focused on protecting public health in San Diego, Jim Desmond was on Fox News peddling conspiracy theories and trying to raise campaign cash from the right-wing. We need a County Supervisor who shares our values and fights for us, not a vaccine and mask skeptic who puts us all at risk.”
While Desmond’s opponents have yet to coalesce behind a challenger, it should be noted that this sort of opposition/education campaign was effective in unseating incumbent Republican Kristen Gaspar in District 3 in 2020, flipping control to Democrats for the first time in decades.
The campaign has launched a website – DangerousDesmond.com – calling out the Republican Supervisor’s record of spreading coronavirus misinformation, saying public health precautions are ‘hysteria’ and his alignment with Donald Trump on a variety of issues, including opposing protections for immigrant families and working against climate action.
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Portions of this post appeared at WordAndDeedsBlog.com, where my daily dispatches are published