The Winnipeg Free Press last week reported how the head of a Rural Municipality near us reacted to suggestions he should wear a mask at council meetings:

“A Manitoba reeve has unmasked his conspiracy-laden scepticism about the validity of COVID-19 just as health officials moved his community to “critical” on the pandemic-response scale.

RM of La Broquerie Reeve Lewis Weiss used the word “plandemic” in an interview with the Free Press Friday, implying the deadly global health crisis was orchestrated by people in power.

“It’s almost like it’s been planned out, and maybe it didn’t get as bad as they hoped it would, so they’re just playing it like it did,” Weiss said. “It’s a terrible thing.”

 

Hard to believe but  they have a political leader who disparages science in favour of conspiracy theories! Is he an American?

Weiss made these remarks just as Southern Health-Santé Sud health region, the regional health district that includes Steinbach and the neighbouring Rural Municipality of La Broquerie was elevated to Code Red on the provincial analysis of the status of Covid-19 there. This required masks to be worn in public indoor places such as Municipal Council Chambers. This did not sit well with Weiss who has not been wearing a mask.

This is what Reeve Weiss  said when asked if he would wear a mask: “I told some of my council members, when we talked about masks, I said if I’m ever forced to wear a mask, I’ll probably just wear a snowmobile helmet.” In other words he thought mask wearing was a joke. He also made this amazingly stupid statement: “Who am I affecting, by me not wearing a mask? I am not putting anybody in jeopardy because I am not sick.”

Imagine that. This sounds to me like what Jeremy Bentham once called “folly on stilts”.