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At least three elected officials who oversee the Montgomery County Hospital District are contradicting their own experts by spreading disinformation about COVID-19 on Facebook and questioning the effectiveness of face masks and vaccines, according to a review of their publications on social media by the Houston Chronicle.
As county health officials highlight the importance of masks, social distancing and new COVID-19 vaccines, their posts compete on social media with rampant lies about the pandemic.
Some lies are spread by members of the hospital district board of directors. Board chair Georgette Whatley said one of her posts drew complaints from critics who called for her dismissal from the public health agency.
“They were offended because I’m anti-mask,” Whatley wrote on Facebook last month. His agency manages the county ambulance service; offers educational programs; and manages the Montgomery County Public Health District, a separate agency that provides COVID-19 updates to the public. Despite its name, the hospital district no longer has a hospital.
Two other members of the seven-member board took to Facebook to voice their frustrations over medical experts, “big pharma” and “fake news.”
“More and more evidence tells us that we should NOT participate in the COVID vaccine,” board member Bog Bagley wrote in an Aug. 3 Facebook post. Bagley said in December that he would not take the vaccine – the same month, the hospital district posted a video on YouTube touting the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.
Another board member, Brent Thor, shared a meme on Facebook that spread misleading information about the COVID-19 death rate. In another post, he shared a meme that read, “Those who sell panic are the same who sell the vaccine.”
The three board members, who hold unpaid positions, set their Facebook posts to “public,” which means they can be viewed by anyone. Bagley and Thor did not respond to phone, email and Facebook messages for this article. Whatley referred the questions to the hospital district.
District spokesperson Misti Willingham said the agency respects the First Amendment rights of elected officials to express their views. She pointed out that no member of the board has tried to stop the health authorities from doing their job by providing accurate information to the public.
“They do not interfere with our daily work or our mission,” said Willingham.
Council members are not alone in their skepticism about the government’s response to the pandemic in Montgomery County, where 70% of voters backed Donald Trump in the last presidential election.
County Judge Mark Keough, who contracted COVID-19 last month, criticized Gov. Greg Abbott’s lockdown orders and urged residents to ignore warnings from health officials and celebrate the holidays together.
Montgomery County has reported 332 deaths from COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, but its infection and death rates are lower than most counties in Texas, according to data released by officials from the state health. On a per capita basis, it ranks 187th out of 254 counties for cumulative coronavirus cases and almost last for deaths.
Corinne Berry, a founding member of the Society for Health Communication and vice president of the Maryland Society of CommunicateHealth Inc., said it’s easy for catchy, no-facts memes to drown out medical experts trying to provide truthful advice. and publicly verified. .
“We have the burden of science and proof,” Berry said. “Sometimes that means we can’t get messages across as fast as those that intentionally spread misinformation. The truth doesn’t have to be on their side. “
“Bias reports”
In numerous Facebook posts, Bagley mistakenly claimed that “fake news” and health experts were involved in a global conspiracy to spread fear over COVID-19.
“The media and the medical field have lied to us, with their propaganda and biased reporting from the start,” Bagley wrote in September.
Bagley, a retired veteran and a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, reiterated the president’s claims of hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness in treating COVID-19, which contradicts more cautious guidelines from the FDA.
Most recently, Bagley wrote on Facebook that he attended the Jan.6 pro-Trump rally on Capitol Hill which turned into a violent insurgency. He told his Facebook followers he was standing on the Capitol grounds when the crowd was gassed by police. Bagley did not say he fought the police or entered the besieged building.
Most responses to Bagley’s Facebook posts were favorable. But sometimes critics intervened. When Bagley shared an anti-vaccine YouTube video last month that was later taken down by Facebook because it violated its anti-disinformation policy, he complained that “paid socialist fact-checkers didn’t like it” .
“Huh … and you are a member of the MoCo Hospital District Board of Directors?” wrote Facebook commentator William Bingman who said he had studied molecular biology and the video Bagley shared was “hogwash.”
“I’m so glad you’re the expert,” Bagley replied. “Bless your heart.”
‘Spread fear’
Whatley shared a link to “Plandemic,” a debunked COVID-19 documentary, and in November she insisted she “would not succumb to hysteria” or “believe in fake news” . Instead, she planned to spend the holidays hugging her family to embrace the joys of the season, she wrote.
Meanwhile, Texas health officials were urging residents to limit contact with friends and family while on vacation. COVID-19-related hospitalizations in Texas last week had increased by 30% since Christmas.
In an interview with the Golden Hammer, a conservative Montgomery County website, Whatley accused the government – including the county’s public health district – of spreading fear.
“I believe the government is spreading fear,” Whatley told the website in August. “Stores that demand masks everywhere you go spread fear, just as people get outraged if you walk into the store and don’t wear the mask. Our own public health district in Montgomery County is spreading fear.
Whatley said she opposed mandatory mask requirements, even after the hospital district told its own social media followers that wearing masks was helping reduce the spread of the virus. While on vacation, Whatley jokingly shared a photo on Facebook of a Christmas tree adorned with face masks she said she refused to wear. She later said that “liberal foreigners” complained to the hospital district and demanded her removal from the board.
“Obviously they don’t understand the flowcharts or the electoral process,” Whatley wrote on Facebook. Whatley said the hospital district had no power to remove her from the board since she was elected by taxpayers.
“Honestly, I’m not even anti-mask,” she wrote. “I am just against the requirement. I stay away from people and don’t really go out in public much. If people CHOOSE to wear a mask, it is their right to do so and I will support them in their decision to do so.
Whatley said she had “absolutely nothing” to do with the day-to-day affairs of the hospital district and praised the “highly skilled and experienced people” who work there.
But she does not intend to be silent.
“I did not agree to give up my right to free speech when I was elected to this council in 2004,” Whatley said. “I am always entitled to my personal opinions.”
Data reporter Jordan Rubio contributed to this report
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