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CASPER, Wyo. – A Wyoming Department of Health official involved in the state’s response to the coronavirus questioned the legitimacy of the pandemic and described an upcoming vaccine as a biological weapon in a recent event.
The “so-called pandemic” and efforts to develop a vaccine are plots by Russia and China to spread communism around the world, the department’s head of preparedness and countermeasures Igor Shepherd said at the meeting. the November 10 event hosted by the Keep Colorado Free and Open group.
Shepherd was introduced and talked about being an employee of the Wyoming Department of Health during the Hour-and-Over presentation in Loveland, Colorado.
Shepherd’s baseless and unfounded claims have undermined Wyoming’s public health measures – and public urges – to limit the spread of the virus, as well as its plans to distribute Covid-19 vaccines in the coming months.
Even so, Wyoming officials, including Gov. Mark Gordon, who at a recent press conference called people not taking the virus seriously “knuckleheads,” declined to comment.
Department Director Mike Ceballos and state health worker Dr Alexia Harrist did not answer questions on Friday, including when they learned of Shepherd’s speech and what they had done, if any, in response.
Phone and social media messages left at Shepherd on Friday were not returned.
Shepherd has worked for the health department since 2013 and is part of the state team responding to Covid-19, but not in a leadership role, department spokeswoman Kim Deti said.
“Everything we have said for months and the thousands of hours of dedicated work by our staff and local partners on this response effort and our enthusiasm for the hope that vaccines offer make clear our global position. department on the pandemic, ”Deti said Thursday in identical statements to the Casper Star-Tribune, which first reported Shepherd’s presentation, and to the AP on Friday.
Researchers have feared for months that politicized skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines could hinder their effectiveness. Vaccines are more effective if most of the population is inoculated.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins and Texas State University wrote an article in July highlighting the concern, the Star-Tribune reported.
“If poorly designed and executed, a Covid-19 vaccination campaign in the United States could undermine the increasingly tenuous belief in vaccines and the public health authorities who recommend them – especially among the most at risk of Covid-19 impacts, ”the researchers wrote.
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