Lack of response disappoints pandemic measure opponents

One leader of a loose confederacy of residents opposed to pandemic restrictions has admonished Lincoln County commissioners for not taking their proposed remedies, which included disbanding the health board, more seriously.

Catherine Kahle appeared before commissioners in October and presented the board with a petition, statements and affidavits of harm linked to state and local health directives aimed at the coronavirus pandemic. Her group, purportedly hundreds of residents strong, called for the dismissal of the health board, ouster of the health officer and for commissioners to rebel against Gov. Steve Bullock.

“These are very real concerns,” Kahle, a Trego resident, said at a commissioners' meeting last week. “Is freedom such an unimportant idea? Are you so blind to the threat that we are all facing? Or maybe it’s just like you don’t care.”

After two appearances on the commissioners’ agenda, members of the group have continued to come to meetings, asking for satisfaction during public comment portions. Commissioners responded to the main requests last month, telling the group that Dr. Brad Black’s dual roles as county health officer and head of the Center for Asbestos Related Disease did not present a conflict of interest.

They also said they would work with members of the health board on parliamentary procedure, particularly how it relates to dealing with members of the public.

But, as for the petition, commissioners said there was not much they could do with it, legally. At the time, County Commissioner Jerry Bennett (D-2) emphasized that he and his colleagues had heard the group’s concerns and took them seriously.

One change that has come out of the discussions was an effort to give north Lincoln County more seats on the health board. Josh Letcher replaced Mark Peck of Libby as the commissioners’ representative to the board earlier this month. Letcher hails from the Eureka area.

Commissioners also accepted health board member George Jamison’s resignation as an at-large member. They plan to fill the seat with an applicant from the north county. Jamison, a south county resident, will continue to work with officials on issues related to the Libby Asbestos Superfund site.

Back before the board, Kahle rejected the notion that commissioners could not act on her group’s petition. That’s a reversal from several weeks ago when Kahle described the document as a reflection of residents’ will as opposed to a legal challenge to pandemic measures.

“The response we get is the petition is illegal so there is nothing [commissioners] can do. To us that is not the appropriate response, one lacking foresight as well as courage,” Kahle said. “At the very least, you can make a statement like the commissioners in Flathead County — that it’s a person’s choice to obey mandates.”

Kahle insinuated growing support in the county to recall each of the commissioners.

She also warned that their lack of response left residents open to forced COVID-19 vaccinations.

The diverse group that Kahle represents has criticized pandemic restrictions from a variety of angles. Many argue that local and state health orders are unconstitutional. Others accuse health officials of corruption and tyranny. Some have argued that the county is a sovereign polity, able to ignore mandates from Helena.

Kahle, though, has consistently warned that a coming mandatory COVID-19 vaccination will alter Americans’ DNA. The idea that the FDA-approved vaccines change DNA is a widespread and widely debunked claim.

She also claimed the vaccine had left a few of those inoculated with H.I.V. and Bell’s palsy.

One COVID-19 vaccine developed in Australia did produce false H.I.V. positive tests in volunteers participating in a trial study, according to The New York Times. Officials there have since abandoned that particular vaccine.

As for Bell’s palsy, four cases were reported among volunteers for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. None occurred in the placebo group, according to a 53-page summary of the FDA’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting on Dec. 10.

That’s not above the frequency found in the general population and the advisory group found no “basis upon which to conclude a causal relationship.” Still, the FDA recommends surveillance for more instances of Bell’s palsy as the general population receives the vaccine.

At present, vaccination remains voluntary. President-elect Joe Biden has said he will encourage Americans to get vaccinated, but not make it mandatory. Companies, though, could require it of employees. States also hold the power to compel citizenry to get vaccinated, an authority upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Jacobsen v. Massachusetts in 1905.

“For the record, I’m not an anti-vaxxer, I’m anti-enforced vaccination,” Kahle said. "Whether the vaccine is mandated outright or mandated for businesses or corporations is no matter.”

She claimed officials were skewing coronavirus numbers through faulty testing. That testing would later be used to justify forced vaccinations, Kahle told commissioners. To bolster her case, she pointed to a thoroughly debunked claim that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted that only a small percentage of the more than 300,000 Americans who have died during the pandemic succumbed to COVID-19.

“Now is not the time to be torn apart,” Kahle told commissioners. “We, the people, fulfilled our civic duty.”

Kahle’s remarks came during the public comment portion of the meeting. While commissioners may engage in some dialogue during that time, they generally limit the conversation to clarifying questions aimed at the petitioner. They do not take immediate action on any issues raised therein.