At least three elected officials overseeing the Montgomery County Hospital District are contradicting their own experts by spreading false information about COVID-19 on Facebook and questioning the effectiveness of face masks and vaccines, according to a review of their social media posts by the Houston Chronicle.
As health officials in the province stress the importance of masks, social distance and the new vaccines COVID-19, their messages on social media compete with ominous falsehoods about the pandemic.
Some lies are spread by hospital district councilors. Council chairman Georgette Whatley said one of her posts had raised complaints from critics asking that she be removed from the public health agency.
“They were offended because I was anti-mask,” Whatley wrote on Facebook last month. Her agency operates the province’s 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 owns a hospital.
Two other members of the seven-member board went to Facebook to express their frustrations about medical experts, ‘big pharmaceuticals’, and the ‘fake news’ media.
“More and more evidence is emerging that we are NOT allowed to participate in the COVID vaccine,” councilor Bog Bagley wrote in a Facebook message on August 3. Bagley said in December that he was not going to take the vaccine – the same month, the hospital district posted a YouTube video confirming the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
Another board member, Brent Thor, shared a meme on Facebook that spread misleading information about COVID-19’s mortality rate. In another report, he shared a meme that says, “Those who sell the panic are the same ones who sell the vaccine.”
All three board members, who serve in unpaid positions, put their Facebook posts on ‘public’, meaning it can be viewed by anyone. Bagley and Thor did not respond to phone, email, or Facebook messages for this article. Whatley referred questions to the hospital district.
Misti Willingham, a spokeswoman for the district, said the agency respects the rights for first amendment of elected officials to know their opinion. She stressed that no councilors have tried to prevent health authorities from doing their job of providing accurate information to the public.
“They do not interfere with our daily work or our mission,” Willingham said.
The councilors are not alone in their skepticism about the government’s pandemic response in Montgomery County, where 70 percent of voters supported Donald Trump in the last presidential election.
Judge Mark Keough, who upheld COVID-19 last month, criticized governments’ criticism of Greg Abbott’s exclusion orders and urged residents to ignore warnings from health officials and celebrate the holiday together.
Montgomery County has reported 332 COVID-19 deaths since the onset of the pandemic, but infection and death rates are lower than most Texas counties, according to data published by state health officials. On a per capita basis, it is 187th out of 254 provinces for cumulative cases of coronavirus and is almost lethal.
Corinne Berry, a founding member of the Health Communications Association and vice president of Maryland firm CommunicateHealth Inc., said it’s easy for catchy, factual memes to drown out medical experts trying to give true, well-selected advice to the public. to offer. .
“We have the burden of science and evidence,” Berry said. ‘Sometimes it means we can not deliver messages as quickly as those who deliberately spread disinformation. Truth does not have to be on their side. ”
‘Skewed reporting’
In numerous Facebook posts, Bagley wrongly claims that the “fake news” media and health experts were involved in a global conspiracy to spread fear over COVID-19.
“We have been lied to by the media and the medical field with their propaganda and skewed reporting since the beginning,” Bagley wrote in September.
Bagley, a retired veteran and avid supporter of Donald Trump, reiterated the president’s claims that he reproduced the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, which is contrary to the more cautious FDA guidance.
More recently, Bagley wrote on Facebook that he attended the pro-Trump rally at the Capitol on Jan. 6, which turned into a violent uprising. He told his Facebook fans he was standing on the grounds of the Capitol when the crowd was gassed by police tears. Bagley did not say he fought police or entered the siege building.
Most of the responses to Bagley’s Facebook posts were supportive. But sometimes there are critics at stake. When Bagley shared an anti-vaccine YouTube video last month, which was later removed by Facebook for violating its policy on misinformation, he complained that the “paid socialist fact-checkers did not like it.”
“Ha … and you’re on MoCo Hospital’s District Council?” wrote one Facebook commentator, William Bingman, saying he studied molecular biology and that the video Bagley shared was ‘hogwash’.
“I’m so glad you’re the expert,” Bagley replied. “Bless your heart.”
‘The spread of fear’
Whatley shared a link to ‘Plandemic’, an unmasked documentary about COVID-19, and in November she insisted that she ‘would not succumb to the hysteria’ or ‘believe fake news’. Instead, she planned to embrace the holiday by family members to accept the joy of the season, she wrote.
Meanwhile, health officials in Texas have appealed to residents to limit contact with friends and family during the holidays. Last week, COVID-19 surveys in Texas have increased by 30 percent since Christmas.
In an interview with the Golden Hammer, a conservative website in Montgomery County, Whatley accuses the government – including the district’s public health district – of intimidation.
“I believe the government is spreading the fear,” Whatley told the website in August. ‘The shops where you need masks everywhere spread the fear, and so people get indignant if you happen to walk into the shop and not wear the mask. Our own public health district in Montgomery County is spreading the fear. ”
Whatley said she was opposed to mandatory mask requirements, even after the hospital district told its social followers on social media that wearing masks helped reduce the spread of the virus. Over the holidays, Whatley jokingly shared a photo on Facebook of a Christmas tree adorned with face masks she said she did not want to wear. She later said ‘liberal strangers’ had complained to the hospital district and demanded that she be removed from the board.
“Clearly, they do not understand the organization chart or the election process,” Whatley wrote on Facebook. Whatley said the hospital district has no power to remove her from the board as she was elected by taxpayers.
“Honestly, I’m not even a mask,” she wrote. “I’m just against the requirement. I stay away from people and do not go out much in public. 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 remain silent.
“I did not agree to relinquish my right to freedom of speech when I was elected to this council in 2004,” Whatley said. “I’m still entitled to my personal opinions.”
Data journalist Jordan Rubio contributed to this report