Red Deer man believes he ended Alberta’s health measures

EDMONTON (CityNews) – When the province and Alberta’s top doctor said it’s time to end widespread testing of COVID-19 and mandatory quarantine requirements, it opened the door to speculation and even conspiracies as to why.

Earlier in the week, quarantine Alberta was on Twitter’s trending section.

The main trend, a man from Red Deer, claiming his court case is why the province made the announcement.

“No, this guy did not end COVID restrictions,” said Timothy Caulfield, Canada research chair in public health law and policy. “But it’s fascinating to see how this narrative has taken off.”

While trying to fight a COVID ticket, documents show King tried to subpoena Dr. Deena Hinshaw, to provide proof showing COVID-19 exists.

Caulfield says King didn’t have the jurisdiction to ask for them.

“We don’t have to give you that proof legally, but he took that as a slam dunk win, which makes no sense scientifically or legally.”

What this does show, is how quickly a COVID conspiracy spreads. A Canadian story, spreading on U.S. blogs as even Canada’s main right of centre activist and news agencies have debunked it.

“I think this is emblematic of people wanting to believe what they want to believe,” said Kurt Philips with the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

Adding the network found many of those they monitored infringe movements for hateful comments before the pandemic.

“This is an individual who has denied the holocaust, he’s spoken about Anglo-Saxon blood,” said Phillips.

“We’re seeing this kind of legal pseudoscience, legalized being used increasingly in this space,” said Caulfield. “Don’t believe it, it’s just another way of creating noise, creating doubt. Trying to get people to be skeptical.”

As we see misinformation rise during the pandemic, Caulfield says, “debunk everything.”

“Even something as absurd as this. I know a lot of people worry, that debunking is actually going to spread the misinformation, but research shows us it is important to get out there and counter the misinformation.”

In this case, the facts are that COVID-19 was sequenced in early 2020, and Dr. Hinshaw maintains we don’t need drastic measures like mandatory quarantine, because she believes our vaccination coverage is enough.