The Republican governor of the state of New Hampshire has cancelled his public outdoor inauguration swearing-in ceremony scheduled for January 7th because of armed protestors who oppose his mask mandate.
“My first responsibility is ensuring the safety of my family and our citizens,” Gov. Chris Sununu said. “For weeks, armed protesters have increasingly become more aggressive, targeting my family, protesting outside my private residence and trespassing on my property — an outdoor public ceremony simply brings too much risk. We do not make this decision lightly, but it is the right thing to do.”
…For weeks, protesters have gathered at Sununu’s home in Newfields, calling for an end to the state of emergency. Prompting the town to adopt an ordinance that prohibits residential picketing.
Monday night, a group known as “Absolute Defiance” held what they called a vigil outside Sununu’s home.
“Late Monday night, an individual, an armed individual was arrested in my backyard with over two dozen rounds of ammunition,” Sununu said. “And, as governor, my obligation is to the safety of my family, to the safety of the citizens of this state and so therefore, it was prudent to cancel that event and make further adjustments.”
Then we have this disturbing story from Wisconsin about how 500 vials of vaccine were deliberately spoiled by leaving them outside the refrigerator.
Authorities arrested a suburban Milwaukee pharmacist Thursday suspected of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by removing it from refrigeration for two nights.
The Grafton Police Department said the former Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of reckless endangerment, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property. The department said in a news release that he was in jail. Police did not identify the pharmacist, saying he has not yet been formally charged.
His motive remains unclear. Police said that detectives believe he knew the spoiled doses would be useless and people who received them would mistakenly think they’d been vaccinated when they hadn’t.
Advocate Aurora Health Care Chief Medical Group Officer Jeff Bahr told reporters during a teleconference Thursday afternoon that the pharmacist deliberately removed 57 vials that held hundreds of doses of the Moderna vaccine from refrigeration at a Grafton medical center overnight on Dec. 24 into Dec. 25, returned them, then left them out again on the night of Dec. 25 into Saturday. The vials contained enough doses to inoculate 570 people.
A pharmacy technician discovered the vials outside the refrigerator on Saturday morning. Bahr said the pharmacist initially said that he had removed the vaccine to access other items in the refrigerator and had inadvertently failed to replace it.
…Bahr said that means that the doses people received Saturday are all but useless. Moderna has told Aurora that there’s no safety concerns but the system is monitoring them closely, he said.
The mind boggles at the thinking of someone, a pharmacist no less, who would do such a thing. One wonders what the person hoped to gain by this action. The only thing that comes to mind is that they were perhaps hoping for an adverse reaction from the spoiled vaccine that might hinder the vaccination drive. Since the person has been identified and admitted to the action we should know the motive soon.
On a brighter note, I’m impressed at how good humored the people in this supermarket are when confronted with the childish behavior of one of these anti-mask people. Maybe people are getting used to these nutters appearing.
This dude in Huntington Beach tried to throw a whole ass shopping CART at an employee bc he was asked to wear a mask…………. pic.twitter.com/FZOYQ3zHe5
— lord gerth (@sabgrth) December 23, 2020
From the amount of stuff in his shopping cart, he must be a regular shopper at that supermarket. One wonders whether he will show his face there again or needs to find another place to get his groceries.
raven says
That was definitely a strange one.
He has now been arrested and charged with a few felonies.
He also lost his job and very likely, is never going to work as a pharmacist again.
He also didn’t do much of anything to hinder the national vaccine rollout.
I’m guessing he is an anti-vaxxer of some sort.
Or maybe a conspiracy theorist who thinks the vaccine contains demons or computer chips.
This is sort of a mini-version of the recent Nashville bombing.
An action with a high personal cost, that doesn’t accomplish much, and with unclear motives that don’t mean anything to normal people.
Matt G says
As ye sow, so shall ye reap. This is the anti-intellectualism the religious right has been cultivating for decades. And we all pay for it.
sonofrojblake says
“Late Monday night, an individual, an armed individual was arrested in my backyard with over two dozen rounds of ammunition”
I think I’m safe guessing a WHITE “individual”, given he’s not currently porous.
Seriously : why are police not protecting this public servant and shooting trespassers on sight?
Janessa M. Rodriguez says
I see that this person has no mask on. The cause of masks is to protect everyone around him and himself to prevent more of a spread of the virus. He has been charged and arrested and most likely lost his career over refusing to put a mask on putting other lives at danger.