Contra Costa County supervisors declared COVID-19 misinformation a public health crisis Tuesday, making the East Bay county one of the first places in the United States to do so.
However, many people tried to stop supervisors from moving forward with the decision and insults and impassioned comments were present at the board's meeting.
"We are not to be censored or controlled on what you think is misinformation," said a participant.
Several different opinions were voiced at the Board of Supervisor's meeting ranging from some pointing to the bizarre and the insulting.
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All of this is centered around a resolution sponsored by County Supervisors John Gioia and Mitchoff, which is aimed at ensuring everyone is getting science-based factual information about COVID-19 and the vaccine.
A participant at the meeting said "there are plenty of CDC presentations, especially from Pfizer, that state that if you have the Pfizer vaccine you're more likely to catch COVID and stuff like that."
Supervisor Gioia responded by saying "that's exactly the kind of misinformation that's out there."
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After hours of debate, supervisors passed the resolution. So what exactly does this mean?
"We’re just going to be as loud as we can and as visible as we can to put out information that is correct, science-based and corrects the general misinformation that’s out there," Supervisor Gioia said.
The county's health department will be involved and working with the board to be louder than what Gioia calls a small, but vocal minority of misinformation spreaders.
