Conservative Commentator Denied COVID Test Due to Spreading 'Misinformation' and 'Politicizing' Virus
Conservative commentator Candace Owens was taken by surprise when a COVID testing center in Aspen, Colorado, denied her service earlier this week.
“We cannot support anyone who has pro-actively worked to make this pandemic worse by spreading misinformation, politicizing and DISCOURAGING the wearing of masks and actively dissuading people from receiving life-saving vaccinations,” owner Suzanna Lee told Owens in an email on Tuesday.
Just finished my live on Instagram here: https://t.co/lPjhqVYaGO
As promised— here is the email from the rabid activist declining to give me a test, plus my response to her. She clearly isn’t stable enough to work in health and is a danger to the Aspen community. pic.twitter.com/nV7xMGqVN3
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) September 2, 2021
Lee went on to lament the long and arduous pandemic that has forced herself and her team to work overtime, “to exhaustion, unpaid and underpaid” and “spending [their] own capital to ensure that [their] community remains protected,” in her words.
“It would be unfair to them and to the sacrifices we have all made this year to serve you,” she told Owens.
Owens went on Twitter to broadcast a screenshot of the email before the world, and now it’s making headway in the news.
Owens also attached her email response to Lee — who she expressed just might need to re-evaluate what it means to “politicize” this pandemic.
“Nothing screams ‘this virus isn’t political’ quite like googling the names of the people who book tests with you and determining on a case by case basis whether or not you will let them comply with your community covid measures,” Owens wrote.
“Nothing screams ‘I love my local community’ quite like refusing to test people who are going to a local event and wish to ensure they are negative and therefore do not spread the virus.”
After being rejected, Owens’ only option would be to get tested at a free kiosk at the nearby city hall (which Lee noted has inconsistent result times).
I know what you’re thinking. I’m sure it’s what we were all thinking as we read the exchange.
What about the right to deny services?
Does this take you back to when a certain Christian baker refused to make a wedding cake for a homosexual couple?
I remain consistent in saying owners of private businesses reserve the right to deny services to potential customers for reasons that violate their conscience — yes, even for COVID-related reasons.
Owens shares that opinion as well.
“I very much believe in the freedom to choose,” she wrote in a separate tweet, responding to a Twitter user who played devil’s advocate with the “freedom to choose” discussion on Thursday.
I very much believe in the freedom to choose.
Just pointing out the great irony that when the “health employees” begin choosing who is allowed to determine if they have covid— we are no longer in a public health crisis.Admit it.
Covid is political. https://t.co/NGlXEGjsR2
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) September 2, 2021
“Just pointing out the great irony that when the ‘health employees’ begin choosing who is allowed to determine if they have covid — we are no longer in a public health crisis. Admit it. Covid is political,” she added.
It is political, indeed.
And the elitists have proven time and again that personal discretion and individual liberties mean nothing to them.
But perhaps the most wonderful aspect of the “freedom to choose” as a consumer (or as a patient) is that it affords us the power to take our business elsewhere, to express our disagreement with business owners who enact policies we don’t like.
Lee’s inconsistency stands out to me more than the denial of service.
It is hypocritical to express your dedication to protecting your community by working at a COVID testing center while simultaneously refusing service to someone for holding a different opinion — a skeptical opinion — of the establishment narrative surrounding a virus we still have yet to completely understand.
(And, considering we’ve watched as people progressed from one mask, to two masks, to receiving one/two jabs, to itching for a booster — all while socially distancing — and are still contracting and spreading the virus to others, it makes us wonder how these actions exactly “protect others.”)
“‘Fully vaccinated’ means that you completed a COVID-19 vaccine series as recommended for the best protection against severe complications such as hospitalizations and/or death,” said infectious disease specialist Dr. Lyssette Cardona, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Yet, we’re hearing a lot about the supposedly “rare” breakthrough infections, so we know to expect them already.
Cardona also stated, “No vaccine offers 100% protection against illness, yet it does give you a better chance to fight off the infectious consequences of being exposed to the SARS-CoV2 virus.”
Strange. It seems as if the vaccines are geared more toward protecting the person who is vaccinated from hospitalization, rather than preventing any further spread.
As for spreading the virus, “While it is possible, Dr. Cardona says that the ability to transmit COVID-19 may occur at a lower rate,” the outlet added.
Notice the word “may.”
With inconsistencies like this one, several questions come to mind.
For one, why do the fully vaccinated still have to abide by their pre-vaccine pandemic protocols?
For another, why are nearly 60 percent of those hospitalized with COVID-19 in Israel (one of the most heavily vaccinated countries with an estimated 78 percent of those aged 12 and older) fully vaccinated, according to Becker’s Hospital Review?
Why is the death rate for fully vaccinated persons in the U.K. higher than the rate for unvaccinated persons?
Why are we seeing with our own eyes, in our own communities, vaccinated people being hospitalized as we are still being told that these vaccines prevent hospitalizations?
We’re seeing questions, alternative opinions, even studies being suppressed or demonized — such as the natural immunity efficacy studies — because people claim such research pushes people to intentionally contract the virus (yes, really).
The pandemic of the unvaccinated is a misnomer. It’s a pandemic of the non-immune. More precisely, it’s a series of regional outbreaks in select pockets of the country with low population immunity. Same take-home message though: If you’re not immune, get immune by getting vaxed.
— Marty Makary MD, MPH (@MartyMakary) July 29, 2021
Owens posted an update on her Twitter account following the testing center debacle, informing followers that the facility did not have the authority to deny her service.
UPDATE. It turns out the facility that rejected my ability to take a Covid test receives both state and federal funding.
So no— she had NO RIGHT to deny me a covid test when my taxes go toward her operationsThis situation is currently being escalated to the HHS.
Stay tuned!
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) September 2, 2021
Since we all still know so little about COVID-19, since more variants are arising and since the “solution” to the problem has changed so many times, it’s only logical to have questions.
And Owens reserves every right to do so. We all have that right.
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