GOP lawmaker whose wife recently died responds to criticism after attending protest against vaccination

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A Republican state lawmaker who recently attended an anti-vaccine rally at Maine State House said his wife, who is believed to have died after a long battle with COVID-19, was reluctant to be vaccinated due to conflicting information.

Representative Chris Johansen, of Monticello, made the comment on Facebook in apparent response to widespread reports that he attended last week’s rally shortly after the death of his wife, Cindy Johansen.

Chris Johansens ‘participation drew a combination of contempt and bewilderment, but is consistent with couples’ open resistance to public health precautions throughout the pandemic, including COVID-19 vaccines which officials say health, are very effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths.

Johansen did not speak at the August rally, which was billed as a protest against Democratic Governor Janet Mills’ demand that all healthcare workers receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The event quickly turned into a showcase of anti-vaccine misinformation that caught national media attention.

One of the Johansens GOP colleagues, Representative Heidi Sampson, from Alfred, compared Mills to Nazi physician Josef Mengele, the so-called angel of death known to perform experiments on Jews during the Holocaust.

Johansen, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Maine Publics, posted a comment on Saturday referring to his wife’s opposition to the vaccine.

Prior to her death, Cindy Johansen posted several Facebook posts comparing the three available vaccines to investigational drugs, despite support from the Food and Drug Administration and national and international public health authorities. The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine received full FDA clearance on Monday for people 16 years of age and older. It has emergency approval for people aged 12 to 15.

The avatar on Johansens’ Facebook account says I don’t care if you’ve been vaccinated.

Downeast Direct Cremation, a crematorium in Bangor, announced Johansens’ death on August 11. The Daily Beast reported on Friday that an anonymous Republican Party of Maine official confirmed his death. Neither the party nor the House Republican Office confirmed his death to Maine Public last week.

Johansens ‘death and Johansens’ declared resistance to public health precautions and vaccines have become an acute illustration of how the pandemic has sharply divided diehard supporters. It also shows how disinformation proliferates on social media as supporters seek to confirm their political beliefs.

Misinformation about masks and vaccines misinformation has generated numerous headlines as deniers of the effectiveness of both succumb to COVID-19.

At the same time, these deaths have sparked a macabre schadenfreude among those who are increasingly angry with the unvaccinated or those who have undermined public health experts trying to convince Americans to protect themselves.

Since her death, Cindy and Chris Johansens’ Facebook pages have been littered with poster comments that seem to take pleasure in her disappearance. Others berated Chris Johansen for attending a rally last week that featured rhetoric that baselessly characterized vaccines as experimental or part of a government plot to control people.

The rally included speakers Johansen had previously partnered with, including Sampson, who joined him in May to protest State House’s mask requirement by trying to enter the building without a mask. Sampson has spoken at several rallies that claim to be focused solely on vaccine needs, but feature speakers who are known hawkers of vaccine misinformation and other high-profile conspiracies.

Speaking at such an event in Belfast in July, Sampson spoke of creating a freedom network of disparate groups, including anti-vaccine activists, to help Republicans win a majority in the legislature next year.

Were going to wake them up. Were going to look. And then we were going to get up and take action, she said.

This appeared to be the goal of last week’s protest in Augusta, as Sampson and other Republicans tried to lessen the backlash from vaccine requirements for healthcare workers by portraying themselves as freedom warriors. of individual choice.

These protests over the past few months show how pro-freedom rhetoric has converged with conspiratorial anti-vax views.

In April, Cindy Johansen encouraged her Facebook friends to attend a rally at State House featuring Sampson and author Naomi Wolf. Wolf has been banned from multiple social media platforms for a slew of false and bizarre claims about COVID vaccines, including one alleging they are altering a recipient’s DNA and charging their bodies with tiny robots equipped with antennas 5G.

Wolf made several appearances on conservative radio stations as she toured the state. She has also been the guest of several Fox News personalities, including Tucker Carlson, the highest-rated Fox host with an average of 2.9 million viewers.

The network has been widely criticized for setting up a platform for Wolf and for allowing his personalities to encourage hesitation over the vaccine by portraying it as a form of government oversight and overreach, even then. that Fox Corp. adopt precautions in the event of a pandemic in the workplace and require employees to inform the company. their vaccination status.

Johansens Facebook posts show their support for vaccine resistance efforts and other measures such as masks, designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Chris Johansen has repeatedly played down the dangers of the pandemic. Last year, he helped organize one of the first protests against trade restrictions and the governor’s public rallies.

He and his wife reportedly contracted COVID-19 in mid-July, although he has since denied having the disease.

Cindy Johansen appeared to confirm she had COVID-19 soon after when she began to describe her increasingly severe symptoms. When a friend asked him what was wrong, Johansen responded with a three-word answer, covid and asthma.

Articles published the same month suggest that none of the Johansens have been vaccinated against the disease.

Later articles by Chris Johansen and his wife chronicled his deteriorating health, although few openly mentioned COVID-19.

On August 7, Johansen posted on Facebook: “It was bad news today. Cindy suffered several major setbacks.

He didn’t post again until Saturday, August 21, when he wrote: My wife Cindy was reluctant to get the shot because of all the conflicting information we’ve received since day one.

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