After a pathologist issued a disparaging statement about the COVID-19 vaccine at a meeting in July 2021, a school in Idaho removed the requirement to wear masks.
On Wednesday, parents of the Peace Valley Charter School in Boise, Idaho, were told that students would no longer need to wear masks, although the Delta variant is spreading rapidly across the state.
On August 16, the school executive committee voted to make masks mandatory for students and faculty members in accordance with the requirements of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After the school board management committee decided to hold a separate virtual meeting with several doctors (including pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole, who was appointed as a member of the district health committee in August 2021), the mask requirement was cancelled.
Cole was elected to the district health committee after speaking at the White Coat Summit in Dallas, Texas in July 2021. The event was hosted by America’s Frontline Doctors, an organization that supports Trump, which is composed of a group of doctors and nurses who oppose vaccination and wearing masks in the United States.
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During the event, Cole called the vaccine a “research vaccine.” Before declaring that the vaccine would cause disease, he also called the vaccine “clot injection” and “needle rape.”
“Why do we inject a certain toxin into the human body, it is a toxin, it can cause disease, this is not a vaccine,” he concluded.
In March 2021, Cole allegedly also advocated the use of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin. Although the US Food and Drug Administration has more and more evidence against this claim, the drug has gained attention in various conspiracy theory groups as a treatment for COVID-19.
On August 16, Andrew Ross, the principal of Peace Valley, suggested that the school board should keep optional masks for students. Idaho statesmanRoss also said, “If the city or county resumes the requirement to wear masks, these guidelines may change.”
At the briefing on Tuesday, due to the increase in COVID-19 cases, state officials had to activate Idaho’s “crisis care standards,” which allow the allocation of allowed beds in the northern panhandle of the state.
As of September 8, Idaho has reported 2,558 new COVID-19 cases, an average of 975 cases in 7 days. In addition, only 40% of the state’s population has been vaccinated—according to data from Boise, Idaho, this number is only 26%. CDC.
Newsweek has contacted the Peace Valley Charter School for further comment.
