EAST WENATCHEE — The Chelan-Douglas Health Board plans on discussing the information concerning the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines shared by one board member at its August meeting.
Bill Sullivan, a new board member, commented on the use of COVID-19 vaccines at the June board meeting, alleging that the vaccines are not as safe and effective as stated previously.
The local health district, state Department of Health and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all state that COVID-19 vaccines are the best protection against COVID-19.
EAST WENATCHEE — The new 12-member Chelan-Douglas Health District convened Monday for its official, first meeting and one of its new members q…
Sullivan shared some information via the board’s clerk with the other board members with the intent of discussing it fully during board discussion.
Chelan County Commissioner Kevin Overbay, who chairs the health board, said last month that the board could possibly discuss this at Monday’s meeting.
But another board member, Dr. Bindu Nayak, provided some information to the board’s clerk on Friday to include in Sullivan’s discussion, Overbay said.
Nayak was not present at Monday’s meeting. Overbay told the present members that if they would like to see something discussed at the next board meeting they should provide the information to the board’s clerk 10 days before the board meets.
The discussion was pushed to August’s meeting instead to allow every board member to digest the new information which should allow for a good conversation next month, Overbay said.
Overbay also explained that it is up to the board’s executive team — the board’s chair, vice chair and health district administrator — to determine whether the discussion topic is pertinent business for the health district to address and to put it on the agenda.
Sullivan also asked the chair if he could request that Luke Davies, the health district’s administrator, speak with the health district’s legal counsel regarding his “legal authority with respect to calling a board member out in the press ... for what’s misinformation without even having understood, seen, or reviewed the information.”
Davies was interviewed by local news outlet, KPQ, following last month’s board of health meeting concerning Sullivan’s COVID-19 comments. Sullivan also called attention to coverage by The Wenatchee World and NCWLife regarding his previous COVID-19 comments.
“This stuff’s got to stop,” he said. “If you guys want to call this misinformation, especially in light of what I provided, again, four words — you better be right,” he said at the meeting.
Another board member, Sharon Waters, said she was not entirely sure what the issue was but was displeased with Sullivan’s comment as she perceived it as a threat.
Sullivan replied saying that it was not a threat but instead an issue of community health and safety.
“I’ve said that for months to this point — and I put my money where my mouth is — I joined the board to help address this, but it’s an issue of safety for our community,” he said. “And if we’re going to call a growing body of evidence that the vaccines are not as safe and as effective as they’re said to be, we’re going to call that misinformation out of the gate. We better be right. I stand behind that.”
Dan Moody, a board alternate, asked Sullivan to not be confrontational with the other members of the board.
“Your tone and your attitude are, and they shouldn’t be in a public meeting like this,” he said.
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