NEWSLINES DOWNSTROKE SHELTERS AND THE CITY
During its Feb. 2 meeting, the Chico City Council boosted the continued efforts of the Chico Housing Action Team (CHAT) to provide shelter for unhoused individuals. The council approved $282,933 of Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus funding for CHAT, which hopes to develop the Town House Motel on the Esplanade into a noncongregate shelter with up to 30 units. The council also decided to continue exploring turning city-owned property near the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds (currently home to Silver Dollar BMX) into a sanctioned camping area. The panel rejected (5-2, along party lines) a “safe car park” proposal (by a group called the North State Shelter Team) that would allow those living in automobiles to spend the night in designated lots.
COUNTY SEEKS HEALTH, ECO ASSISTS Butte County Public Health is recruiting
volunteers to help vaccinate the community against COVID-19. Licensed health-care professionals and people without medical training can register through the Disaster Healthcare Volunteer program at healthcarevolunteers.ca.gov (select Butte County). Public Health will deploy volunteers at its vaccination clinics over the next several months. Meanwhile, the county’s Planning Division will host the first public workshop for updating the Butte County Climate Action Plan next Thursday (Feb. 18) at 5:30 p.m. on Zoom. The plan, adopted in 2014, identifies ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet targets established by state law. Visit buttecounty.net/dds/bccapup date2020 to register for the workshop and learn more about the CAP.
HOMETOWN MVP
Aaron Rodgers, one-time Pleasant Valley High School and Butte College football star and current NFL quarterback (and justannounced league MVP) for the Green Bay Packers has donated $500,000 to the newly formed Aaron Rodgers Small-Business COVID-19 Fund. A partnership with the North Valley Community Foundation (which contributed another $100,000 to the pot), the fund will be used for grants to local businesses that have fewer than 20 full-time employees and are suffering financially due to impacts from the coronavirus pandemic. “This is to get people through,” said Rodgers in an announcement via Instagram video on Feb. 3. “People are in need right now and who knows how long we have to save these businesses.” Visit nvcf.org for more information on requirements and how to apply. 8
CN&R
FEBRUARY 11, 2021
Misinformation in our midst Woman alleges Enloe physician promoted propaganda downplaying COVID-19 as a ‘hoax’
ICOVID-19 to Enloe Medical Center seeking a test. Her husband had just
n mid-December, Rebecca Lacque turned
been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and she and her daughter had been experiencby Ashiah Scharaga ing symptoms, such as sore throat, fatigue as h i a h s @ and headaches. They n ew sr ev i ew. c o m couldn’t find a place to get tested, so they went to the emergency room, seeking answers. That’s where they met Dr. Lamont Leavitt, an ER physician. Everything seemed normal at first—he checked their
lungs and ears. But soon the visit took a bizarre turn. Just before exiting the room to check on another patient, Lacque said, Leavitt cued up his cellphone with a video and left it for her and her daughter to watch, telling them, “This guy really knows what he is talking about.” What she heard next was a doctor named Roger Hodkinson speaking at a government meeting in Canada, Lacque said. He claimed that the pandemic was the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public” and should be considered “nothing more than a bad flu season.” Hodkinson said that masks and social distancing are “useless.” He then
advocated for business reopenings and gatherings. Lacque and her daughter were stunned. They were still grieving the coronaviruscaused death of a family friend. When Leavitt returned, according to Lacque, he told her that he didn’t play the video to “totally understate the pandemic.” Lacque says she interrupted Leavitt, telling him the pandemic cannot be understated and mentioning the loss of her friend. She was further shocked by his response. Leavitt continued to diminish the seriousness of the disease and lecture her, she said, noting that people die of seasonal influenza each year. Lacque then
