Whoops! Ken Weyler is back! Worse, actually. Turns out Ken Weyler never went away. And worst of all, Ken Weyler is in a serious policy-making position in our state legislature.
Weyler, for the edification of the vast number of Granite Staters who have never heard of him, is a long-retired pilot. That was his career, and it is presumably the source of any expertise he brings to discussions.
And for the last 30 or so years, he has been a state representative, one among 400 mostly obscure folks who for the most part want to serve their communities. He represents Kingston, where he’s been known mainly as a green eyeshade guy, fixated on the budget’s bottom line.
That’s fine – always a place in the budget process for a cheapskate.
Unfortunately for the citizens of New Hampshire, though, retired pilot Weyler also at times fancies himself as some sort of health care guru. That’s less fine for the good people of New Hampshire.
Weyler’s peculiar fixation with medical issues first came to the attention of folks outside of Kingston back in 2011, when he decided to crusade, and legislate, against what he saw as excessive medical costs in our state budget.
He was particularly incensed about the mental health care system. It encouraged people to “become patients for life” and used “scare tactics to keep their state funding coming.”
In an egregious slander, he told a Monitor reporter that mental health professionals might decide not to help someone who is really a danger to himself or others because if “we turn him away, we can – after he decides to do something really strange – say ‘we were right, you cheap bums!’”
And he wasn’t through. He went on to insult mothers suffering from postpartum depression who, he said, would just “get over it in a year or so,” once their babies “get a little more animated.” Again, he saw dastardly mental health professionals trying to thwart nature, again to create “patients for life.”
Thus, in just a few statements, Weyler managed to impugn the integrity of the medical profession, accuse health care professionals of deliberately harming patients for personal gain and breaking the law and their own code of ethics. And he implicitly admonished new mothers with postpartum depression to just get over it already.
Now, 2011 health care guru Ken Weyler has reasserted himself, older but not even remotely wiser. And, unfortunately, he’s one of the most powerful people in the State House right now.
This time, in 2021, he’s decided that his “expertise” is in the scourge of COVID-19 currently ravaging the world, including our own little Granite State, where he’s the chairman of the powerful House Finance Committee.
In that role, he tore into New Hampshire Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette when she testified that, overwhelmingly, those being hospitalized in our state for this 21st century plague were those who were not vaccinated.
“That is in doubt,” Weyler lectured her. When she said it was not in doubt, he shot back, “Well, people I’m hearing from, working in emergency rooms, are saying 90 percent of those admitted have had the shot.” Again, Shibinette demurred, but clearly Weyler was unpersuaded.
In an interview with NHPR’s Josh Rogers, he said he didn’t trust Shibinette because she’s “just listening to the CDC as far as I can see. And I don’t consider the CDC a credible source. Or Dr. Fauci a credible source.”
Weyler voiced suspicion of government intent. Maybe, he suggested, it’s all a plot by Big Pharma? Such as “a shot that’s going to help them control us”? So where does Weyler get information, if not from the federal government, Rogers asked. Who are his “credible sources?”
“People send me links to these things I’ve discussed. I’ve seen reports from all sorts of credible sources.” He did not elaborate, although they sound suspiciously like some of the stuff on the internet’s more crackpotty sites.
He further expounded on his beliefs to Michael Graham in the NH Journal whom he forthrightly told he relied on such sterling sources as talk radio shows and “the internet.”
“I was listening to a talk show and a woman says she’s an ER nurse, and that 90 percent of people coming in have had the shot.” And these reports “on the internet” talk conflict with outcomes reported by Shibinette.
And when in doubt, Weyler – of course – goes with “the internet” rather than actual government scientists.
“I think they’re just sticking with the Democrats’ talking points,” Weyler said of the scientists. “Do you trust CBS and NBC and ABC on this? I don’t.”
Expounding on the wisdom of “the internet,” Weyler dove even further into crackpottery, repeating completely unfounded (okay, downright nutty) claims about the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine on fertility.
“More scuttlebutt about these shots is getting around,” Weyler said. “If you’re a man, you might want to freeze your sperm if you’re going to get [the vaccine], and women who are pregnant shouldn’t get it.”
I’m sorry, but this is flat out lunacy, way beyond the fringes And way beneath the stature, and sanity, we should seek in our legislative leaders.
Finally, he told Rogers, no COVID shot for him. He’s “had 25 years of flu shots” and “I have antibodies.”
Uh, you may have flu antibodies, Ken. But COVID is not flu. For that matter, it is not measles, it is not mumps, it is not scarlet fever. It is a whole different and new disease.
And it now has its own vaccine. Several, in fact. We should all rejoice! We should be getting shots ourselves, and especially we should be urging all eligible Granite Staters to get their shots.
Ken Weyler won’t, though. He’s now firmly in the category of the crazy old uncle at the Thanksgiving dinner table, expounding nutty theories after a few drinks. We all ignore the crazy uncle, and we should ignore Ken Weyler.
And for sure he should not be chairman of an influential legislative committee.
(Monitor columnist Katy Burns lives in Bow.)
My Turns are opinion-based essays submitted by Monitor readers and members of the community. The views expressed in My Turns are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Concord Monitor and its staff.