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Candace Owens claims she was refused a Covid test because she’s an anti-vaxxer

‘They are refusing to administer a test to me because they don’t like my politics,’ says right-wing political commentator

Jade Bremner
Thursday 02 September 2021 14:34 BST
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Conservative political commentator Candice Owens, known for her objections to the Covid jab, has claimed that she was denied the coronavirus test due to her political beliefs.

“Holy crap!! I just received an e-mail from a Covid testing facility that they are refusing to administer a test to me because they don’t like my politics,” tweeted Ms Owens on Wednesday. “I’m banned from making sure I don’t accidentally spread Covid?”

Much to the anger of many health workers, Ms Owens has previously called herself “proudly unvaccinated and unmasked”.

The political commentator then tweeted the email she received from a “rabid activist”, who she wrote, “clearly isn’t stable enough to work in health and is a danger to the Aspen community”.

Ms Owens published the email she allegedly got from the clinic: “We cannot support anyone who has pro-actively worked to make this pandemic worse by spreading misinformation, politicising and discouraging the wearing of masks and actively dissuading people from receiving life-saving vaccinations.”

Posted to the commentator’s social media accounts the alleged email continues: “My team and myself have worked overtime, to exhaustion, unpaid and underpaid this past year, spending our own capital to ensure that our community remains protected. It would be unfair to them and to the sacrifices we have all made to serve you.”

As the Delta variant sweeps through the US, states are struggling to cope with the number of patients being admitted to hospitals and the pressure on health workers. Some states, including Florida, have had shortages of ICU beds in recent weeks. In August, the nation’s Covid cases reached their highest point since January, with more than 100,000 people hospitalised with Covid-19.

Coronavirus vaccines are not 100 per cent effective at preventing infection, but vaccines “protect people from getting infected and severely ill, and significantly reduce the likelihood of hospitalisation and death”, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The best way to slow the spread of Covid-19 and to prevent infection by Delta or other variants is to get vaccinated,” states the national public health agency.

“If you don’t get vaccinated, you are taking resources from people who have diseases or injuries or illnesses,” Dr. Vincent Shaw, in Louisiana, told AP. “Covid doesn’t call people who have had strokes, who have had heart attacks, who have had other horrific or traumatic things happen and say, y’all take the week off. I am going to take over the ER and the ICU.’”

More than 53 per cent of the US population has been vaccinated to date.

The Independent has contacted Candace Owens and the lab accused of refusing treatment for further comment.

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