Talk about whiplash. I’d just finished writing about the superhuman courage and endurance of Santa Barbara firefighters battling the Dixie inferno ― feeling deep respect for a profession whose members run straight into the belly of the beast ― when I heard a few of their colleagues say some incredibly dumb and dangerous things about the COVID-19 vaccine.
The four firefighters were speaking out Tuesday against a proposal by the County Board of Supervisors to mandate vaccines for all 4,300 county employees, including their department. Leading the resistance was Michael Moore, who, like his documentarian namesake, seems to gravitate toward conspiracy theories.
With bed-head hair, a mask riding below his nose, and an aggressive presentation style which relied on notecards that fell out of order, Moore introduced himself as a 13-year member of the County Fire Department. He made around $300,000 last year in salary and benefits as an engineer, and, like most firefighters, he frequently responds to medical emergencies.
