Vaughn Palmer: The B.C. Conservative leader's repeated attempt to deflect the questions doesn’t begin to explain his apparent decision to throw in with the anti-vaxxers

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The first time John Rustad brushed up against the anti-vaccination conspiracy, he quickly retreated.

That was three years ago, early in the fight to contain COVID.

Rustad, then still a B.C. Liberal MLA, shared a social media post that falsely suggested COVID vaccines could alter human DNA.

When challenged, he corrected himself, saying he never meant to disparage the efficacy of the vaccines.

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“Apparently, some people have used this clip to tell people not to get vaccinated,” Rustad noted in a follow-up. “That was never my intention.

“I plan to get vaccinated as soon as my age group is called, and I encourage people to look seriously at getting vaccinated.”

Later, when Rustad called for reinstatement of health-care workers who had refused to get vaccinated, he made a point of confirming that he was himself vaccinated.

Then came this year’s ouster of two B.C. Conservative candidates over their outlandish views on vaccines.

Dr. Stephen Malthouse claimed that people were being “magnetized.”

Jan Webb, a nurse, said to avoid the recently vaccinated “due to the phenomenon of spike protein shedding.”

In the latter case, Conservative president Aisha Estey said Webb “is a trained nurse and frankly she should know better.”

Still,........

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