Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who received national attention for his refusal to enforce coronavirus mask mandates, revealed on Wednesday, January 27, that he tested positive for the virus and had mild symptoms of COVID -19.
Bianco said he has been quarantined at home since the positive test on 19 January.
“I couldn’t taste my coffee,” said Bianco in an interview. “I was like, ‘Oh, something’s wrong.'”
Bianco, 53, said he still doesn’t have the sense of taste and smell.
The sheriff announced his diagnosis in a Facebook post, driven by what he said were false rumors that he was dying and hiding. Rumors of the disease intensified on social media on Tuesday, when Bianco did not attend the Board of Supervisors’ meeting for a discussion of the Sheriff’s Department’s request for $ 3 million in additional state emergency funding for the coronavirus.
Bianco manages the Sheriff’s Department with Zoom calls and meetings.
“People would never know that I was not at work, unless the bottom was the kitchen instead of the office. I had to put the dogs out a few times, ”he said.
Bianco said he does not believe that any member of his command has been infected as a result of possible exposure to him.
Everyone in the house, and some who do not live there, were infected, said Bianco. He believes that the first to be infected was his son-in-law, a deputy who, in the same round, performed CPR on a child with a positive test and fought with a man whose home was also positive COVID.
“If I am going to receive COVID because my son-in-law did CPR on a child, I will take COVID any day,” said Bianco.
The sheriff won praise and criticism for his forceful comments about the coronavirus, at one point declaring: “If you are afraid to go to jail and get the virus, don’t go to jail, don’t break the law.” Two of its representatives died of the virus.
In November, Cal / OSHA fined the Sheriff’s Department nearly $ 18,000 for violating state COVID-19 regulations at the Cois M. Byrd Detention Center in French Valley – fines the county is appealing.
In a December 4 YouTube video, Bianco – while asking the public to disguise himself and distance himself socially – accused Governor Gavin Newsom of trying to force counties to enforce his home order, which has since been suspended.
In May, Bianco told Riverside County supervisors that he would not apply the county’s now-defunct trade restrictions.
Although Bianco is not the only sheriff to put public education ahead of citing them, his challenge has made him a hero to enemies of confinement across the country and a popular figure in conservative media. He was interviewed on Fox News and One America News Network.
But this challenge has also sparked criticism.
Dolores Green, executive director of the Riverside County Medical Association, said she feared that a lack of oversight would encourage large meetings that could spread the virus.
Bianco had already said that the coronavirus is real. But he said on Wednesday that while he believes the masks can be useful, they are not the total solution to prevent transmission of the virus. He said he wears masks in public more to make others comfortable than to limit the chance of infection.
The sheriff said it is difficult to avoid such a widespread virus and attributes his family’s recovery to a healthy life. He said he does not intend to be vaccinated.
Bianco said he believes that people with a good immune system are less likely to suffer severe symptoms of COVID-19 or die.
“What is not going to come out of this, and I would like that to happen, the MDs (doctors) would not say that to people, the government would not say that to people and I don’t think it is sexy enough for the media to report this, people they need to take better care of themselves. I know there are exceptions. But, with that, we know that if you are not healthy, you may not recover from it ”, said Bianco.
The World Cancer Research Fund International agrees that a healthy lifestyle can improve the body’s ability to resist infections.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that vaccination is an important step in preventing the virus from contracting. And wearing a mask leads the CDC’s list of ways to slow spread, which includes staying at least two meters away from people outside your home and avoiding crowds.