As we reported earlier today, one of B.C.'s most prominent COVID-19 deniers has died, after exhibiting COVID-19-like symptoms.
While the BC Coroners Service has yet to release the exact cause of Mak Parhar's death, it appears as though it may have been from an untreated case of COVID-19 - days before his death he noted he was medicating with Tylenol and Advil, then the day before he passed away he shared an online video where he said he had taken the unapproved anti-parasite drug Ivermectin.
Parhar's story, as most Canadians know it, is that he ran a yoga studio in the Metro Vancouver community of North Delta. That facility got shut down after contravening COVID-19 protocols. Parhar then broke the Quarantine Act after travelling and was involved in a court case around related charges. Many people know that he often called COVID-19 a "hoax." Oh, and that he liked to try to convince people that the earth is flat.
B.C. Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth once called Parhar a "narcissistic, self-centred idiot," during an interview aired on Global News.
In the two weeks leading up to his death, the "flat earther" was displaying classic COVID-19 symptoms, yet continued running errands while live-streaming his thoughts to the internet. Some of those thoughts were that "CONvid" (his word for COVID-19) is not real, so he couldn't possibly have it.
What people don't know - or perhaps don't care to know - is that this man had a family, and was father to a young daughter. We don't know his marital status but we do know that his child will now live her life without a dad. The grief that child is now feeling, and the pain they'll have to endure their entire life, could have been avoided if Parhar were to have simply believed in science, then got treatment for what ailed him.
If he did in fact die from COVID-19, while denying he even had it and trying to treat himself with horse de-wormer, Mak Parhar died like he lived - senselessly.
The misinformation that he believed, and that he worked to spread on the internet and at rallies, may have ultimately cost him his life.
