ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. — In a recent Twitter post, candidate for county commissioner, Jason Critchlow, praised a St. Joseph County Health Department employee who had previously said she wished “we could deny care” to the unvaccinated and maskless population.
Critchlow, who is the former Chair of the St. Joseph County Democrat Party and a failed South Bend Mayoral Candidate, featured employee Robin Vida in a photo on Twitter four days ago. Vida is the Director of the county’s Health Outreach, Promotion & Education Department (HOPE).
The post shows a photograph of Vida at a table where she is handing out free doses of Narcan, an opioid overdose reversing drug.
“DID YOU KNOW? Narcan is a nasal spray that can be administered by anyone to counter an opioid overdose as it’s happening. Easily stored in cars and businesses. Our Dept. Of Health gives these away for FREE! Just another amazing thing they do in our community!”
REAL News Michiana’s Clifton French responded to the post. “Isn’t this the same woman who said she wanted to refused medical treatment to the maskless/unvaxxed? Sounds like you’re only interested in saving the lives of people who vote Democrat.” The reply also included a link to the RNM story regarding Vida’s comments back in May of this year.
While Vida seems more than happy to help people who have knowingly ingested deadly drugs, she does not appear to have the same passion for the lives of people who decide not to wear masks.
In May of this year, Vida told a man in a social media post that she wished health professionals would deny care to people not wearing masks or getting vaccinated. In the post, which you can see below, a man is responding to a news story updating mask mandates in the county.
“No mask. No Vaccine. I have been doing as I please and will continue to do so.” The man writes.
Vida, who goes by Robin Ann on Facebook, responds by saying, “awesome! Wish we could deny care to you when you become ill and need a hospital! Our right… lucky for you doesn’t work that way…”
In May, RNM called the HOPE office in the County-City Building, Vida’s cell phone and sent her a text message regarding the story. Vida did not respond, but as you can see in the screenshot below, she did see the message.
RNM also sent an email to Vida, the county’s Director of Human Resources and the county attorney. Below is a copy of the email and questions sent.
Human Resources Director, Kimberly Karkiewicz responded with the following emailed statement:
Mr. French,
In response to your inquiry, we are providing the County’s Social Media Policy. Based on what can be observed from the digital photo you provided, comments were not posted on a County owned web page, or other County owned or sponsored social media site, and would therefore not be considered a violation of County policy.
As for the Salary for the Position – Director of HOPE, budgeted for 2020 and 2021 at $51,510 annually.
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