PROFILE - Political Candidate Matt Strauss
PROFILE - Political Candidate Matt Strauss
A breakdown for the voters of Ontario, Canada's Kitchener South - Hespeler
Matt Strauss, a former Assistant Professor of Queen's University and former acting medical officer for Haldimand-Norfolk, has decided to leave medicine to embark upon a career in politics, after making a name for himself in Canada as a crusader against public health during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This latest pivot towards anti-scientific quackery & proud ignorance by the Conservatives should be a concerning development for any citizen of a modern democracy.
Strauss went above and beyond as an anti-vax, pro-viral advocate, and gained scorn from medical & scientific experts around the globe. Cashing in on the clout as a professional contrarian, Strauss sees himself as part of the next generation of Conservative political leaders looking to strip the copper wire from the walls and sell whatever's left of Canada's public sector for chump change, as dictated by right-wing American billionaires such as Charles Koch.
Even if you believe "COVID is over" or what have you, Strauss' frank dishonesty & unprofessional behavior should be concerning for voters of any political affiliation. Following is a timeline of his worst statements and professional misconduct during the COVID-19 pandemic, that has already killed and disabled so many Canadians. Social media trolls will sadly never go anywhere, but one place they don't belong is within the halls of power.
Many of these quotes are taken directly from Matt Strauss' Twitter account, “strauss_matt,” unless noted otherwise.
2020 - Matt Strauss Underestimates A New Virus
March 26th, 2020: Matt Strauss takes out an OpEd in British conservative outfit The Spectator, campaigning for “herd immunity” via mass infection of a new deadly & disabling pathogen. Mountains of research since has shown this belief to be not grounded in science, yet Matt has never apologized for getting it wrong. Instead, Strauss would double down in his campaign of self-promotion as a medical contrarian.
August 03rd, 2020: "I would sooner give my children Covid-19 than a McDonald's happy meal." citing a graph that proved public health measures preventing pediatric COVID-19 deaths; misrepresenting them to claim that COVID-19 is harmless in children. The way that Strauss would recklessly throw his own unvaccinated children face-first into whatever new pathogen arrives on Canada’s shores, especially when we’re still just beginning to understand the many long-term harms of COVID-19 in kids including brain damage, is immediately disqualifying.
August 25th, 2020: In an interview for conservative MPP Randy Hillier, Matt Strauss admitted to being ignorant about the science of PPE for COVID, and fearmongered that they might actually be killing people. Matt would provide no credible evidence for this claim, nor the many outrageous claims he would make in the following years.
October 14th, 2020: For British conservative outlet The Spectator, Matt writes: “As a medic, my verdict is clear: mandatory government lockdowns amount to a medical recommendation of no proven benefit, of extraordinary potential harm, that do not take personal values and individual consent into account." Ironically enough, Strauss refused to consider if infecting the population with a new deadly & disabling disease in the spring of 2020 was respecting "personal values" like not wanting to die, or "individual consent" for a population-wide experiment which rejects the scientific reality that infections don't end pandemics.
December 23rd, 2020: Matt’s direct supervisor at Queen’s University, Steve Archer, rebukes Strauss via e-mail, claiming:
"Your professed love of freedom of expression is more self-centred than in service of our patients or trainees…You were hired to be a physician not a publicist."
Matt would go on to pursue further self-promotion over the following years and is presently embarked on a career in politics under a generic banner of “common sense” after abandoning his professional responsibilities.
Strauss would also claim in 2020 that "Just listening to science is naïve – what to do about Covid depends on values more than facts." Strauss’ “values” was throwing unvaccinated Canadians face-first into a brand-new pathogen he refuses to understand, instead choosing to be informed by American billionaire owned climate-denial think-tank American Institute for Economic Research. (AIER)
Matt also declared "If you drive your kids to school and worry about them getting COVID there then you are bad at math,” when in reality, more than 70% of US household COVID spread started with a child according to CIDRAP.
Strauss was more than happy to spread unscientific delusions that kids don’t “get” COVID-19 or spread it to their families. Here in America, this mistruth would cause hundreds of thousands of children to lose a primary caregiver - many because they were infected at school and brought home the virus to a loved one. Thousands of American children are dead and countless more are suffering serious long-term health complications from their “mild” infections.
Matt Strauss believes these sorts of harms aren’t worth preventing. He would spend 2021 working to end his professional career in medicine whilst relishing in social media adoration from unscientific cranks.
2021 - Matt Strauss Rewrites History
April 01st, 2021: In what was not a prank, Matt tweets: The emergence of a more deadly, more transmissible Covid variant in March 2021 seems like a rather obvious argument for natural herd immunity in March 2020,” arguing that Canada should have mass infected their unvaccinated population in the Spring of 2020, which would have killed and crippled countless Canadians. Thankfully, Strauss was not in a meaningful leadership role to make these sorts of reckless proclamations.
April 09th, 2021: "I would not accept to be King for one day. If I was King for the past year, we would have had Focused Protection and natural herd immunity circa May 2020. What is done cannot be undone." - "Focused Protection" is a non-scientific term cooked up by the American Koch billionaire funded "Great Barrington Declaration," invented by right-wing academics that present a libertarian fantasy of mass-infecting the "low risk" segments of the population in March 2020, and after locking away the "vulnerable" for just a few months, with countless Canadians dead and disabled by COVID-19, "normalcy" would emerge thanks to "herd immunity" as a result of human sacrifice to a rapidly evolving virus. Countless reinfections have disproven Strauss’ delusions wholly incorrect.
Should extremist American billionaires be influencing Canadian politics? If you would reject Chinese or Russian influence on Canadian politics, why would foreign influence from far-right billionaires suddenly be acceptable just because you share a border with them? Especially when they're spouting such a delusional, unscientific fiction that plays into centuries-old anti-vaccine tropes?
April 18th, 2021: “I’m sorry to say that the vast majority of critical illness that I have come across in my 10-year career could have bee prevented with better nutrition and active lifestyles. The pandemic has been no different. Vegetables. Bike Lanes. Please.” Now, understand that Matt Strauss is making an openly eugenicist and fundamentally unserious statement - was Canada supposed to just end obesity overnight in Spring 2020? Strauss is refusing his responsibility as a medical professional to save lives. Sadly, abandoning responsibility would become a habit of Matt’s.
April 22th, 2021: Shares a photo of Florida governor Ron DeSantis with one word: "Hero." The mismanagement of COVID-19 in Florida would go on to kill countless citizens, just days after Ron's lackey Jay Bhattacharaya would claim "We Have Protected the Vulnerable." Do the voters of Kitchener South - Hespeler truly believe that Matt Strauss won't throw them into the meatgrinder just like his "hero" Ron DeSantis has, all to prematurely declare victory?
August 09th, 2021: Matt Strauss tweets “live free or die,” a useless empty catchphrase for American conservative chauvinists. For someone looking to serve in a Canadian political office, what is with Strauss’ constant obsession with American conservatism?
September 06, 2021: Matt Strauss takes out an OpEd in the Port Dorver Maple Leaf to defend his medical contrarianism, claiming he had “science-based views,” and that “It has sometimes behooved me to use sarcasm or eye-catching analogies. In my new office, it will not.” Sadly, this would not play out in practice, resigning after a mere 18 months in the role.
September 08, 2021: The Maple: "Haldimand-Norfolk Has Put Profit Over Workers And Public Health - The municipality's hiring of Matt Strauss as acting medical officer of health is a dangerous concession to farm owners." Strauss was not a local to the area, and in-fact relocated to accept this position, knowing little about Haldimand-Norfolk and the needs of agricultural workers to be protected against COVID-19. Last year, reporting from California indicated that preventing COVID-19 infections in agriculture would be one of Strauss’ top priorities. Matt would instead choose to take a laissez-faire approach, focusing his energies on social media contrarianism.
November 2021: Matt Strauss resigns from Queen’s University as an Assistant Professor. He will go on to file suit against the University to the term of $600,000, claiming his direct supervisor “constantly berated Strauss over his public criticism of COVID-19 public health measures, including lockdowns.”
2022 - Matt Strauss Abandons Scientific Rigor and Moral Decency for Social Media Contrarianism
March 21, 2022: Matt takes out an opinion-editorial in the National Post, titled: “I'm a doctor. Here's why I'm done with masking - Extremism on either side, 'face masks don’t work,' or 'everyone should wear a face mask at all times' was unlikely to be validated by science” in which Strauss claims come sort of “centrist” position, opening with a major swing and a miss: “In medicine, our experiments are called randomized control trials (RCTs.)”
Of course, PPE is not developed & engineered by doctors. They’re designed by engineers, of which Matt Strauss has zero qualifications in. Strauss wants you to believe that the standards of medical science apply to engineering science, when this simply isn’t the case - PPE engineering does not utilize RCTs, as this would be highly unethical, especially when we have other methods to gauge their effectiveness.
Can Ontario voters trust a crank like Strauss, who claims expertise in a scientific field he has zero experience or knowledge in, to serve honestly in public office? Does assumed expertise for the purpose of social media clout now trump actual scientific expertise and an ounce of humility?
May 15th, 2022: Matt Strauss sits down for an extended interview with The Epoch Times, a far-right extremist outlet with direct ties to the Falun Gong religious cult, which demands “a rejection modern science, art & medicine, and a denunciation of homosexuality, feminism and general worldliness.”
July 1st, 2022: Matt Strauss compares vaccines mandates to sexual assault, tweeting: "We just had a major societal conversation about what constitutes valid consent during the MeToo movement. Very strange to see all of that forgotten over the last couple of years."
Disputes over vaccine mandates are one thing, but this comment is highly unprofessional, misogynistic, and wholly unfit for anyone seeking to serve in public office. Reckless statements as abrasive as these are revealing of how fundamentally unserious Matt Strauss is about serving the needs of Kitchener-South - Hespeler, and immediately disqualify him from public office.
November 09th, 2022: CBC.ca “Ontario county's top doctor sues Queen's University over 'malicious' comments about his pandemic views - $600K lawsuit by Dr. Matthew Strauss claims he had no choice but to leave Queen's over the comments” - Queen’s University would declare that “Strauss's public comments are ‘dangerous and misleading,’ and his behaviour ‘threatens to endanger patients.’ It also said he was "irresponsibly" promoting people to violate public health measures while also "seeding mistrust for public health institutions."
Isolated and his professional career in medicine likely over, Matt Strauss would spend the following year attempting to cash-in his social media clout for a career in politics, hoping the Canadian taxpayer would foot the bill for his obsession with social media contrarianism and neglecting any obligation to scientific or ethical principles.
Can Ontario voters truly trust such a craven opportunist with the responsibilities of public office? His professional colleagues at Queen’s University certainly do not believe so, and they had the experience of working alongside him in a crisis.
2023 - Matt Strauss Abandons Medicine for Politics
January 10th, 2023: Toronto Star - "Dr. Matt Strauss: Wrong Man, Wrong Crisis? The interim medical officer of health for Haldimand-Norfolk, who will be resigning 18 months into the job, was very much an activist" - One can infer that Strauss did less of a "resignation" and was more forced out for being an anti-scientific crank obsessed with being abrasive on social media instead of protecting the health of the citizens of Haldimand-Norfolk.
February 03rd, 2023: Matt endorses the reckless and immediately debunked Cochrane “meta-analysis” of masking RCTs. Our breakdown of the paper’s many flaws, including the corrupt authors’ refusal to accept the fact that SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus, here. Refusing to read the Cochrane publication critically and acknowledge its many obvious flaws, Strauss would instead tweet: "The best available science [a highly debunked Cochrane meta-analysis] does not support the use of masks to prevent flu-Covid-like illnesses. Period. Full stop. It has been very strange being treated like some sort of PrObLeMaTiC public enemy by State Media for maintaining this position."
Of course, Matt Strauss has zero experience or qualifications in PPE engineering, aerosol physics, or the airborne transmission of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2. Can you truly trust a politician that denies scientific facts in pursuit of social media clout? Does this level of irresponsibility seem acceptable for holding public office?
February 05th, 2023: Strauss doubles down on defending the bunk Cochrane review, claiming "Those who claim that masks work to prevent flu/Covid, despite the 13 RCTs failing to support the claim, are now practising pseudo-science. I mean that in the strictest, Popperian, sense of the term." In reality, Matt Strauss has zero experience or qualifications in engineering science, where airborne PPE such as N95 respirators, is researched and developed without the use of Randomized Control Trials. This level of immature slander against fellow medical professionals is proof that Matt Strauss is too immature and unprofessional to serve the needs of Kitchener South - Hespeler.
February 07th, 2023: Matt Strauss endorses a far-right extremist protest, tweeting: "Canada is a very good country because it's full of very good people. Don't let its very bad government policies make you think otherwise. I'm grateful to the Freedom Convoy for the reminder." In reality, the “Freedom Convoy” was rife with neo-Nazi imagery, and… flags for the Confederate States of America, that fought a civil war to own Black people as slaves? Do the voters of Kitchener South - Hespeler start to see a pattern in how Conservative candidate Matt Strauss is deeply influenced by foreign, far-right interests that openly embrace white supremacy?
March 06th, 2023: "The lockdown argument is over. Team Reality won. Incredible, that self-styled 'experts' directed their worst criticisms at the single European country with the best outcome." First off, "Team Reality" is a coping mechanism for those so crippled by fear of the unknown that they embraced full-blown denial of uncertainty and scientific reality. We explain what this term really means here.
Second of all, countless laptop class "Swedeaboos" like Matt Strauss have loved to write alternative history about Sweden's mass infection approach, which involved shooting COVID-19 patients with a lethal dose of morphine. On top of that, one third of Swedish adults are now reporting that they suffer from brain damage as a result of mass infection strategies. Voters of Kitchener South - Hespeler, I ask you: would you be willing to sacrifice your child's cognitive and neurological function for Matt Strauss' delusions as a ringleader for "Team Reality?"
June 18th, 2023: Matt Strauss goes to the mat to defend meathead podcaster Joe Rogan & anti-vax conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. claiming "Rogan publicly challenged Hotez because Hotez publicly called Rogan 'misinformation' with reference to a very sloppy VICE article that clearly misquotes RFK."
Rogan frequently features anti-scientific quackery on his podcast, and Robert F. Kennedy has pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars as head of "Children's Health Defense," an anti-vax propaganda outlet that has led to the needless deaths of dozens of children. This is not hyperbole: Matt Strauss is defending a quack whose "advocacy" has already killed dozens of children. Can you truly trust a politician that shrugs off the deaths of dozens of children killed by anti-vaccine cranks?
August 10th, 2023: CBC.CA - “Queen's University responds to $600K lawsuit from controversial doctor Matthew Strauss - Dr. Matt Strauss filed a $600K lawsuit over his resignation from Queen's University in 2021” Now, there are some incredibly damning quotes in here: “the school and Archer say no one defamed Strauss. It says his resignation was timed to make as much money and sow as much chaos as possible…his disagreement with public health measures wasn't just seen online, but at work where he tried to bypass COVID-19 screening…Strauss' peers said his comments were undermining the work done to save people's lives…he didn't make clear that his posts were his opinion and not that of his employer…the university learned Strauss became Haldimand-Norfolk's acting medical officer of health and was "concerned" it may impact his ability to care for patients…Strauss told the hospital…his last working day would be Nov. 19…he didn't show up that day.” For a medical professional to act this recklessly and immature, with the health of patients at risk, is proof alone that Matt Strauss is far too immature and wholly disqualified to handle the responsibilities of public office, regardless of your political affiliations.
August 18, 2023: Kingstonist.com - "Queen's [University] tried to 'cancel' me, says Dr. Matt Strauss, as former employer denies wrongful dismissal" - "The school also claims Strauss 'attempted to bypass' mandatory COVID-19 screening protocols at the entrance to medical buildings..." - "Queen's alleges Strauss 'was intentionally silent about his plans' to take the medical officer job in Haldimand-Norfolk 'and deliberately timed his resignation so as to recieve as much income in advance and cause as much disruption as possible to the department of medicine.'" - Do the voters of Kitchener South - Hespeler truly believe that this level of unprofessional and reckless conduct, especially to the detriment of a department of medicine, are worthy of a legislative seat within Ontario's halls of power?
September 06, 2023: "The best scientific evidence we have [debunked Cochrane review] does not show any benefit from this sort of face-covering. That makes this a faith based edict, rather than an evidence based recommendation. I would prefer that our hospitals observe the science." Strauss doubles down in defense of a failed, corrupt paper that has been frequently debunked in the months following his initial endorsement of the Cochrane Analysis - by authors who deny the scientific reality that SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus. Can you truly trust a politician that doubles down on incorrect scientific beliefs, even when tangible reality has repeatedly rejected these delusions with extreme prejudice?
When confronted with the stacks of evidence debunking of this propaganda "study," Strauss responded: "I have posted the most complete meta-analysis of RCTs by the most august reviewing body in the world. [The Editor-in-Chief rebuked authors Jefferson and Heneghan] You have posted a number of editorials, some studies with non-clinical end points, and a tweet from an anonymous physician who blocks me. Have a nice day." Can you truly trust a politician that refuses to acknowledge that he got the facts and scientific reality wrong? To pretend that medical RCTs are an adequate form of reviewing engineering science? All to be an abrasive contrarian on social media?
If your preferred "leader" refuses to admit when they're wrong, then you don't have a leader. You have a pitifully childish narcissist at the helm, charging headlong into an iceberg with reckless abandon.
September 09, 2023: "Justin Trudeau's coercive, divisive and ineffective vaccine mandate is a violation of the human right to bodily autonomy. Stand up for freedom, stand up for comon sense." - CBC: "Conservatives approve policies to limit transgender health care for minors, end race-based hiring." Again, Strauss does not see the contradiction in his desires to mass infect the population with a new virus that he refuses to understand, with his stated belief of the "human right to bodily autonomy." Strauss refuses to accept the scientific evidence that engineered PPE works, and demands the mass-infection of you, your children, and your communities, with whatever new pathogen arrives upon your shores, with no defense or support.
The voters of Kitchener South - Hespeler should ask themselves if they truly feel comfortable with a fundamentally unscientific pestilence sycophant as a leader. Are you truly a "conservative" to accept this new idea, that we should mass infect unvaccinated children with any sort of new virus in the pursuit of "herd immunity," assuming that many more elderly will die in the process, so the dead kids can be written off as "low-risk?" Does human sacrifice to pestilence in the hopes of a return to "normalcy" seem a worthy goal in your eyes, against the consensus of hundreds of years of medical science?
November 21st, 2023: Matt Strauss wins the Conservative nomination for his hometown riding of Kitchener South-Hespeler, and will be their candidate in the next election, claiming he will bring “common sense” leadership to his hometown.
In Closing
Citizens in democracies across the globe generally desire leaders that are serious, mature adults who makes level-headed decisions after considering all the factual evidence and aren't easily mislead by charlatans owned by foreign billionaires.
Matt Strauss has chosen to leverage his social media popularity being a public health contrarian into a political career, looking to enjoy free lunches on the dime of the taxpayers of Kitchener South - Hespeler; a place Strauss was happy to abandon for a comfortable political posting as "acting health officer" nearly 50 miles away in Haldimand-Norfolk.
Matt would neglect his professional duties to rant online until he was forced to resign from Queen’s University, as well as acting health officer in Haldimand-Norfolk after a mere 18 months. Do the Conservative voters of Ontario, or frankly, any voter, truly want a layabout like Matt Strauss, living off taxpayer handouts because they’re too irresponsible to maintain professionalism at a real job? Can Strauss even continue a professional career in medicine after publicly disgracing himself, or is this pivot to politics simply an act of desperation?
Debates about COVID-19 and public health measures aside, the well-documented professional misconduct by Matt Strauss show that he is immature, irresponsible, and unfit to serve the voters of Kitchener South - Hespeler. Hopefully, voters of all stripes turn out to reject his sham of a candidacy.
Strauss is cruel, arrogant, refuses to learn from mistakes and is clueless about the science, instead spewing anti vax and anti mask propaganda all over the place. His appointment as MOH for one of the Ontario health regions was politically motivated and a disaster for that region. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is far too bureaucratic and cowardly to discipline this bad actor. The voters in this Ontario riding should send him packing and not vote for him under any circumstances. He is a disgrace to his MD degree. Excellent, well written, honest article.